HIP-HOP/DANCE DJ Shadow, "The Outsider" (Island) Critic's rating:

October 2, 2006 (Press Release) -- Though he's hardly been prolific -- with just two albums to his credit until now, the startlingly creative "Endtroducing" (1996) and its only slightly less intense and trippy follow-up "The Private Press" (2002) -- DJ Shadow, a k a Northern California turntable and sampling artist Josh Davis, has been revered in the hip-hop and electronic-music undergrounds as one of the most creative forces that either has produced. But cult status wasn't quite enough for him. Davis recently complained to the British press: "I got really bored with people saying, 'You're the sample guy! We have you in our little box.' " Hence the dramatic departure on his third full-length album from the otherworldly, instrumental grooves that earned his reputation.
The 18 tracks here, many of them more structured songs than anything DJ Shadow has done in the past, comprise a veritable mix tape of diverse sounds, ranging from the amped-up Bay Area hip-hop subgenre called hyphy to down-and-dirty Southern crunk, and from old school funk to guitar-driven power ballads. Unfortunately, hardly any of these experiments were successful, and none of these sounds really seem to be the artist's forte. We can certainly respect his rejection of any easy pigeonholing and admire his desire to flaunt any limits on his creativity. But at the end of the day, the old sounds in his "little box" were simply much, much stronger.

Source: http://www.yahoo.com