Lyrics Born: Everywhere At Once

Lyrics Born's easygoing drawl and grainy timbre

have always signaled a guy who loves a good time. But even given how steeped in

cusp-of-the-'80s funk and R&B; his music has frequently been, it's never

sounded more acutely of that era than on Everywhere At Once. The looseness of musical

touches like the guitar plucking on "Differences" or the jumpy synth-horns of

"Hott 2 Deff" has limbered Lyrics Born up even more. He's good-humored and

hard-headed on the bootstrapping "Cakewalk" ("'A Japanese rapper, that'll be

the day / That's what my teacher told me back in the 12th grade / D'you believe

that shit Good thing I didn't / Otherwise who else is gonna sell these

tickets"). And "Hott 2 Deff" revels in old-school boasts ("Like TNT, we're

dynamite"). Not everything works: "Top Shelf (Anything U Want)" sounds like a

lesser cousin of Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie," and enough with the skits already.

Like any party, it loses steam toward the end, but it's worth attending for at least

a while.