reviews / 2003

CODY CHESNUTT - The Headphone Masterpiece

Name: CODY CHESNUTT – The Headphone Masterpiece
Item: The Headphone Masterpiece
Rating: 7
Author: Bob Sinisi

2003 (Ready set go!)

funk, hip-hop, soul

by Bob Sinisi

What nerve: for his full-length debut, Mr. Cody ChesnuTT (heaven forbid you lowercase those two final T's in his surname!) opts for a double album, with a pretentious title (the headphones masterpiece, a precise nod to a Sony model) and recordings that are thoroughly lo-fi, coming out of Sonic Promiseland, the cozy studio he built in his own California home.

From his little house on the prairie, a (nearly) solo man has given birth to the songs of his dreams (now ours too) — 36 of them, to be exact, though some don't even reach a minute and a good chunk never stretch past 120 seconds.

A compendium of thoughts, flashes, melodies and hooks, plunged by the talented multi-instrumentalist into a sonic cauldron that takes in rock, garage, soul, funk and thoroughly homemade electronics. Wandering here and there through the record's tracks, you can make out the sonic silhouettes of Sly and the Family, Stevie Wonder, Prince and (even!) Beck.

Maybe it's a stretch to imagine that, years from now, "The Headphone Masterpiece" will be remembered as an unforgettable album, but it's true that right now it comes across as a lo-fi masterpiece that sounds, and sounds very good. Good like a slap in the face to the majors and their overly hi-tech studios, which this thirty-something from Atlanta has no use for: ChesnuTT's (mind those TT's!) goal of rereading the "golden age" of soul-rock hits the mark, and the record's many memorable moments prove it. Hear it to believe it: on the first volume, "Upstarts In A Blowout", "B!%@#, I'm Broke" (with its electro flavor), the aching melodies of "Serve This Royalty", the soul delicacies of "Smoke And Love" and "Can't Get No Betta'". On the second installment, standouts include the hilarious "Family On Blast", followed by an old-fashioned ballad, "My Women, My Guitars", while a little further on the incredible "When I Find Time" echoes through.

There are truly too many tracks worth recalling (not to mention the numerous sketches and fragments included — who knows what they might have become if developed further...); the record keeps revealing new and ongoing surprises with every listen. They clearly think so too over in Philadelphia, where the Roots crew wanted to reinterpret the track "The Seed" on their recent "Phrenology", with their friend Cody singing and playing alongside the group (video included). Inspired, cocky and sensual, our ChesnuTT (those TT's!)...

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27/10/2006

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Bob Sinisi, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition