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Album Reviews

Loaded with guest artists and packed with danceable beats, DJ Mark Ronson's first record, Here Comes the Fuzz, is less a showcase for the New York-based artist's turntable skills and more of a radio-friendly pop-rap party album. A rising star on the NYC club scene since the late '90s, the occasional Tommy Hilfiger model and son of glam rock icon guitarist Mick Ronson previously produced tracks for other hip downtown scenesters, including Saturday Night Live regular Jimmy Fallon as well as singer Nikka Costa and rapper Sean Paul -- both of whom return the favor here. Much in the same way as DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... or the Avalanches' Since I Left You used the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique as their template to display an eclectic and voracious record-collecting habit, Ronson's Here Comes the Fuzz mixes funk, hip-hop, soul, and rock into an "everything goes when you're having fun" cocktail. While never displaying the innovative vision or giddy melody-mixing heights of either of those albums, Here Comes the Fuzz does still resonate with the pulse of youthful ego driven by libido and hot wax. To these ends, rappers Ghostface Killah and Nate Dogg take the mic over a funky cowbell and the string section of Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio" on "Ooh Wee." Similarly, Mos Def and M.O.P. add Brooklyn street cred to Ronson's catchy if a bit obvious co-opting of Lenny Kravitz's hit "On the Run." Perhaps most interesting though, are Ronson's attempts at actual songwriting such as on the cosmopolitan disco plea "High," featuring vocalist Aya, and the punk à gogo of "I Suck" with Rivers Cuomo, which finds the Weezer frontman doing his best "Let's Go to Bed"-era Robert Smith warble against a sample from Labi Siffre's "Too Late." ~ Matt Collar, All Music Guide