A lot changed since the Hot Boys released Guerrilla Warfare and its popular "We on Fire" single in 1999, including the Boys themselves, most of whom left Cash Money Records for a short spell in the early 2000s, yet on their 2003 comeback effort, Let 'Em Burn, very little has changed. B.G., Juvenile, Turk, Lil' Wayne, and producer Mannie Fresh still churn out patented Cash Money-style Dirty South tracks, with the usual high proportion of filler. Even though there aren't a lot of surprises here on Let 'Em Burn, that's perhaps intentional. After all, Cash Money had slowed its once assembly-line output substantially in the early 2000s and lost much of its once massive fan base in the process. In a way, the label needed a good old-fashioned Cash Money album like Let 'Em Burn in summer 2003 to lure back some of its former fans, and a good old-fashioned Cash Money release is precisely what Fresh and the Hot Boys recorded. You'd think the Boys would bring some sense of growth to the table considering how much they matured during the interim, but they're still bling-blinging and number-one stunning just like the good old days, though quite less enthusiastically. Above all, it's this unenthusiasm that's most disheartening about Let 'Em Burn. As with most has-been rappers, the Hot Boys have lost their youthful hunger, which has been supplanted by a nine-to-five mentality -- these guys are obviously just going through the motions. They may Let 'Em Burn, as they claim, but the Hot Boys themselves certainly aren't "on fire" anymore. If anything, they're the ones who seem burned (burned out, that is).

The title notwithstanding, this debut from the former Faithless singer is pretty angelic-sounding stuff. You're bound to think of Sin�ad O'Connor, but the comparison is as misleading as it is inevitable. Granted, Dido's ethereal vocals here frequently recall O'Connor; but Dido's...