Miami rapper Rick Ross continues his remarkable transformation from one-dimensional gangsta throwback to bona fide album artist on his fourth record, Teflon Don. Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye West, Gucci Mane and Drake are among the album's guests, but the Teflon Don isn't the shape-shifting, market-tested major label rap record that roster might suggest. At a tight 11 tracks, it's an smooth, sophisticated listen, bound by Ross's reverence for easy '70s soul. Choruses from John Legend, Erykah Badu and Ne-Yo lend to the record's distinct elegance, making for an album that, especially in its first half, is meant to be heard not so much in the clubs but from an easy chair, ideally late in the evening after a long day's work. Ross doesn't broaden his palette too much herehe still mostly raps about the finer things and the effort it took to attain thembut he's becoming a more focused and economical wordsmith, and the huffing baritone he borrowed from Biggie is beginning to sound more and more like his own. Where Ross once rapped in verbose, directionless verses, he now makes sweeping statements with a bare minimum of syllables:
Free mason,
Freelancer,
Free agents, we faster,
Big contracts,
Big contractors,
Built pyramids, period,
We masters.
* Also out this week is Sheryl Crow's new 100 Miles from Memphis, which finds the roots-pop star embracing her inner Dusty Springfield and jamming with Keith Jagger and a whole bunch of horn players. I can't muster too much enthusiasm for a Sheryl Crow recordmaybe if they weren't so aggressively happybut 100 Miles from Memphis is actually a pretty clever fusion of classic soul and Crow's peppy pop.
* Freak-folk darling Jana Hunter has a new band, Lower Dens, and their new album, Twin-Hand Movement, is a pleasant wash of dreamy, Galaxie 500-styled reverb and Velvet Underground feedback. It's a joy hearing Hunter in a full-band setting, though too often her balmy voiceand her songsare buried under all the drone.
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* And Department of Eagles release an odds-and-ends collection, Archive 2003-2006, that's more piecemeal than most. Many of these tracks aren't even complete songs; rather they're snippets of rehearsal sessions, featuring sounds and ideas that would later be recycled by Grizzly Bear.
