DUD OF THE MONTH

Snoop Dogg
"Ego Trippin'"
(Geffen)

Snoopy's evolution into an E! cartoon is one of those regrettable trajectories of public taste that tricks get carried away by and hos ride for all they're worth. It's not just, as Tom Breihan observed in Pitchfork, that musically he runs a production line like Tom Petty or Alan Jackson. It's that he trivializes his own content -- not the gangsta, braggadocio no one takes seriously anymore, but the pimp slime. People -- there are no cute pimps. It's a contradiction in terms. "Hustle & Flow" I buy. But that's not Calvin Broadus' movie. His movie is a "Dreamgirls" where Jamie Foxx wins. So for Rolling Stone to give this four stars with long lean Barack Obama all over its cover represents a rather sickening cultural disconnect. The one great song here isn't the cyberporn hit job "Sexual Eruption" or the Prince copyright that Morris Day still owns, but the demented Johnny Cash tribute "My Medicine," not least for this Inspirational Verse: "Girl my love's gonna last just as long as I'm high/You can trust every word I tell you is a lie."

MORE DUDS

Amy Winehouse
"Frank" (Universal)

Black Lips
"Good Bad Not Evil" (Vice)

Dan Deacon
"Spiderman of the Rings" (Carpark)

Richard Hawley
"Lady's Bridge" (Mute)

Janet Jackson
"Discipline" (Island)

Klaxons
"Myths of the Near Future" (Rinse/DGC)

Sia
"Some People Have Real Problems" (Hear Music)

The Tough Alliance
"New Chance" (Summer Lovers Unlimited)

KT Tunstall
"Drastic Fantastic" (Relentless/Virgin)