Culture Blues

Album Review: “The Less You Know, The Better” – DJ Shadow

The Less You Know, The Better - DJ Shadow

It’s been five years since DJ Shadow released The Outsider, a widely criticised sonic departure that explored the world of the San Francisco-based hyphy sound, along with reggae and other genres which were at that time considered incongruous. When an artist, especially one with the renown of Shadow, waits this long between releases he has to deal with an immense level of anticipation, and the fact that anticipation is directly proportionate to expectations. In many cases the anticipation = expectation factor can be devastating to not only the record itself, but to the artists involved in its creation. In the case of DJ Shadow, it is safe to say that although The Less You Know, The Better is an all-too-short exercise in backwards-thinking disappointment, he will probably be just fine.

As I listened to The Less You Know... for the first time, I was struck by how dated it sounds. This antiquated feel was not a result of fidelity or bitrate, but was actually present in the ideas and vision of Shadow himself. Those of you who are familiar with my music ramblings already know I can be a huge fan of nostalgia, but that isn’t what Shadow was going for here. This record sounds like a man who isn’t aware that a great deal has changed in the music world since the 90s (or doesn’t care). Shadow was an artist who set trends, spawned sub-cultures, and was "it" once. Now he is stuck in a rut somewhere in the past.

I am sure that some people will claim that The Less You Know... is a return to form after the experimentation of The Outsider, but returning to form does not have to mean being sonically obstinate. Once the ubiquitous intro track is over, the first sound we hear is that of a God-awful detuned nu-metal inspired guitar chugging out dyads, and pretty much grossing you out. Said hideous guitar playing serves as the back bone  to Border Crossing, a track that is essentially three and a half minutes of uninspired sludge oozing out of your speakers. There is entirely too much horrid guitar playing on this record. For example, take  I’ve Been Trying,which has a central figure that seems to have been lifted from either Tenacious D or Incubus, and again serves as a foundation for the entire song. Or how about the the tone of the six-string on Enemy Lines? It literally sounds like Shadow sampled a 13 year old practicing in his bedroom, then decided to loop that into an entire song. I know that there are other aural intricacies going on in these tracks, but the reason I am focusing on the guitars is because they are so very present, and so very bad. Why on earth did the man who wrote Organ Donor have to make such a poor artistic decision?

Of course, there are some decent moment on this record that keep it from being utterly worthless. Stay The Course manages to rise above the canned Daisy Age beats that support it (thanks to some rhymes from Posdnous and Talib Kweli), serving as a representative example of Shadow’s hip-hop roots. I enjoyed Warning Call even though it too is anchored by a guitar loop that even The Edge is tired of by now. Sad And Lonely possesses some charms, but those have been faded by the fact that others have done the same sort of juxtaposition to greater effect... and then there is Tedium, which is an admirable subconscious cover of Climbing Up The Walls.

The Less You Know, The Better is a lot of things; the problem is, most of them are not very good. I would be going crazy about the magnitude of its disappointment but the truth is, this job has left me a bit jaded to this sort of thing. I, like most of you, wanted this album to be great because, in all honesty, I like DJ Shadow as an artist, and I kind of want all music to be great (except Coldplay). Sadly, this album is not good. And by "not good," I mean "terrible."