Cex - Maryland Mansions

With a new record comes a new sound; Cex relinquishes the rap/emcee image (evident on Tall, Dark and Handcuffed) and tries an entirely new set of vocal styles and lyrical approaches. Understandably, the transition from freestyle/verse to “traditional” singing has its hang-ups: the vocals sound a little amateur in the same manner that Trent Reznor sounds a little fake on Pretty Hate Machine. I say this because Maryland Mansions exhibits the exact same positive and negative qualities of the dated-but-much-respected Nine Inch Nails debut. On one side, both use highly electronic, modestly experimental production techniques and layered drum-machines, synthesizers, and extraneous sampling. The use of feedback, static, and distortion as instrumentation (classic NIN style) flaunts the production/experimentation-obsessive talent. On the other hand the lyrical themes are so exaggerated and trite that the record becomes very uninteresting; like Reznor, Cex is only a sporadic lyrical whiz. He may linger in a completely different musical genre than Reznor, but Cex still has that catchy “devil wants to fuck me in the back of his car” groove. (…speaking of lyrics) Even still, he pulls off a curiously resourceful eight-track twenty-five minute album; as a step away from the standard material, this album (almost a half-album) makes up in intensity and creativity what it lacks in time. Problems aside, this is a very intelligent (in execution and production, not so much in verse) record that proves if nothing else, that hip-hop has become much too generic and much too boring. [www.rjyan.com]