When Crazy Town brought us the song "Butterfly," it became an instant hit.
Whether people hated or loved it, whether it could truly be defined as a quality song, the pulsating beats made it a club favorite, allowing the ladies to shake and go crazy.
Now the band's frontman, Shifty, has ventured off on his own, and the result is pretty sketchy.
The album, Happy, Love, Sick, is Shifty's attempt at West Coast hip-hop, but there's no mistaking him for the Pharcyde or Cali Agents. He may be from Hollywood and was once a graffiti artist, but that's where the hip-hop ends on his album.
His lyrics are laid over club beats, making the CD a summer dance mix at most. "Starry Eyed Surprise," featuring Paul Oakenfold and taken from Oakenfold's 2002 album "Bunkka," and "Slide Along Side" have already been in rotation on the dance floors - not because they are particularly good songs, but because the lyrics are easy to remember. Even a drunken college student can sing out "We're gonna dance all night to this deejay, dance all night to this deejay."
Shifty has said he wanted to keep his music fun and uplifting. Happy, Love, Sick certainly does this with the album's California flavor, including pretty guitar solos paired with turntables and reggae-inspired beats and rhymes.
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Unfortunately, Shifty's lyrics are hard to take seriously. On one song, "When We Were Young," he reminisces about his reckless youth and talks about getting loaded like a gun. The lyrics don't take you back to a time when you were carefree but instead leaves you scratching your head, wondering if he ever grew up.
On another song, "Take Away the Pain," Shifty tries to create a serious mood, but his rhymes are cheesy and simple, and his flow almost sounds like a young child repeating a nursery rhyme for the first time.
Although Shifty means well, he should probably stick to what he is best at. He can make the ladies move, but this is perhaps it. As versatile as Happy, Love, Sick tries to be, Shifty should just stay in the club.
