The Trouble with Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin is probably the best-known rock producer in the world, and people still don't realize how incredible his impact has been. Founding Def Jam records was pivotal to the rise of rap, and while I'm not a hip hop expert, Rubin's work with LL Cool J, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and more recently Jay-Z seems like some of the best stuff ever produced with two turntables and a microphone. The creative leap that he took the Red Hot Chili Peppers to on Blood Sugar Sex Magik is positively mind-boggling. Compare it to any other RHCP record, even the very best ones, for full effect.



Slayer have been more consistent and uncompromising than Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, or pretty much any other metal band in history, and they've employed Rubin's production skills since 1986. And speaking of creative leaps, compare Reign in Blood to Slayer's earlier work.



With System of a Down, he helped shape one of the most inventive mainstream rock acts in recent memory, and I recently (finally) realized that Tom Petty's best record is Wildflowers, helmed by the incomparable Rubin. Hell, I'm even glad that Rick Rubin made a record with the Dixie Chicks.

On the subject of country, there's no way to discuss Rubin's best music without mentioning Johnny Cash. Reinventing Cash as a weathered old badass with alt-rock cred was so effective that it convinced a generation of new fans that he was just as hardboiled during his '50s and '60s commercial peak. Truthfully, Johnny Cash was a tremendous artist with scores of great songs and an incalculable impact, but try getting through more than 30 minutes of any record he made without Rick Rubin or an audience of prisoners. Rick Rubin's ability to bring out the best in established artists is probably even more incredible than his knack for making great new bands sound even better.



There's the rub. Now that everyone knows how great Rick Rubin is, washed up and mediocre artists hire him to clean up their messes. Sure, he can make a Weezer record sound better than their last few disasters by stripping down their production or eliminating the gaps between songs to make a cohesive album, but of course he can't rescue them from the level of suckiness they've been reduced to post-Pinkerton. Keeping the MCing to a bare minimum on Linkin Park's newest travesty is a good thought, but it's not going to suddenly turn them into Nine Inch Nails. Or even Filter.

I've heard good things about his records with Mick Jagger and Neil Diamond, but from what I do know of both artists' solo careers (and it really pains me, since Jagger's possibly my all-time favorite frontman), I'm guessing that they enlisted Mr. Rubin to save them from their awful music. And don't get me started on Audioslave.

It's clear that Rick Rubin is an incredible figure in music, but as long as artists hire him to patch up their dismal work, he's going to have a lot of terrible music on his resume. Not that that takes away from the greatness of his earlier works, but it's frustrating to think he's wasting his time with Linkin Park when he could be using his talents for better projects. His records always sound good, but his brilliance is being buried by bad music.

Rubin doesn't seem to mind--I don't think he's worked with a new artist since System of a Down's debut 10 years ago--and it's good for him to push himself and see how far he can take an artist. But it's baffling that'd he'd waste his time with Wolfmother and Weezer when he could be producing music as great as this:















Rubin's biggest project this year is, of course, the new Metallica record. Both Rubin and Metallica have lately been taking huge artistic risks with mixed results, and at the very least, it'll be fascinating to see what they come up with.