Review Summary: DJ records generally suck. Thank god this doesn't.
Although he originally came into the industry as a DJ, Mark Ronson now prefers his position as a producer for some of England’s biggest pop stars. Which is fine and dandy, but he can’t completely escape from his past as a producer.
Here Comes The Fuzz, largely a hip hop record, shows Mark Ronson at his start, pulling and whipping out beats and getting people together, and it proved to be an undeniable pop flop. However, despite the lack of a commercial reaction, the record proves to be purely entertaining throughout.
If there’s one criticism that could be dealt towards the record, however, is the fact that it’s generally inconsistent in quality of the songs. We have top notch stuff like “Ooh Wee”, but we also have generally awful pop songs like Rivers Cuomo’s contribution “I Suck”. Throughout the record, we have to drill through the piffle that piles amongst the record, in order to get to the production and guest genius.
Once you get there, though, is when we see the record truly come to life. “Ooh Wee”, as already mentioned, flairs off some quality verses from Ghostface Killah, his weed carrier, and Saigon, and, as per usual, a very infectious hook from Nate Dogg. Saigon appears again on “Diduntdidunt”, proving himself to be a beyond competent storyteller. The glossy arena rock-hop of “On The Road” is balanced by M.O.P.’s aggressive, hollering verses and a rejuvenated Mos Def. Some final highlights come in the form of garage rock rap “Here Comes The Fuzz” and “Bout To Get Ugly”, two records featuring MC’s absolutely needing tracks like these on their regular records (Freeway and Rhymefest).
What’s more, though is DJ Mark Ronson’s production that keeps the record together. Disco drums, generally fast pace, party atmosphere that generally contains itself throughout the record. This isn’t deep music, rather, this is generally hardcore rappers getting of their asses and getting on the dance floor. Ranging from jangling garage rock pushed to bounce or more obvious attempts to get grooving like “Ooh Wee”, we see every guest artists putting themselves up to their height because of sweeping production.
Despite ace production and good guests, though, the inconsistent nature of the record keeps it from being any more than just good. Then again, it is a DJ record. Mark Ronson has that same diplomatic DJ nature of bringing people together and attempting to get them to work together in a single room, it rarely works. It works more than a majority of the time on
Here Comes The Fuzz, and we’re thankful for that, but it would’ve been better if Mark Ronson produced an entire album with, say, Circa 2003 Saigon. That would’ve been amazing.
