Rather than heralding some adventurous new phase of development, the phrase 'change of artistic direction' usually heralds a nosedive into creative bankruptcy quicker than you can say Terence Trent D'Arby.  Full text...

Poppier, more accessible, and hardly hip-hop, RJD2 presents a new sound on a new label where he plays every note and sings the entire time.  Full text...

As an album that takes an artist into a brand new direction, The Third Hand is not without its flaws. But whatever growing pains it may expose, it also displays an artist willing to take risks, and ones that pay off at that. The Third Hand may not be what people have come to expect from Philadelphia's foremost sample slayer, yet his songwriting yields enough delightful surprises and super-fun groove-fests that it has most certainly proven to be a direction worth pursuing.   Full text...

With The Third Hand, RJD2 has made an record that simply doesn’t play to his strengths. Blessed with awe-inspiring DJ skills and a brilliant ear for contorting obscure vocal samples and creating seamless found-art originals, RJ has ignored the very talents that got him noticed in the first place.  Full text...

RJ attempts to move out of the Shadow  Full text...

Better melodies and perhaps a dancier edge might help. But for now, this is a promising, and without doubt bold move, that will hopefully bear fruit next time around.  Full text...

RJD2's third LP finds the producer-singer-songwriter easing up on the sprawling multigenre attack of '04's excellent Since We Last Spoke for lighter laptop-pop -- it grooves well even as it tosses in all kinds of electronic miscellany.  Full text...

With The Third Hand you have to take each thrill and each embarassment side by side, that’s how it goes. It’s more work to listen to than any previous Rjd2 album; listening is a constant quest for the remarkable within the unremarkable. But it’s there. You may have to listen past a few layers to be satisfied, but there is a level of satisfaction to be found.  Full text...

It sadly turns out to be an unsettling piece of evidence that he's lost without someone else's pre-existing sounds to extrapolate from and transform. He still draws from other artists' ideas-- The Third Hand is rife with flashes of indie pop touchstones like Stereolab, Syd Barrett-era Floyd, and the Zombies-- but the album resembles an overambitious Money Mark record, bloated keyboards crowding his grooves until they sound cramped and irritable.  Full text...

Simultaneously paisley and gross, The Third Hand is some brutally awkward shit. To call it “growing pains” would be too favorable to where RJ’s trying to take his music.   Full text...