It’s unfortunate that Mark Ronson’s music arrives accompanied by all the onerous celebrity DJ/producer baggage, because occasionally the man’s musical talents are undeniable. Certainly his gifts lie squarely in the “ringleader with a good ear” category of Puff Daddy, than in the camp of legendary beatmakers. But from Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, to his work with Q-Tip and Wale, he’s displayed a knack for exhuming the bones of the past and reanimating them into something with a surprising swing.
He’s worked with Starks before, on the remix to Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good,” but this feels a little less unnatural — even though it was assuredly transmitted via the magic of Mediafire. Ronson crafts a beat that alternately channels The Kinks and Serge Gainsbourg by way of Sergio Leone, a mild psychedelia that meshes well with Ghost in scorned lover-man mode. This is territory he’s covered elsewhere in more elaborate and greater detail, and the Eminem and Kim simile is just awkward, but “Lose it in the End” doesn’t fall short.
Granted, it won’t end up on anyone’s Greatest Hits, but Ghost’s fatalistic resignation to relationship woe strikes me as a part of a greater theme he’s been trying to get at throughout his entire career. An older god’s lament– a measured contrast to the young firebrand hollering, “black man, watch out, she salt water trout.” Besides, the allusion to Shawn Wiggs recommending relationship counseling is enough for me to approve this message.–Weiss
Download:
MP3: Mark Ronson ft. Ghostface Killah-“Lose it in the End”
