DJ Shadow
The Outsider
Play The Outsider
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AMG Review of The Outsider
John Bush
All Music GuideThe Outsider is either a concept record about musical schizophrenia or a warehouse for 18 of the most idiosyncratic productions of DJ Shadow's career. And, to complicate matters, many of them are excellent. Although it trails his second production LP by only four years, The Outsider sounds like it includes the detritus of a decade's worth of false starts: celebrity production jobs (one track was originally intended for Zack de la Rocha), anonymously released comeback singles (the regional radio hit "3 Freaks"), collaborations with art rock figures (Kasabian, Chris James from a band called Stateless, Christina Carter from Charalambides), and a cavalcade of talented guest vocalists and rappers who predictably underperform (or get overwhelmed by their productions). The best thing about The Outsider is that it rarely attempts to be Endtroducing, Pt. 2. In fact, mainstream ap commands the first third of the record. Setting aside his sampler for a few tracks, Shadow proves that Lil Jon has nothing on him. (Certainly, if Shadow ever made a concerted effort at commercial ap production, Scott Storch would soon be back making sandwiches in Philly.) For "3 Freaks," he pushes a couple of San Francisco's finest hyphy hip-hop stars, Keak da Sneak and Turf Talk, for a digital track that's as experimental as should be expected from Shadow, but just commercial enough to light up urban radio. (Granted, ap radio can be a surprisingly experimental place.) The paranoid synth of "Turf Dancing" finds Shadow cruising out to Vallejo, David Banner stops by for "Seein Thangs," and the Sick Wid It fiend Nump spins a tale of gritty paranoia on "Keep Em Close." From there, the roller coaster begins banking sharply; Shadow follows up a New Orleans guitar elegy worthy of Hendrix himself with a madcap punk-into-R&B instrumental. His tribute to John Cage precedes the Kasabian feature, and vocalist Chris James is drafted to impersonate Bono on "Erase You" (where he continually intones an interesting phrase, "under the blood red sky") and, two tracks later, Chris Martin on "You Made It." Aside from the artist himself, the only other thing that unifies this record is a crack band called the Heliocentrics, which proves its chops throughout the LP -- but nowhere better than on the first song, a dead ringer for Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" with vocals from a singer that not even DJ Shadow could identify (probably picked up during one of his record-shop binges). The Outsider is a carefully crafted, artistically elusive mess -- far more scattershot than even his first UNKLE record (Psyence Fiction), but much more interesting for its excellent productions.
DJ, Savior But!
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So if The Private Press had come out before Endtroducing....., would people think better of it? Or if it had come out less than two years after the debut, do you think DJ Shadow might have fortified his rep and rate higher today? Beats me, but I suspect he (and Press)'d get a little more respect. His latest CD, The Outsider, sadly won't help his cause. It's not necessarily because of Shadow...
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DJ Shadow
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I'm really disappointed in this new release. I'm sure this has been covered before, but I feel the need to vent. I've been a fan of DJ Shadow for about 10 years. I didn't even bother to research "The Outsider" when I stumbled across it at a local record store. I was totally happy that he's finally released new material. I have nothing against artists changing their style and trying new things. As
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DJ Shadow
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I'm really disappointed in this new release. I'm sure this has been covered before, but I feel the need to vent. I've been a fan of DJ Shadow for about 10 years. I didn't even bother to research "The Outsider" when I stumbled across it at a local record store. I was totally happy that he's finally released new material. I have nothing against artists changing their style and trying new things. As
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Gonna Do It My Way
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Put A Smile On Your Face!
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Last night was a very high point in my show-going career. I saw DJ Shadow play at the Showbox in Seattle with Lateef (from Latryx and Lateef the Chief, has done work with Shadow and in the Quannum Project). Shadow was perhaps the first artist outside of mainstream-crap-radio rock that I ever got into. I listened to it for weeks on end in the cd player in my Camaro. I know Endtroducing like the bac
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DJ, Savior But!
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So if The Private Press had come out before Endtroducing....., would people think better of it? Or if it had come out less than two years after the debut, do you think DJ Shadow might have fortified his rep and rate higher today? Beats me, but I suspect he (and Press)'d get a little more respect. His latest CD, The Outsider, sadly won't help his cause. It's not necessarily because of Shadow...
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DJ Shadow: Artifact (w/Zack de la Rocha vocals)
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The fine folks at Solesides.com never let me down. This time – via Twitter – they introduce us to a vocal/rough version of Artifact, a track off DJ Shadow’s 2006 LP The Outsider, an album that was unfortunately met lukewarm praise at best.Zack de la Rocha’s highly charged political screeds were meant for this punk-rock-sounding [...]
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DJ Shadow, The Outsider minireview
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Very good album. He jumps genres (more than usual, which makes it interesting) such as R&B, Hip-Hop, Blues, Beatnik, Alternative and some really mellow stuff. Its hard to believe one person created all these different sounds. If you like his beats then you won’t be disappointed here, he’s still slinging them. There seems to be more focus on the guest rappers on many tracks which makes it sound
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 "The Outsider")
