Sergio Mendes

“Timeless” (Concord)

Sounds Like: Black Eyed Peas, Stevie Wonder, OutKast

REVIEW: 4 / 5

In short: This surprisingly pleasant blend of jazz, samba, reggae and hip-hop unites cool with catchy, creating the perfect soundtrack for an urban drive or a night on the town.

Sergio Mendes, who brought “Mas Que Nada” to the states 40 years ago, is back with a vengeance. “Timeless,” his first album in eight years, sounds very similar to the hip-hop that I hate pop-radio for overplaying – and for playing in the first place – however Mendes pulls it off magnificently.

Much like Santana before him, Mendes collaborates heavily with pop musicians to create an album far more listener-friendly than anything he could produce on his own. Including guest artists Will.I.Am, Stevie Wonder, Q-Tip, India Ari, John Legend, Justin Timberlake and many more, Mendes has successfully fused the best of several genres into something incredible.

“Timeless” represents a collaborative effort at its finest. The music is instantly catchy and danceable, and the guest vocalists, as lame as they may individually be, all do a good job making a lineup of songs that are cool enough to soundtrack a film such as “Ocean’s Eleven,” and catchy enough to DJ with at a house party.

To add a cherry to the cake, the album art for “Timeless” is eye-pleasing and hilarious. Mendes has multiple pictures of himself with various collaborators, looking exactly the same in all of them. His goofy old-man smile looks like it is photoshopped onto multiple bodies, John Basedow style.

Be nice to your record collection and gift it with “Timeless.”

– Dan McClanahan