Cody ChesnuTT - TheHeadphone Masterpiece

Thu 12th Feb, 2004 in Music Reviews

There is so much to admire about Cody ChesnuTT’s debut that it is more likely to be done justice with a thesis than a review.

A whole two hours of Tascam trickery from the guy responsible for why The Roots’ “The Seed” was such a great slice of funky pop may seem like cause to celebrate. But beware. No one has ever pulled off two hours of genius. Not The Beatles (their self titled album being a self-confessed lucky dip), The Stones (Exile on Main Street never made it that long) and especially not Cody ChesnuTT. ChesnuTT may have some fine fine material here, but similarly, he has little in the way of damage control. Every single fucking spare thought is on this opus. There IS a reason why Lou Barlow’s early Sentridoh songs were only released on cassette for a few hundred people. And it ain’t because they were far too precious for mass consumption.

OK, ChesnuTT expects everyone to refer to him with that silly TT. Why? Probably the same reason why every y in his liner notes are typed in italics. Something to do with The Lord, apparently. Is he a little bit stupid, precocious or just plain unique? Having never met the man nor having yet have read an interview with him I can only judge by the music. And the music, goddamn, the music just flows right outta him… It just oozes from every crack in his fretboard and from every bit of electrical tape stuck to his dinky drum machine. You can almost see him sitting at the end of his bed, the chenille bedspread folded back, pressing the red record button and thinking “ummm…yeah, let’s start with a G chord…”

I’m not going to excuse his macho bullshit, because that’s his problem. Apologising for an artist is a waste of time. Hell, Cobain loved to shoot his guns, right? ChesnuTT is not a politician, he’s a musician. “The Seed” is a fantastic song, but in its demo state the words – “Push my seed in her bush” so sound pretty crass and stupid. But the song? Oh man! Likewise, “Look Good In Leather” – “I can rock her body so good that it blows her mind, because I know how to fuck her better”. Would you believe me if I told you it is the best song Prince has recorded in the last 20 years?

At 32, ChesnuTT has obviously had a lot of music bursting out of him before the release of this flawed masterpiece (note: his word, not mine). Pictures on the inside of the sleeve show ChesnuTT when he was about five, sat behind a huge drumkit. Not to mention his previous band Venus Loves A Melody who were signed to a major label for a while. The fact that they never released anything gives further fuel to the suspicion that ChesnuTT may just be another in a long line of lo-fi bedroom losers.

And at the end of it all – what to make of The Headphone Masterpiece? Some shit hot songs stand tall (at least 20 from 35). You take the second disc from the player feeling somehow nourished. About a decade ago, now that I think of it, a trucker guy attempted a similar thing. Just that he wasn’t a slim tall black guy with credentials. His name was Jack Logan and his double disc was named (appropriately) Bulk. It was stuff he had been tinkering with after work in his bedroom, trying to keep his flagging spirits alive despite a dead end job in white trash America. It was thrilling and dismal in parts. More like an aural diary than anything. I guess I should have said that earlier and saved you the effort of reading all this. The jury is out on ChesnuTT. Whether you like his record or not is to be seen. You want to embrace it, but it’s so huge you can only really get a piece at a time. In the end it comes down to how much time you have for your record collection.

Take my advice, though: grab a six pack, dim the lights, and let the headphones hurt your ears. See if you don’t get taken away to some strange land. Oh, and don’t forget the TT.