Common
Finding Forever
4/5

Who It’s For: Well, if you buy into Kanye telling us Common is going to win Best Rap Album in 2008, then the question is, is who shouldn’t be listening to it?
Sounds Like: Previous single “Go,” 70’s funk and jazz samples, high voices and Common’s gravely tone rattling away.

Following a masterpiece like Be is not something I would wish on my worst enemy. After years building his reputation in think-hop, Common went interstellar on his sixth album, not at all hindered by Kanye West stamping his platinum print all over it. Two years have gone now and Common has taken a little time out to act in a couple of movies and its time to see if he still has the skills to pay the proverbial bills. 

First up, have no fear Commoners - Finding Forever is a very worthy, albeit understated, follow up. Where Be has the feel of grand vision, FF has, with the exception of first single “The Game” and fuzzy “Southside,” a late-at-night chatting to your internet lover kind of vibe. The album is packed with those little moments that can fire the imagination - check out the sudden burst of keys at the end of “So Far To Go,” or the Nina Simone sample on “Misunderstood” – but with Bilal gracing “Black Maybe” and Will.I.Am crooning on “I Want You,” what Finding Forever sounds most like is the complicated expression of how a man is in love. There’s none of that trite “my baby left me I’m so lonely” crap on here - Common’s all-encompassing vision shows that you have to take the whole man, not just his hit singles. As Nina herself says... I’m only human.

Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. Start The Show
3. The People
4. Drivin’ Me Wild
5. I Want You
6. Southside
7. The Game
8. Black Maybe
9. So Far To Go
10. Break My Heart
11. Misunderstood
12. Forever Begins

- Kid Lupin  Posted Aug. 25/07