Various and sundry...

[foxmonkey]

fuskeez and charlidos probably have these in their journals, and more. I've got to plop 'em in and run. It's FRIDAY!!! I really need to look into getting rich. Hmmm. I just need a plan.



From miamiherald.com

The boy gets outta 'Sync with debut solo
hcohen@herald.com

JC CHASEZ
Schizophrenic

Jive
** ½ <--[no idea what the top number of stars is]

JC Chasez is in the unenviable position of trying to make it solo after serving as a secondary member of a famous boy band at a time when boy bands are out. (Raise your hand if you bought Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's solo CD last year. Not too many hands out there.)

Fellow 'N Syncer Justin Timberlake pulled off the difficult feat last year in a major way, scoring a hit album, two Grammys, and enough headline ink to raise the price of newsprint. Chasez isn't likely to score quite so well, lacking Timberlake's ''it'' factor, but scoring is on his mind on Schizophrenic.

Chasez references sex endlessly on his CD. Solo sex, three-way sex, imaginary sex. There's more sex here than in an episode of Sex in the City but it's witless and trite.

Ignore the juvenile lyrics, though, and Schizophrenic is an often entertaining listen. The music, which hops around stylistically thanks to production work from Basement Jaxx, Riprock 'n' Alex G, Robb Boldt and Chasez (who also cowrote most of the material), pulses with grabby hooks and works on the dance floor as well as on the Discman.

The first single, the slinky dance number Some Girls (Dance With Women) never takes off like it should, but the simplistic and insistent beat of All Day Long I Dream About Sex is impossible to shake. Also good: the '80s Prince-like dance-rocker 100 Ways and Come to Me which samples Corey Hart's distinctive 1984 hit Sunglasses at Night. With Chasez's clenched-throat delivery, She Got Me sounds even more like a Bad-era Michael Jackson impersonation than Timberlake's Jackson obsession on Justified.

Chasez may not be an original, but he can sing as well as Timberlake. Sometimes better. His album isn't a pop classic by any stretch (at 76 minutes, it's too long) but it is perfectly acceptable when you are in need of an upbeat pop fix and, like Timberlake's Justified, its ratio of keepers versus clunkers tops any 'N Sync CD.




Singer focuses on first solo CD after snub by NFL
02/27/04

Gary Graff
Special to the Plain Dealer

Justin Timberlake took on the onus of being the first ' N Sync member to do a solo album. But he did it successfully, which puts some pressure on bandmate (and former "Mickey Mouse Club" co-star) JC Chasez and his just-released "Schizophrenic" (Jive).

But Chasez says he's not holding himself up to Timberlake's standards.

"Justin's a Grammy Award winner now. He's a superstar," Chasez says. "My goal with this record is just to have a successful record. I feel like I made a really good record, and I'm proud of what I've done. I can't do much more than that."

Timberlake might have helped Chasez generate the wrong kind of awareness, however. Chasez was slated to perform at halftime of the NFL's Pro Bowl game Feb. 8 but was pulled after Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" with Janet Jackson. The NFL said it feared that some of Chasez's lyrics including the single "Some Girls (Dance With Women)" were a bit too racy.

Chasez, however, isn't worried about a backlash against that and other sexually focused songs on "Schizophrenic."

"I think that, to be honest with you, it's an election year, and everyone's overreacting a little bit," he says. "Some of the greatest songs of all time have sexual innuendoes in them, as far back as Led Zeppelin going, I got a whole lotta love, every inch of my love . . .'

"I think you've got to trust people to make their own decisions on what they want to listen to. I'm not really shaking in my boots about whether my [music] is gonna pass or not."


The next one's not very complimentary, lots of the comparisons we've seen before. Some not bad comments mixed in at the end.



Out of Sync: J.C. Chasez steps out of Justin's shadow with a solo disc that's all over the place
By Erin Quinn

Special to the Star-Telegram
Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004
JIVE RECORDS
J.C. Chasez

Everyone who made it out of the late-'90s bubblegum-pop invasion and lived to tell about it knows that boy bands have a formula. There's the cute young guy, the lovable shy guy, the mothers' favorite, the sketchy old guy and the token hottie. In 'N Sync, the mother of all bubblegum boy bands, J.C. Chasez was that token hottie, and he pretty much always played second fiddle to his fellow former Mousketeer, Justin Timberlake.

With Schizophrenic, Chasez's solo disc, not much has changed; Chasez is still standing in Timberlake's shadow, and there's still a lot of formulaic stuff here. Chasez is releasing his solo album more than a year after Timberlake's rave-earning solo debut, and while the Grammy-winning Justified served up sophisticated musical and lyrical departures from 'N Sync's teen-themed tunes, Schizophrenic just showcases Chasez's willingness to sing about sex in a less euphemistic way than he did with a band geared toward a younger audience.

Chasez's label, Jive Records, is touting him as the next Prince (because, if Timberlake's solo style is going to be compared to Michael Jackson's brand of pop, Chasez better have a big-name influence, too, right?). But with songs like the disc's first single, Some Girls (Dance With Women), and the not-so-tongue-in-cheek All Day Long (I Dream About Sex), Chasez comes off less like the sarcastic, edgy Prince and more like any frat guy with access to a synthesizer.

If Chasez's goal was to put out a record with lots of discordant, dance-ready tracks with an emphasis on electronica and hip-pop sounds, he's done a decent job. He has teamed with lesser-known but critically respectable producers such as Riprock 'N' Alex G and Basement Jaxx to churn out some fairly catchy hooks built to work on dance floors where the din will drown out the less-than-stellar lyrics.

Of course, there are also a few of the gooey ballads requisite of a recovering boy-bander. Tracks such as the saccharine Dear Goodbye get lost among the shockers and seem out of place on a record intended for party play.

In the grand scheme of pop-to-rock transition albums, Schizophrenic is a formulaic masterpiece. The album title is fitting, because there's no one style that holds things together; track styles jump haphazardly among reggae, R&B and electronica with no purpose in sight. Chasez also adheres to the MTV formula: Racy themes plus lyrics that lend themselves to videos featuring scantily clad dancers equals guaranteed airplay. So, though Chasez would definitely benefit from a lesson or two in the art of innuendo, Schizophrenic will ultimately do well because of Chasez's risky willingness to fit his solo debut into a standardized template.

Schizophrenic
J.C. Chasez
Jive Records
GRADE: C+


Next, a reviewer who gets it. :-) Very complimentary, I really like this one. And this is hilarious:

JC Chasez: playing his options
02/27/04
MARTY HUGHLEY

From oregonlive.com

JC Chasez has titled his debut solo album "Schizophrenic" as a tip-off to the variety of musical styles he dabbles in. But if there's anything you'd think might be driving the once-and-future 'N Sync heartthrob a little crazy these days, it'd be the way he's being presented in the media.

According to Blender magazine, Chasez was "long overshadowed by male ingenue Justin Timberlake" in their mega-popular boy band. Entertainment Weekly refers to him "studying under -- and nabbing the occasional lead vocal from -- undeniable alpha frontman Justin Timberlake." "Pity the poor second banana," begins a review of "Schizophrenic" in Time Out.

Certainly from today's vantage point -- with Timberlake having earned multiplatinum sales, a major Grammy nomination and respect as a R&B star -- Chasez does look like the junior partner among 'N Sync's lead singers. And yes, Timberlake got a bit more attention as the youngest member of that band (seeming, therefore, a little more like a pop prodigy), then became a gossip-column celebrity through his relationship with Britney Spears. But Chasez (pronounced Sha-SAY) and Timberlake shared the spotlight and lead vocal chores pretty much evenly, and to judge from the crowd response at the group's concerts in Portland, the two were equal in the hearts of their fans.

But in pop culture, perception becomes reality. So Chasez probably does have more of an uphill battle to establish his solo identity than his bandmate did. The inevitable comparisons are tougher still because Timberlake's album "Justified" really is good, and the relaxed assurance with which he's performed in high-profile TV shows and events has won over many boy-band naysayers.

"Schizophrenic" can't match the cocoon-busting vibrancy of "Justified," but it's a worthy effort all the same. Instead of the white-chocolate confections of Timberlake's dance-floor-primed R&B, Chasez offers up a grab bag of techno, rock, Latin, reggae and new wave flavors without quite taking his eye off the pop mainstream prize. Timberlake emulated and updated "Off the Wall"-era Michael Jackson; Chasez seems more inspired by Prince circa "Purple Rain," which is a more challenging model to work with.

That influence is clearest in "100 Ways," which opens with a surf-twang guitar riff, then builds into a jittery groove reminiscent of "U Got the Look." Then he fills in the blueprint -- the breathy sing-speak lead; the cooing, androgynous backing vocals; the falsetto verse for emphasis; the title's trophy-mentality celebration of sex ("Dripped through the hallways 'cause we started in the shower/We didn't finish till we hit the kitchen counter"). You can practically see him wearing high heels and a purple coat while recording.

The temptation to play spot-the-influence is strong, though Chasez's core audience may not be old enough to recall all the references. His vocal phrasing in "Mercy" owes a debt to Stevie Wonder -- but then, doesn't everybody? "If You Were My Girl" suggests a pastiche of 1970s rock and soul as filtered through Lenny Kravitz. "Everything You Want" apes the dreamy pop-reggae approach of later Police. The vintage synthesizers whooshing through "All Day Long I Dream About Sex" conjure up the ghost of Gary Numan.

A few of the nods are more explicit. The B.T. Express hit "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied") gets sampled in the Basement Jaxx track "Shake It," the only tune on the album Chasez didn't help write. "One Night Stand" quotes the hook from, appropriately, Donna Summer's disco-seduction classic "I Feel Love." The synth-bass intro to "Come to Me" will make you think of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams," but it's really copped from Corey Hart's derivative "Sunglasses at Night."

But to Chasez's credit, all the jukebox flashbacks come together into a reasonably cohesive whole. And although he has no instantly recognizable vocal style, he handles the shifting needs of these songs with aplomb, especially on the lovely ballads "Build My World" and "Dear Goodbye," which give a mature cast to the old boy-band croon. The production -- mostly by either Riprock 'n' Alex G or Robb Boldt, with assists from Chasez throughout -- doesn't always escape the kind of airlessly manufactured feel of 'N Sync's records, but it does the job by and large.

And even if he doesn't hit as big as Timberlake, there's still another 'N Sync album to look forward to. JC Chasez isn't really schizophrenic; he just has options.


This next one is just for fun. What is it with men and cat fights? ;-)

Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004
Mansion may spark Washington Avenue

BY LESLEY ABRAVANEL
lank@aol.com

From www.miami.com

Attention Opium addicts: Mansion's in the house! That's right, the latest haute spot to sprout from the guys at Opium Garden, the Mansion has moved into the space formerly known as Level at 1235 Washington Ave. Could this new joint spark the renaissance of once-hot Washington Avenue? Optimists hope so. Pessimists, however, predict long lines, impossible doormen and VIP-only gatherings.

Velvet Underground believes that Mansion, despite its unfortunate name, will thrive and will throw scenesters into a delightfully dizzy frenzy as celebs are ushered between Opium and its uptown sibling. As to be expected, man-about-town Michael Capponi will be involved in Mansion much in the way he's involved in Prive, only on Saturdays, and celeb wrangler David Grutman will be doing what he does best, bringing into Mansion as many boldfaced names as he can as he did during last Saturday's sneak preview party, at which a scuffle between Shannen Doherty and Tara Reid served as a side dish of amusement for the likes of P. Diddy, Boris Becker, JC Chasez and Sean Paul, who looked on as if they were watching a WWF match.


And now it's time for work. Aiii! I wanna be rich!

Comments

[brighton-girl.livejournal.com]

Well, you know he is doing pretty good. I mean some are snarky, but in the scheme of things most are pretty positive. He is talented and they just have to admit it...even begrudgingly (is that a word? did I spell it right? lol)

Oh and the Tara thing? Priceless. I wonder if she will even get hired anymore...

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

He is talented and they just have to admit it...even begrudgingly (is that a word? did I spell it right? lol)

You're right, because even the negative reviews throw in a few props!

Oh and the Tara thing? Priceless. I wonder if she will even get hired anymore...

Pretty sad, isn't it?

[worldwouldend.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, all the reviews start to blur together for me, but I'm glad I read the Oregon one, because it's fantastic. Definitely someone who "gets it," from perception becoming reality, down to the Nsync album mention, and then all the cool analysis of the album in between.

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, all the reviews start to blur together for me, but I'm glad I read the Oregon one, because it's fantastic. Definitely someone who "gets it," from perception becoming reality, down to the Nsync album mention, and then all the cool analysis of the album in between.

That was *such* an excellent review, I think the best one yet. It was thoughtful, well-analyzed and researched, and presented in a unbiased way. Wonderful review. The only way to improve it would be to put it in the NY Times.

I've been writing letters to the worst reviewers, like the guy who called JC "Chavez" throughout, or the one who said he had snatched an "occasional" lead from Justin. OCCASIONAL! Nearly made my head explode. I'm thinking about writing them again to send the link to *this* review. I'll suggest they print it out and take notes so they'll know what a proper review looks like. ;-)

Now I'm going to concentrate on sending thank you notes to the reviewers like this guy, who actually *get it.*