Posted on Sun, Jun. 18, 2006

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Paul Oakenfold gets help from guest list

Brittany Murphy and Grandmaster Flash on new CD

A LIVELY MIND
Paul Oakenfold
Maverick

Paul Oakenfold, hailed by the Guinness World Records as the ``world's most successful DJ,'' has helped shape modern club culture over the past two decades with his live sets and mix CDs, as well as producing bands such as U2 and the Happy Mondays and remixing countless others' tracks.

In 2002, he released his first artist album, Bunkka, a mishmash of musical styles with an impressive list of guest vocalists, including Tricky, Nelly Furtado, Ice Cube, Perry Farrell and even Hunter S. Thompson (which turned out to be his final recording).

Now, Oakenfold is at it again with A Lively Mind, another mixed bag of tracks touching upon rock, breakbeat, hip-hop, funk and trance. And his guest list is just as surprising this time around: The album kicks off with Faster Kill Pussycat, an infectious, guitar-heavy track featuring lead vocals dripping with attitude by Hollywood star Brittany Murphy, whose pipes turn out to be better than the other Britney's.

The Neptunes super-producer Pharrell Williams joins the party on Sex N' Money, a tribute to Los Angeles that unfortunately matches the city's emptiness. Pharrell sings ``You're leaving me hot, hot, hot,'' but the song's repetitiveness keeps the temperature from rising above lukewarm.

True highlights on the album are few: Set It Off, featuring Oakey and rap legend Grandmaster Flash giving each other shout-outs, adds an old-school hip-hop flavor to a modern dance anthem with a bouncy, Apache-inspired keyboard riff; Switch On taps the aggressive big-beat energy of The Prodigy and the jump-up, Manchester sound of Happy Mondays; and Vulnerable's singer Ashley (of the band Bad Apples) captures the soaring bombast of U2.

A Lively Mind is peppered with inspired moments that draw from a wide variety of musical genres. But its eclecticism ends up interfering with its cohesiveness.

-- Michael Hamersly

Miami Herald