Today's the day when all nail technicians in the world should head out of the beauty parlor and peep by the nearest record shop to buy an album. That album I have in mind is Melisa Young's aka. Kid Sister's long awaited debut "Ultraviolet" released today on Fool's Gold / Downtown Records. Can't think of a better way to show reciprocity actually, cause not since the days of the sprinter Florence "Flo Jo" Griffith-Joyner, someone have had that form of impact on women all over to start pay attention to their nails and getting flipped nail designs did.
And I love Kid Sister for that, I love that she feels like the big sister to FannyPack's Cat, Jessibell and Belinda that moved to Chicago and started her own sound. I love that she raps about womanly attributes in a way that's not just the old pussy/cock-rant, it makes up for the fact that this debut is awfully late.
The album was originally set to come out under the guise "Dream Date" last spring but as we all know it didn't and last year the great hype that was built up in 2007 (when she released her EP "Control" and after 'Pro Nails' got added with KanYe and Kid Sister featured on The Count & Sinden's mega hit 'Beeper') actually was starting to wear off on me. The release of that dreary 'Family Affair' featuring David Banner on RCRDLBL didn't help much either. Thank God that sauce-fest is cut out from the album.
Cause this polished up version with 3 tracks cut and 5 new now under the name "Ultraviolet" is everything but dull, quite the contrary. It has that typical Chi-town vibe to it, funz, party and juke. But it also offers some other unexpected treats. Goodies like the dupsteppy 'Step' featuring Estelle, produced by master Rusko. Or the fact that Hervé & Sinden manage to find a fresh way to revival and rework a huge track from the '90's I danced my ass off to in 'Big N Bad' (anyone, what's the name of the track, my mind doesn't work with me today) or a nyce take on disco glitz in '54321' produced by XXXChange.
But of course the album also offers some downers. Like the Yuksek-produced 'Life on TV', the track just floats me by, getting flashback to "Clarissa Explains It All" with Melissa Joan Hart for some strange reason. I'm not that crazy about 'Ain't really Down' produced by A-Trak either, that production is quite bad and the track is almost as interesting as dishwater and 'Get Fresh' also falls into that category I'm afraid. 
The best track of them 12, besides the slightly mellow 'Daydreaming' ft. Cee-Lo produced by Brian Kennedy and the current single 'Right Hand Hi' produced by the Swedish House Mafia, is the juke fest DJ Gant-Man hosts in 'Switch Board'. The track was featured earlier on the 'Pro Nails'-single but still today feels hot out the kitchen and if your not shaking your Coca-Cola shape with a onion in the back to that, well, I feel sorry for you.
The fact is that all old tracks like 'Control' & 'Pro Nails' still is crazy good. The only one that doesn't really steps up to the plate is the 2009 year version of 'Let Me Bang'. It sounded way fresher 2006 now it's a snoozer.
"Ultraviolet" is a bit late and a bit short. 12 tracks is 2-3 tracks too few for my taste but all and all a pretty decent debut. I just wish that since we already got tracks with years on their necks it wouldn't be a disaster if it also contained DJ Gant-Man's HUGE juke remix of 'Damn Girl' from the "Control" EP, Kid Sister's contribution to the Rebook Classic '09 Remix, her interpretation of the Jungle Brothers' old classic 'I'll House You' and the track I longed for most that sadly got cut, her's and Estelle's rework of Queen Latifah's 'Ladies First'.
If that was the case "Ultraviolet" would have deserved a 4 heart rating out of 5, now it only gets a solid 3 from me.
Buy "Ultraviolet" at Amazon.
Kid Sister ft. Estelle - 'Step' (prod. by Rusko) YSI | zShare Kid Sister ft. DJ Gant-Man - 'Switch Board' YSI | zShare
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Review: Kid Sister - "Ultraviolet" | ♥ ♥ ♥ X X
4 comments:
12 tracks too short? You are really going to judge and album by lenght? You know in the early-Mid-90s 12 tracks was a long album? The entire fit to fill trend (80minutes of music = album) came about with CDs to put them against cassettes and vinyl (which only had 60 minutes of recording) by including "BONUS TRACKS" This later became a common consumer complaint and excuse for piracy as the "album didn't have enough music" And most artists say they throw on songs they would rather leave off just to hit the 80 minute mark. Personally I'd prefer 12 well produced songs, rather than 16 slopped together. Acutally I miss the art of the ALBUM rather than the singles compilation which is what this, and many other new releases seem to be.
Love the blog, just get passionate about this subject :) cheers from the US!
That's a shame about the Estelle collab. I'll give it a listen tonight - been waiting for this for so long! Hope it's not going to disappoint...
Big N Bad = Yazoo - Don't Go :)
Yes, of course it is! THANK U!!! Mind peace, at last! <3
Post a Comment