Three reviews!
Feb. 29th, 2004 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxmonkeySlept late. 9:20 is *very* late for me. I feel kind of groggy and ick. And now that I've got juice, I can function! Four reviews have popped up, and two interviews, one of which is Newsweek. I'll post the interviews separately because they're both pretty long.
An interview in Newsweek. NEWSWEEK. NEWSWEEK!!! I'm excited about that. :-) Includes a cheesy but very cute picture of JC that I hope turns up in a larger size somewhere. Haven't cruised the friends list yet, so it might be there. :-)
All these are at the JJB and in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fuskeez and charlidos' journals as well.
Review One:
From the Chicago Sun Times.
JC CHASEZ, "SCHIZOPHRENIC" (JIVE)
Jeff Vrabel
Two stars [out of...? No idea]
Two years ago, Justin Timberlake escaped the exhausted clutches of 'N Sync and -- against many, many odds -- achieved critical acceptance with a pretty credible stab at dance-floor pop, or at least a passable "Off the Wall" impersonation.
No such fate awaits JC Chasez, who aspires to same ("She Got Me" sports a stream of vocal effects that may make Michael Jackson consider exploring an entirely grunting-based copyright-infringement suit), but whose solo debut, as its title suggests, is way too scattershot to be received as anything other than Chasez covering his bases. Why just bite "Thriller" when you can bite "Dirty Mind" ("Speak Your Mind") "Faith" ("Something Special") and ... eh, whatever Al. B Sure!'s last record was ("If You Were My Girl")?
Chasez is too dry to be sexy -- his spoken-word intro to "One Night Stand" may be the gut-bustin'est come-on in the history of pop -- and though he finds some decent grooves in spots, he's too derivative to escape sounding like the guy who came to the party about two hours late. One exception: "All Day Long I Dream About Sex," a pulsating Kajagoogoo throwback in which Chasez ably turns up the heat.
Note: "Schizophrenic" is 76 minutes long. No dimension amenable to human life needs 76 minutes of a solo JC Chasez record, but such egregious overstuffing is the pop/hip-hop standard these days. This album is too long by half.
I think I've seen this next one before, but not sure I saved it. Well, it's here now. ;-)
Review Two:
From http://www.cd-reviewers.com/reviews_302118_B0001ADALU">cd-reviewers.com
NSYNC's underage fans are going to get a shock when they pick up JC Chasez's first solo album. Either that or they're in for an accelerated sex education class. With the release of Schizophrenic, this erstwhile boy-band member has shown that he had a few impure thoughts during his band's squeaky-clean five-year run. If Justin Timberlake was the cute member of the outfit, Chasez was the hot-blooded one, and he's not afraid to show just how steamy by extolling his prowess, his proclivities, and even the geographic locations in his home where he has made love on this CD. From the athletic "All Day Long I Dream About Sex" to the feverish homo-erotic "Some Girls (Dance With Women)" he whips himself into a entertaining froth, but he doesn't really cross the lines of good taste until "Come To Me." Despite his dirty mind, Chasez has proven to be an adventurous auteur, taking his music to places where NSNYC would never venture, serving up the dangerous swampy gumbo ya ya of "Shake It," dance hall reggae with a song like "Mercy," or a more sanitized version with "Everything You Want." But he's at his absolute best when he evokes the sweaty specter of eighties dance pop on "100 Ways" treading in the same stiletto boots that the Purple One did two decades before. --Jaan Uhelszki
Review Three:
From the Philadelphia Inquirer
JC Chasez
Schizophrenic
(Jive * * * 1/2)
In readying his solo debut, JC Chasez - the second 'N Syncer to go it alone - had some choices to make. Should he bank on the formulaic, instant-fireworks hooks the boy bands made famous? The pleading vocals of his old group, or a more individual and assertive persona?
Chasez, 27, didn't take the easy route, and the dizzyingly diverse Schizophrenic is the better for it. Working with producers such as Rockwilder and Basement Jaxx, Chasez deployed 'N Sync's cuddle-toy harmonies sparingly.
He avoided the just-add-water hooks of teen pop in favor of more elaborate chord sequences and compositional schemes. Perhaps most shrewdly, he minimized the anguished R&B lover-man pleas that mark his colleague Justin Timberlake's backbeat-heavy solo, Justified.
Mostly, Chasez, who gets cowriting credit on all but one of the disc's 15 songs, worked overtime to show serious musical range. The set begins with the Neptunes-influenced club scenario "Some Girls (Dance With Women)," which benefits from a funny Dirt McGirt (Ol' Dirty Bastard) rap. There are tracks built entirely on early-'80s synth-pop ("Come to Me," "All Day Long I Dream About Sex"), one that hints at cumbia, and a stone-cold Police cop (the reggae "Everything You Want") that shows Chasez to be a powerful belter.
There are also a few credible detours into funk. The surefire hit "She Got Me" finds Chasez channeling Off the Wall-vintage Michael Jackson one minute and "Superstition"-era Stevie Wonder the next, while the guitar-driven "100 Ways" is all post-Purple Rain Prince.
Not everything clicks. Chasez jabbers on endlessly about his sexual requirements, confusing the expression of pure need with compelling subject matter. And on other selections, the thumping grooves beg for an edit. But give the accomplished student of pop this much: He uses his scholarship constructively, to create moments of surprising bliss that are a shade more sophisticated than the drivel coming off the assembly line.
- Tom Moon
An interview in Newsweek. NEWSWEEK. NEWSWEEK!!! I'm excited about that. :-) Includes a cheesy but very cute picture of JC that I hope turns up in a larger size somewhere. Haven't cruised the friends list yet, so it might be there. :-)
All these are at the JJB and in
fuskeez and charlidos' journals as well.Review One:
From the Chicago Sun Times.
JC CHASEZ, "SCHIZOPHRENIC" (JIVE)
Jeff Vrabel
Two stars [out of...? No idea]
Two years ago, Justin Timberlake escaped the exhausted clutches of 'N Sync and -- against many, many odds -- achieved critical acceptance with a pretty credible stab at dance-floor pop, or at least a passable "Off the Wall" impersonation.
No such fate awaits JC Chasez, who aspires to same ("She Got Me" sports a stream of vocal effects that may make Michael Jackson consider exploring an entirely grunting-based copyright-infringement suit), but whose solo debut, as its title suggests, is way too scattershot to be received as anything other than Chasez covering his bases. Why just bite "Thriller" when you can bite "Dirty Mind" ("Speak Your Mind") "Faith" ("Something Special") and ... eh, whatever Al. B Sure!'s last record was ("If You Were My Girl")?
Chasez is too dry to be sexy -- his spoken-word intro to "One Night Stand" may be the gut-bustin'est come-on in the history of pop -- and though he finds some decent grooves in spots, he's too derivative to escape sounding like the guy who came to the party about two hours late. One exception: "All Day Long I Dream About Sex," a pulsating Kajagoogoo throwback in which Chasez ably turns up the heat.
Note: "Schizophrenic" is 76 minutes long. No dimension amenable to human life needs 76 minutes of a solo JC Chasez record, but such egregious overstuffing is the pop/hip-hop standard these days. This album is too long by half.
I think I've seen this next one before, but not sure I saved it. Well, it's here now. ;-)
Review Two:
From http://www.cd-reviewers.com/reviews_302118_B0001ADALU">cd-reviewers.com
NSYNC's underage fans are going to get a shock when they pick up JC Chasez's first solo album. Either that or they're in for an accelerated sex education class. With the release of Schizophrenic, this erstwhile boy-band member has shown that he had a few impure thoughts during his band's squeaky-clean five-year run. If Justin Timberlake was the cute member of the outfit, Chasez was the hot-blooded one, and he's not afraid to show just how steamy by extolling his prowess, his proclivities, and even the geographic locations in his home where he has made love on this CD. From the athletic "All Day Long I Dream About Sex" to the feverish homo-erotic "Some Girls (Dance With Women)" he whips himself into a entertaining froth, but he doesn't really cross the lines of good taste until "Come To Me." Despite his dirty mind, Chasez has proven to be an adventurous auteur, taking his music to places where NSNYC would never venture, serving up the dangerous swampy gumbo ya ya of "Shake It," dance hall reggae with a song like "Mercy," or a more sanitized version with "Everything You Want." But he's at his absolute best when he evokes the sweaty specter of eighties dance pop on "100 Ways" treading in the same stiletto boots that the Purple One did two decades before. --Jaan Uhelszki
Review Three:
From the Philadelphia Inquirer
JC Chasez
Schizophrenic
(Jive * * * 1/2)
In readying his solo debut, JC Chasez - the second 'N Syncer to go it alone - had some choices to make. Should he bank on the formulaic, instant-fireworks hooks the boy bands made famous? The pleading vocals of his old group, or a more individual and assertive persona?
Chasez, 27, didn't take the easy route, and the dizzyingly diverse Schizophrenic is the better for it. Working with producers such as Rockwilder and Basement Jaxx, Chasez deployed 'N Sync's cuddle-toy harmonies sparingly.
He avoided the just-add-water hooks of teen pop in favor of more elaborate chord sequences and compositional schemes. Perhaps most shrewdly, he minimized the anguished R&B lover-man pleas that mark his colleague Justin Timberlake's backbeat-heavy solo, Justified.
Mostly, Chasez, who gets cowriting credit on all but one of the disc's 15 songs, worked overtime to show serious musical range. The set begins with the Neptunes-influenced club scenario "Some Girls (Dance With Women)," which benefits from a funny Dirt McGirt (Ol' Dirty Bastard) rap. There are tracks built entirely on early-'80s synth-pop ("Come to Me," "All Day Long I Dream About Sex"), one that hints at cumbia, and a stone-cold Police cop (the reggae "Everything You Want") that shows Chasez to be a powerful belter.
There are also a few credible detours into funk. The surefire hit "She Got Me" finds Chasez channeling Off the Wall-vintage Michael Jackson one minute and "Superstition"-era Stevie Wonder the next, while the guitar-driven "100 Ways" is all post-Purple Rain Prince.
Not everything clicks. Chasez jabbers on endlessly about his sexual requirements, confusing the expression of pure need with compelling subject matter. And on other selections, the thumping grooves beg for an edit. But give the accomplished student of pop this much: He uses his scholarship constructively, to create moments of surprising bliss that are a shade more sophisticated than the drivel coming off the assembly line.
- Tom Moon
