Deana Carter (4 stars)
The Story of My Life
Deana Carter's first release on the Vanguard label is touted as being free of record executive interference, as the pop-country star wears hats for writer, producer, musician and singer. As such, the question has to be asked: Why didn't anyone let her do what she wants to do before?
From the first track, "The Girl You Left Me For," Carter shows herself to be at the top of her game. The hooks are comfortably familiar and the lyrics are slyly clever, and the album's mood is nicely varied, running from youthful optimism and exuberance to more knowing heartache. Not surprising, since according to the accompanying notes, the album was produced shortly after Carter got divorced and moved from Nashville to LA, and while she went through two romantic relationships and a pregnancy.
50 Cent (4 stars)
The Massacre
50 Cent's stratospheric rise to fame is illogical. No way should he be Dr. Dre's most successful debut artist, but he is. No way his 11-million-selling Get Rich or Die Tryin' is better than inaugural efforts from NWA (Straight Outta Compton's double-barreled assault on corrupt cops and the FCC) Snoop (the gin-soaked, weed-cloaked Doggystyle), Tupac (the top-to-bottom-solid 2pacalypse) or Eminem (the seminal Slim Shady LP), but it outsold them all. Fiddy's neither controversial (NWA, Eminem), butter smooth (Snoop Dogg) or enigmatic (Tupac) and still his sophomore release, The Massacre, generated Rolling Stone-like buzz.
Believe most of the hype. Sonically, musically and thematically, The Massacre is more complete than Get Rich. Though rife with his calling cards—thuggery ("Gunz Come Out,""Ski Mask Way"), laying down pimp game ("Get In My Car, Disco Inferno," crooning rather on several hooks—Fiddy comes off more rounded than this gritty persona. At times, he's energized and hesitant, aloof and open, recalcitrant and compliant, funny ("I ain't homophobic, n--gas in my hood all on my dick") and adventurous (in "Baltimore Love Thing," he takes on the persona of heroin and chastises a junkie). Were the songs sequenced better, the 22 tracks wouldn't be such a laborious listen. All in all, no sophomore slump from the man from Queens.