Album: Common, The Dreamer/Believer (Warner Bros)

There comes a point in every critic's life when you look at a row of Common albums and realise you are never going to listen to them again.

The rapper's status as the white media's darling is beginning to exercise the man himself, if lines such as "old white folks know me now" are any guide. TD/TB does contain a snappy sample of the Electric Light Orchestra. It's a shame the God-bothering pomp of John Legend collaboration "The Believer" spoils it all at the end.