DJ Shadow - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way) Single Review

DJ Shadow

This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)

Single Review

Well. Here comes yet another single from underground production mastermind Josh Davis, DJ Shadow to you and I. 'This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)', from his much criticised album 'The Outsider', is refreshing. Not in the sense that his way is entirely unique, it is infact more of a pastiche of 1970's soul, particularly that or Curtis Mayfield. It is refreshing in the sense that it is not a hiphy-ridden hip-hop cliché like lot of his more recent work, and on top of that, it also doesn't lend itself to the Shadow sound we had become so used to.

The production is flawless, and I defy anyone who claims they could tell it from the cream of the soul crop, but that's just it. It's nothing new. The whole time I've listened to Shadow, I've been intrigued by his craft, his workmanship. The way he forged himself a unique sound out of a collection of old ones. Well those days are quickly dissipating, and he is just starting to sound like his influences, which is never a good thing, for any act.

The B-side, 'Love, Love', which was conceived by Curtis Knight and Ed Dantes, and simply mixed and produced by Shadow, is a much more affirming affair. Lending itself to both funk and 60's rock, this is a salute to the old days. The days when Shadow was churning out music with real depth. Music with a sense of purpose and direction.looks like he's lost and outta gas.shame

-Thom Holmes