The Break Is Over Man I’m Back with My Ink Pen

There is not a bigger anomaly in music than the Fugees. Their first album tanked, panned by critics and ignored by the general public. Then they hit it big with The Score, an aptly titled album as they kept on scoring hit after hit. And as we know now, it happened to be their only hit because we haven’t heard from the group as a whole since excerpt when an equally recluse Dave Chappelle brought them back together for his block part.

What made the one album wonder group more bizarre is that it spawned two one album wonders itself (lest we not forget Pras who did appear on a soundtrack to a forgettable Warren Beaty movie). Of course their post album careers were completely different. After her Miseducation album, Lauryn Hill seemed to disappear except for her MTV Unplugged 2.0 appearance of all new material before disappearing again. Wyclef Jean on the other hand after The Carnival kept at it musically with each subsequent album garnering less attention.

That was until he jumped on the Shakira bandwagon for the international smash Hips Don’t Lie. And now ‘Clef says he has his swagger bank and has recorded a follow up to his 1997 solo debut with The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant. Much like the original, the sequel is disjointed; one or three tracks too long and is chalk full of guest stars, this time around only having one song without a featured guest. But in true Wyclef fashion, the guest list is eclectic, running from your typical hip-hop staples of Mary J. Blige, will.i.am and Akon along with the dude from System of a Down, Norah Jones and Paul Simon. No seriously, Paul Simon makes an appearance on Fast Car. And despite Wyclef never meeting a pop culture reference he wouldn’t drop, the song has nothing to do with the Tracy Chapman classic. The most bizarre of all the guests is the Minister Louis Farrakhan plays the violin on Welcome to the East.

And like his previous outing, the mish-mash of sounds and styles for the most part works though there is no emotional high here like on previous albums such as Gone ‘till November, 911, and Two Wrongs. Nor are there any completely absurd cover songs on songs that are untouchable which ‘Clef likes to put his touch on (see No Woman No Cry, The Gambler, Wish You Were Here, and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door) unless you count the remix to Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) which samples the great Wu-Tang C.R.E.A.M.

That song points to some disjointment of many tracks on the album. Is the song about girls or is it about money? And I am sure that Wyclef and T.I. didn’t bother to discuses what Slow Down was about when they trade lines with ‘Clef talking about global problems and shouting out Guns ‘n’ Roses while T.I. focused on the hood and his legal problems, yet the song still works. The album is at its best when Wyclef breaks out the acoustic guitar and gets introspective like on the Norah Jones assisted Any Other Day and Heaven’s in New York.

But Wyclef still doesn’t know how to trim the fat. Hollywood Meets Bollywood (Immigration) is ill-conceived and instead an actual Indian to guest he gets Chamillionaire of all people to guest. Sadly the Mary J. Blige song, What About the Baby falls flat and Shakira’s King and Queens doesn’t come close to matching their original collaboration. But Memoirs of an Immigrant shows there is still some swagger left in the former refugee.

Song to Download - Fast Car

The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.