Happy Love Sick
is the solo debut from
Shifty
, an impressively tattooed fella who was
Crazy Town
's frontman. He's traded in every last bit of that band's aggression and heaviness for a light, frothy
pop-rap
sound that also has traces of
dancehall
,
funk
, and
neo-soul
. Along with collaborator
TC
and others,
has crafted a sweet summer album loaded with lilting
ballads
and love
raps
. Just about every song is about love and sex and is built around the same kind of bouncing
hip-hop
beats with acoustic guitar combo that worked so well for
Sugar Ray
311
, and others. The best songs on the album sound like they've already been pumping out of car radios for weeks:
"EZ Cuz You're Beautiful,"
a sticky love song based on
Minnie Riperton
's
"Loving You,"
"Turning Me On,"
a slinky
Neptunes
lift produced by
Paul Oakenfold
, and the bopping
"Slide Along Side."
Actually the best song on the album had been on radio for a while:
"Starry Eyed Surprise"
is a glittering party track also produced by
Oakenfold
that was featured on his album from 2002,
Bunkka
. The two
productions unfortunately show the weakness of the album as they are much more successfully produced and are quite a bit more exciting than the song after song of stoned grooves on the rest of the album. A little more variation might have served
a little better and made the album much stronger. Also, even though it is a poignant song about his best friend who died, he probably should have left
"A Better Place"
in his lyric book, as its platitudes really throw a spotlight on
's shallowness. Shallow is perfect for summer
pop
but just sounds dopey on the serious tracks like this and the ponderous and boring
"Take Away the Pain."
A couple missteps can't dim the good-time peaceful easy feeling though, and
is a surprisingly good album that should be a feature at late-summer slow drags, beach bonfires, and freshman mixers. ~ Tim Sendra