Common's "Finding Forever": The Rock Daily Preview

Rock Daily had a chance to hear Common's new record today, and while we're disappointed the artist himself wasn't at the listening session -- we wanted to talk suede hats with him -- Finding Forever sounded pretty darn good on first listen. It's a harder, slightly darker sequel to '05's lush, multi-Grammy-nominated Be, with Common maintaining his thoughtful brassiness and sharp narratives and Kanye West returning as chief producer.

Kanye produced eight tracks on the not-quite-finished version we heard, and almost all of them are great -- simultaneouly lush and bangin' in a way that compliments Common's mama-friendliness but helps cut down on his snooze factor. Standouts include "Drivin' Me Wild," a thickly detailed vignette about a young couple's vertingous love affair with hip-hop, money and each other. The song banks on Kanye's killer piano-and-snare loop and a catchy hook courtesy of Lily Allen, who sounds totally Beyonce here. Then there's the title track, which sounds something like a gospel choir directed by George Clinton -- pianos and overlapping soul voices rising toward heaven, underpinned by a deftly syncopated beat that (we think) samples Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."

Oh, yeah, best Common line, from "Start the Show": "Twelve monkees on stage, hard to see who's a gorilla / You was better as a drug dealer." (Free lunch to anyone who tells can us who he's dissing.)

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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