Pigeon John

Pigeon John
Pigeon John and the Summertime Pool Party
Quannum Projects

Representing Hawthorne by way of Omaha, Pigeon John hearts his own eccentricity. Then again, every Cali emcee fronts like a weirdo, so it's familiar territory. Summertime Pool Party is packaged like a chew-on-the-knowledge textbook, but it doesn't educate as much as it numbly points the way to the library. The rhapsody-in-quirk opener "Welcome to the Show" does well in establishing John's lucid swagger: he rhapsodizes about how, within his s'cool-SoCal dream world, Genesis referees his ping-pong matches. On "Do the Pigeon," he proofreads the mainstream over Madlib-esque synth work. But, by playing that move-the-crowd card early, the rest of the record feels sticky with look-ma-I'm-different spittle. The meter's already expired by the time the RJD2-crafted "The Last Sunshine" and the why-Jeebus-why pulpit piece "As We Know It" click into gear. It's his right to insist that no one else gets it, but what truly holds John back is his faulty belief that monotony is undervalued.

by Drew Lazor

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