Reviews Written by Andre
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May 27, 2006
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May 25, 2006
Prince Working Up One Black Sweat!!!
Pros: An Odyssey Of Funk And A Variety Of Flavors
Cons: None
'3121' is the real comeback album we've been waiting for for many year.Not to mention his music has significantly improved since he became Prince again but this is the Prince everyone abmired and respected.All twelve songs on this CD are excellent,catchy and some of the best he's recorded in years and extremely spirited.The whole thing is based in funk-the title cut is deep and gurgling while "Lolita" the the phenomanal "Fury" and "Black Sweat" just plain set off sparks-all super tempos and boundless energy.He slows it down for the ol' fasioned soul of "Satisfied and the sexy "Incense and Candles" and ends the album off in the best possible way with the bouncy pop of "Beautiful,Loved & Blessed",featuring the likable Tamara,the thrilling funk-jazz fusion of "The Dance" and the JB inspired closer "Get On The Boat",one of Prince's funkiest songs ever!The biggest surprise is "Te Amo Corazon'",a sensual Brazillian melody and one of his very best delicate compositions.And "Love" and "The Word"?Well firey modern dance funk-catchy and not filler.What makes '3121' so great is the songwriting and yes-the more mature outlook on romance.It takes 'Sign O The Times' a step further and none of the songs here break the six minute barriar.I highly recommend it to any Prince fans who stopped at the end of the 80's or any fan of plain old funky music. ...
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May 25, 2006
A Musical Tide Turning
Pros: As Dynamic As Ever
Cons: None
The best way for me to describe Level 42 is an 80's British equivilant of Steely Dan.By taking a spesific genre,in this case New Romantic pop/R&B music and infusing it with a heavy dose of jazz and funk this band innovated a new trend in popular music.The major difference is how heavily Level 42 still rely on jazz and funk at this point,as well as how loose and on target their songwriting is."Weave Your Spell" and "Eyes Waterfalling" are wide open-no partial thanks to Mark King he gets the drums and his bass theatrics to become the same basic entity.And "Last Chance","You Can't Blame Lewis" (a charming story song) and "The Chinese Way" show a tighter side of Level 42 and esbablish without doubts their pop radio savvy.On the title cut and "Shapshifter" the jazziness in the band comes out-underlying sudtely and a lot of slickness on top.Compared to the rougher,more organic elements of the band first two albums 'Pursuit Of Accidents' in a lot slicker and it would only become more so from here on.But luckily Level 42's distinctive style,reliance on genuine musicality and songcraft kept them from drowning in generic clishes of early 80's British synth pop. ...
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May 17, 2006
Bar Non The Jackson 5's Most Underrated Recording
Pros: A Full On Exciting Funky Party
Cons: None
From the great album cover on in 'Moving Violation' is my favorite of all the Jackson 5 albums.For one,Michael and Jermaine sing as if their lives depended on it (it didn't-their careers did) and except for two remarkable exceptions in the pretty Philly ballad style "All I Do Is Think Of You" and the aptly titled "Breezy" this album features the brothers trying their hand at a variety of smoking uptempo tunes.Some have a disco quality such as "Forever Came Today",but not the kind of disco anyone is going to want to kill.Same goes for the chunky title track-a cute metaphore set to music.In the meantime "(You Were Made) Especially For Me)" and "Honey Love" are hefty grooves inspired by sort of a Philly meets Motown kind of thing.And "Body Language"?ALL-BEEF FONK-enough said.The album closes with two heavy rocking funk-rock tunes in 'Call Of The Wild" and "Time Explosion"-the ticking clocks at the beginning of the latter weirdly forshadow the bands final days at Motown.But what could have been a huge hit and an all new beginning for the Jackson 5 was indeed an ending-the Jackson's were in court with Motown during the making of this album and left the label shortly after.But even on the two slower tunes 'Moving Violation' doesn't smoke-it BURNS from start to finish like an old candle relit after a long period of neglect.If only all contractual obligations sounded so funky and Motown were ver kind to reissue this on CD recently. ...
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May 17, 2006
One Of The Jackson 5's Finest On Motown!
Pros: Funky To A Premium And Full Of High Energy
Cons: None
'Get It Together' was a complete commercial failiar but it is one of their (if not THE most) satisfying releases they had artistically.This features a new Jackson 5 sound-a mature combination of funk,psychedelic fuzz guitars and some early disco orchestrations.And this is the first full lengh album debut of Michael Jackson's fully adult voice.The sound is very diverse-of the funky material the super title song and "You Love Me Like I Do (Don't You)" are great!For those with a more psychedelic ideal in mind "Mama I Got A Brand New Thing","Refle
ctions" (which actually outdoes the Supremes classic) and the hard rocking "Hum Along And Dance" are spectacles to behold.Michael even successfully tries a go at the then new medium of reggae on "It's Too Late To Change To Time"-a timely treatise on technology taking over the world.And the grand finale?The original version of "Dancing Machine" in all it's glory-including the weird psychedelic 'robot asembelge' intro.At the time 'GIT' was viewed as an experimental album and it definately is.But it's one of my favorite Jackson 5 album and dates itself the least of all of them.And it most clearly illustrates the latter day,funkier sound of Motown. ... -
May 17, 2006
The Jackson Boys Come Of Age
Pros: Driving And Experimental Motown Soul
Cons: A Few Minor Dips In Songwriting
'Skywriter' marks the end of the Jackson 5's commercial winning streak at Motown.But as far as the artistic side of things went things were at the peak of their form.The enjoyable kiddie funk of their early music was completely erased by a more driving,psychedelic and rockier sound.Namely the title track-it's catchy,dancable but has far more of an edge-Jermaine's bass thumps,Tito gets far more of a fuzz tone on guitar and theirs even some leslie amp experimentation."H
allelujah Day" is a spirited gospel tune celebrating the return of Vietnam troops."The Boogie Man",a Halloweenish R&B shuffle,like the former finds Michael's voice in the midst of changing.The edginess continues with "I Can't Quit Your Love","You Made Me What I Am" and "World Of Sunshine",which is the rockiest of all the songs here.The 'old' Jackson 5 only shows up to a tiny degree on the nice "Corner Of The Sky","Ohh I Want To Be With You" and "Uppermost"-a ...lthough the lyrical theme of the latter is very sensual and adult.'Skywriter 9; is an album made by teenagers and young adults,not children and even though it would be a few years before the Jackson brothers exerted full career independence and moved to CBS/Epic but for their Motown releases this is the first of five albums that found them leaving the label by modernizing their sound,growing with the times and as artists. -
Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hitmakers) [Remastered]
by The Rolling Stones | MusicPrice: $24.30 to $24.30 Compare PricesMay 14, 2006
The Rolling Stones-Englands Newest...Trend Setters
Pros: A visceral,bouncy bluesy romp
Cons: Way too short
In 1964 Brian Jones whole intention for The Rolling Stones was for them to be a pure electric blues band.This is not by any means a rock n' roll album-Chess blues and the Bo Diddly beat play the strongest part in this album.It's made up primarily of covers but the pure spunk and energy of "Not Fade Away" and Willie Dixon's classic "I Just Want To Make Love To You" are given fresh,refreshing treatments.The Stone's devotion to urban blues classic such as "Route 66","I'm A King Bee" and "Walking The Dog" is highly admirable as they all get the same treatment.This album is so heavily routed in classic urban blues it only includes one Jaggar/Richards original in "Tell Me",a catchy Spectorian type tune that I imagined was a huge influence on Bruce Springsteen.Because a large majority of the music here is rooted in the first generation of rock n' roll it is one of the Rolling Stone's most influencial recordings and has aged wonderfully over the years.It also spawned the whol British blue rock sound with Clapton and The Yardbirds,Them,John Mayall and Manfred Mann.It also shows how responsible Chicago electric blues was responcible for the British rock of the 60's.A lot of fun and very important in rock history. ...
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May 7, 2006
Earth Wind & Fire Try Again
Pros: Organic and Horn Fueled
Cons: Listless arrangements and boring writing
'In The Name Of Love' had the main purpose of establishing that in the late 90's bands that played real instruments were still valid.Well that makes a good point for this CD-it has some great horns,guitar and is musically very strong.Sadly that doesn't stop the songwriting and performances from being subpar.This album consists mostly of ballads and dull funk such as "Rock It" and the title track,which itself points to another 90's EWF weakness-trying to gain some hip hop credibility.But Sheldon Renolds is not an interesting singer and is very typical for the times and his lead on "Round And Round" is pretty boring.The 90's were a somewhat embarassing period for Earth,Wind & Fire largely-only three albums and two of them of dubious songwriting quality-this being one of them.For a better example of Earth Wind & Fire during this time check out the 'Millenium' CD.This is well played but dull. ...
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May 3, 2006
Madonna's First Full Lengh Album Achievment
Pros: Welcoming,Bubbly and Highly Singable
Cons: None
Madonna has made a lot of great music in her day.And in 1986 she like so many others were ready to show the world that dance-pop music was not just about 12 inch singles-it could work as a full lengh album too.Everything on this album works for radio,a long drive or to party to.No wonder five of these tunes were huge hits-and it starts off with two great dance hits Papa Don't Preach" and "Open Your Heart".But the uptempo songs that weren't hits are the terrific "White Heat","Where&
#39;s The Party" and the inspirational "Love Makes The World Go Round",as well as the more techno inclined "Jimmy Jimmy".But after all these years my favorite song here is the one ballad-the passionate "Live To Tell"-it was the first time I ever heard Madonna's mature,less girlish singing-it's very musical and I love the lyrics.In fact I'll go as far to say this Madonna's best 80's album. ... -
May 3, 2006
True Stories Of People Like Us
Pros: A Lot Of Variety and Musical Fun
Cons: Not the original soundtrack
When I first got this CD it had little impact on me.I was heavily exposed to the earlier,funkier Talking Heads and this 'soundtrack' of sorts is very different.Only three of these songs were performed by the Talking Heads in the 'True Stories' movie,which I also love.Those songs "Love For Sale","Wild Wild Life" and "City Of Dreams" are great pop songs.But it was only after seeing the film did I learn to appreciate tunes like "Hey Yeah" and "Puzzlin Evidence".On the other hand the country inflected "People Like Us" works just as well with John Goodman singing it.It isn't exactly like either of the last Talking Head albums-it's not funky like 'Speaking In Tongues' or as slick as 'Little Creatures' but it contains some nice pop/rock tunes and did very well for the band. ...
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More Jams Of The Year
Pros: Beautifully Funky
Cons: Still a little wandering into rap territory
The albums of Prince's TAFKAP years (spanning eight years) can be a mixed bag.'New Power Soul' is not Prince's most diverse albums but it finds him doing the same basic thing he did on 'The Black Album'-presenting ten high energy funk tunes with little variation in the basic musical idea.But in 1998 Prince's outlook on funk had changed.1998 was a big production year for Prince-putting together CD's for Larry Graham and Chaka Khan so add to that the NPG instrumentation you have an CD that favors bass,horns and heavy drumming over his old synthesized Minneapolis style.But that doesn't keep the title song,"Mad Sex","Freaks On The Side","Push It Up","U Like Funky Music" and the the funk crazed "Shoo-Bed-Ooh"; in check.On the humane "The One",a great message cut Prince's ballad style is growing jazzier,same happens on "Until On Your In My Arms Again".Bottom line?'New Power Soul' is a very strong and unfairly judged album.This doesn't contain any catchy or rock oriented songs with heavy guitars or psychedelia(neither did 'The Black Album')-it's all funk but keeps the mixture of one man band styles and more band styled arrangements nicely and will,if nothing else get you dancing and hopefully singing along too.
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