A synthesized replay of the horn riffing from Jimmy Castor's 'It's Just Begun' sounds stuck between settings marked 'kazoo' and 'toy trumpet.' 'Crime & Medicine,' using the instrumental of GZA's 'Liquid Swords,' belongs on a mixtape. The beats tend to be as bleary and boilerplate, or merely slapped into place. On almost every track, his voice is cloaked in echo, which only adds further detachment. Mos frequently seems like he's staring at a blank wall as he rhymes and sings, rattling off his thoughts with a distinct lack of authority. No matter the circumstances, True Magic is a muddled, low-energy disappointment. Add to this the well-circulated rumors of Mos Def's desire to be extricated from Geffen, and the expectations are bound to be significantly lowered. (Suggested retail price: $16.99.) The FBI anti-piracy warning is the biggest logo on the package, and beside it, those who would like to see the credits are directed to The week the disc was released, there were no credits to be found on the site the latest news item, in fact, was posted in early October 2005. Dumped on a post-Christmas/pre-New Year graveyard release date - and, oddly, a Friday at that - the disc comes in a clear plastic box with no artwork, unless you count the sticker slapped onto the back. Whether it's the end of a chapter or a book is unclear.There's not much evidence that any of the involved cares much about True Magic. Still, the apathy here signals some sort of finality. Many of the songs that leaked prior to True Magic's release aren't included here, offering some a glimmer of hope that Mos is holding that stuff close to the vest for his first post-Geffen project.

And suddenly, as his acting profile grew, his musical output faltered. Even the simplistic and poorly recorded 'There Is a Way', a song with just two lines, has verve- even some uplift- in its rally-cry sloganeering.ДЇor years, it seemed as if Mos' songs had ideas and that those ideas had vision (assuming we can all ignore 'New World Water'), woven smartly with a bookish, booming flow. He raps: 'When we met your face was so brown, your ass was so round, of course I'm so down/ Wish I knew then what the fuck I know now/ Couldn't read the signs of the road: SLOW DOWN.' It's one of the few symbols of growth here. 'U R the One' is a lovelorn, confused wail- the grown continuation of his own 'Ms. Still, Mos Def is an engaging figure that has long radiated the charisma, if not the work ethic, to grab the mantle hanging above his head. But to include it on a proper album is a poor move. Messily rhyming in an odd twang over Juvenile side project UTP's 'Nolia Clap', Mos received a pass for the song, as his heart is clearly in the right place (at least he dissed Bono), even if his ear seemed waterlogged. Also included is the much-maligned 'Dollar Day (Surprise, Surprise)', his Hurricane Katrina missive released last year. Some tracks here would be decent fodder for a C-level mixtape, like 'Crime & Medicine', a note-for-note remake of GZA's 'Liquid Swords', minus the Genius' lyrical bite and intensity. 'Murder of a Teenage Life' is turgid and off-key- death knells for a rhymer- while 'Fake Bonanza' is the sort of aimless, generic production that gives boho rappers a bad name. The production doesn't help often, either. Take this nugget from 'Undeniable', a song nominated for a Grammy this year, one presumes because Mos carries some sort of artistic clout: 'These jokers don't want none/ And all the pretty mamis want some/ Tell 'em come.' Thrilling. These songs feel blah-ed out, packed with idle rhymes that sound as if they've been sitting in a notebook that never should have been opened. Here, experimentation isn't even on the radar.

Experimentation has been an organizing principle for Mos for some time, from the jagged riffs and polemics of 'Rock N Roll' from his debut Black on Both Sides to the psych noodlings and bluesy crooning on his last album, the uneven and only slightly less calamitous The New Danger. Everything about this album is half-assed: From the bafflingly bare packaging to the at-times miserable mix, True Magic is a mess. Mos, who's best known now as an Emmy-nominated actor, or concurrently 'that guy from the Denali commercial,' seems to have lost any interest in a music career, at least one under Geffen's umbrella. It's been rumored that this is a deal-closer, the last album Mos owes Geffen Records, the label that inherited him when Rawkus Records folded in 2002 and was rolled into Interscope Records' vast empire.

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