Peeping Tom: Peeping Tom : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

For Peeping Tom's debut, ex-Faith No More frontman and noise innovator Mike Patton traded CD-Rs with collaborators like Norah Jones, Kool Keith and Massive Attack, all of whom made through-the-mail guest spots on Patton's bizarro electro-pop songs. The album is full of dark, beat-driven atmospheres that alternately evoke DJ Shadow, Nine Inch Nails and Prince Paul. Dense, murky tracks like "Celebrity Death Match" are dragged down by their sound-over-songs MO, but Peeping Tom yields plenty of oddly seductive moments: The Bebel Gilberto-led "Caipirinha" is a breezy bossa nova tune that erupts in a booming, ecstatic pop chorus, and "How U Feelin'?" ties together a bubbly groove cut with darting strings, Tom Waits-voiced rhymes from underground rapper Doseone, and Patton's singsong refrain. But the most arresting track is "Sucker," a sexy banger featuring Jones at her most potty-mouthed: "What makes you think you're my only lover?/Truth kinda hurts, don't it, motherfucker?"