The Third Hand (Bonus Track Version)

I recently saw RJD2 play at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville, VA. He put on a spectacular show, which incredibly displayed his entire set of musical abilities ranging from mobile sound boards and synthesizers, to bass guitar, electric guitar, his own voice, and his well groomed and widely loved abilities on the turn tables. He began the show by stepping to center stage decked out in welder’s apparel, mask included. The mask prevented you from actually knowing whether or not it was actually the main artist hidden and created a well thought out mysticism before the proverbial first chord was even struck. Around his waist was strapped a mobile digital sampling board, which was wirelessly connected to his amplifiers. He began composing the introduction into one of his recognizable hits by thoughtfully taping various buttons on the digital sampler. As the song matured, both the crowd and the artist became more and more integrated as a single organism consuming this electronically produced melody. As the song grew to a point where his sole instrument could not continue on unaccompanied, RJD2 was forced to retreat to the depths of the stage, to his elevated turntables and continue his addition of copious amounts of samples, beats, and digitally synthesized sounds. For the first half of the show, he continued to use samples from records, prerecorded samples on digital synthesizers, and programs running on various laptops to compose his masterpieces. At one point, he even set up a mounted digital video camera, which projected the images coming through its lens on to a screen behind him so you could watch his hands perform their work in real time and in close up. Hardly ever did a patron see him not running back and forth from his turn tables to his record collection, or the never-ending manipulation of various knobs and switches. He then graduated to a more traditional band set-up, even bringing out various artists to play other instruments. This was the least electronic part of the show, and I strongly believe it was the least appealing for most of the patrons, as they were there to see his famous DJ set. Fans left to use the restroom, mill around, and get refreshments as they lost interest in the only non-electronically created and non-digitally enhanced aspect of the concert. After a few songs he finally withdrew back to his turntables and resumed what he did best and what the crowd truly came to witness: a single man creating a live digital composition of beats and samples which alone mean very little, but when put together create an aura unlike many in the electronic music scene today. As he came back to the turntables following his temporary hiatus to the band setup, RJD2 again wove together elaborate tapestries of samples and synthesizers that individually could make a listener become lost or disjointed, but when used together created a masterpiece of thoughtfully placed beats and loops. The concert followed a similar blueprint to most of the electronic songs I have studied: it began with a small hint of what was to come, then built up to its full potential, and then gradually retreated back to the basic and simple pieces it began with. Essentially, after returning to his turntables, he eventually found his way back to his welder’s outfit and the mobile soundboard RJD2 first entered the stage with before coming to a slow and expected conclusion.

RJ's shift from Deadringer to Since We Last Spoke was a pleasant shift. He added more vocals and more fluid beats. The singing on One Day is fantastic and I wish I knew who sang that song. When I learned RJ had a newer album out with vocals galor I was intrigued. Little did I know that those vocals were that of his own. C'mon RJ we all love you for the fabulous beats and loops you make but leave the singing up to the projessionals. Nice try but its time to hang up the vocal chords and get back to your roots of awesome beat making with stellar vocal cameos like in SWLS and Deadringer

I thought I knew RJD2's style, but apparently I don't. I found the album a shocking disappointment. Excuse me, while I cry myself to sleep.

I accidentally bought this album not realizing that its an alternative album. Although i would have bought it anyways because of how dope his old stuff was.(eccept for his magnificent city instrumentals) As a prducer and a rockstar id say Rj best stick to the hip-hop if hes still got it.

after immediately dismissing this album upon a first listen, i came back to give it another chance and am so glad i did! while this is obviously much different from rjd2's other album's, its still great and worth a few listens

I am a fan of all of Rjd2's music. He's talented with hip hop beats and alternative vocals. This album proves he is an artist nonetheless!

This is one of those albums that are incredibly difficult to describe to someone with any accuracy, but I'll try anyway. It's a departure from RJD2's previous albums, although not a departure in his amazing technical proficiency with sampling and arranging. The drums are as layered, smooth, and invigorating as they ever have been, although they are a bit tighter. There are bits of everything in this album, from hip hop to soul to trip hop to indie rock, all tightly integrated throughout all of the songs. One of the biggest departure are the vocals, which is his voice. At first, I thought he must have partnered with some well-known indie-rock singer, a-la Unkle. But no, he sings and does a beautiful job of it, like he'd been singing on albums for years. It's even envy inducing, to think someone has this much talent. Another depature is that the album moves further away from the hip-hop that defined RJD2 early on, although those influences are still there, just a bit more subtle and more evenly mixed with other genres. You can't accurately call it a hip hop album, but you can't deny that there is hip hop in the album, either. The album itself is masterfuly crafted, and it plays smooth from start to finish. There's not a song I would skip, but I certainly have my favorites. Reality and Have Mercy are constantly playing in my head. This album stands on its own, beyond any genre, movement, or group. It has a timeless feel to it, as if it were a soundtrack to a move in 2008, 1978, or 2038. I only wish there were more talented artists like this, breaking out of a mold, starting their own movement and operating completely out of the boundries of what we're used to. I love surprises, and this album was a big one. The only other group that I could compare this to is the new Unkle (War Stories). James Lavelle also took a radical depature from his roots and from previous Unkle recordings, and came up with something wholly unique, just as RJD2 did. Unkle and RJD2 have very different sounds, but they're both masterful and unique depatures.

killer kuts!

Okay. While I'm on the edge about whether I like Rj's singing, I do think the beats are quite good. I have a feeling the vocals are getting in the way of hearing the beats, but guys, there's an instrumentals version! I heard this one originally and loved it, then listened to this and was like "eh." So I suggest, before completely rejecting this, to check out the instrumentals version.

I am in love with RJD2, he is unquestionably one of the greatest hip-hop producers of the century, but I must say this album is almost unlistenable. Not only is his singing hard to listen to, but his melodies and beats, are surprisingly, horrendous. There really isn't a track on the album worth listening to, even though I wanted so badly to like what he was doing. This album was extremely dissapointing, and I hope he doesn't pursue this style much longer.