CD Reviews

Nicki Minaj | Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded: The Re-Up

Young Money (2012)

By DAN WEISS | November 27, 2012

3.5 Stars

Well, now it's official: the title of every record Nicki Minaj ever makes will include the title of every other record she's ever made. This box set contains a reissued Reloaded plus a 33-minute addendum, The Re-Up; the eight new tracks sound a lot more like the first album — where Minaj entered as a tough girly-girl who loves to sing pop songs as much as she loves to cut off heads — than the second one — where she pretended to be a manly-man who loves to have hits as much as he loves to tell people to suck his dick. No sexist Chris Brown or 2 Chainz on this thing, just that underrated woman-friendly rapper Lil Wayne (on "High School," a reunion as cute as the No Doubt–esque "Knockout" from his not-terrible Rebirth), plus girly-girl hit-makers Ciara and Cassie. And hey, is the closer "Va Va Voom" a rewrite of her excellent non-album David Guetta collab "Where Dem Girls At"? Score. Ciara's twisty hook on "I'm Legit" coupled with Nicki's "Pretty Boy Swag"-inspired delivery and background sirens is one highlight, as is the impossible "I Endorse These Strippers," a much goofier take on Nicki's cold, cryptic "Beez in the Trap" from way back in February. Special note to the freakazoids who think "Starships" killed hip-hop: the rapper who rhymes "fri-vo-lous" with "po-ly-ga-mist" is X-Acto sharp as ever. The original RomanReloaded was a grower; it turned out to be a thrilling album on purely musical terms even if the attitude and humanism got away from her. This is a comeback for the personality that reassures us she's at least somewhat in the new Justin Bieber video because she's tickled to be part of pop history and not just for the "female rapper perfume." Name-checking ramen noodles in the ghostly "Freedom" — where she exorcises a cost-benefit analysis of mega-fame — helps too.

Review: Joyful Noise
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
Alex Chilton | Free Again: The ''1970'' Sessions
Post–Box Tops and pre-Big Star, Alex Chilton was an 18-year-old Memphis boy on his way to his dual identity: former #1 pop hitmaker, perpetual underground hero.
Cardinal | Hymns
After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
Snow Patrol | Fallen Empires
Word on the street had Snow Patrol looking to change up the big anthem sound for their sixth release.
O'Brother | Garden Window
O'Brother's bio for their debut album, Garden Window, reads in part: "Native American tradition believed taking a picture of someone also took a piece of their soul. O'Brother views this album in the same vein. It captures a piece of them at a time in their lives that they will never get back."
Guided by Voices | Let's Go Eat the Factory
The GBV name on Let's Go Eat the Factory' s label indicates two things to those fans: this is the first record to feature the "classic" Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes line-up since 1996, and this is the first Pollard album to deserve the GBV moniker since the break-up.
Brite Futures | Dark Past
A few years ago, the cutesy teens in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head slid out of Seattle on the hot pink shoulders of robo-bounce kinda-hit "Me + Ur Daughter" and the cheap intrigue of a ridiculous moniker.
A Place to Bury Strangers | Onwards to the Wall
Onwards to the Wall clocks in at 16 minutes and 35 seconds, and it could shatter into smithereens at any moment.
Cloud Nothings | Attack on Memory
With Attack on Memory , the third full-length from Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings, 20-year-old frontman Dylan Baldi approaches new, drastically darker material with the same empty-bottle angst that made his previous releases so appealing.
You Me at Six | Sinners Never Sleep
Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
Imperial Teen | Feel the Sound
Like its title, fifth album Feel the Sound is as generic as doubters have probably always assumed — they sound both relaxed and exhausted.
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