G LOVE - G Love's Lemonade - 2006 - album review

G LOVE - G Love's Lemonade - 2006 - album review
RATING: 5/5
HIGHLIGHTS: Ride / Ain't that Right / Banger / Thanks and Praise
SOUNDBITE: /You's a little prankster, a sly and foxy gangster/
There are those out there who hold that a G Love album is not a 'classic' G Love album unless it sounds like it was recorded in Robert Johnson's outdoor toilet in 1932 on a revolving cylinder of wax. You know who you are. Still, as this means ignoring everything he's done since 'Coast to Coast Motel' (i.e. the second of what now totals seven studio albums) we'll forget these people for a minute. What is really scandalous is G's spectacularly underwhelming presence on the UK musical radar - a phenomenon which suggests he has, at least, been marketed until now, using 1930s techniques. As this is Garrett Dutton's second release on Jack Johnson's Brushfire label you would have thought that the situation might have changed. After all, even Jack Johnson's dog is probably making that tosser Chris Moyle's playlist as I write - so G ought to be getting the recognition. 'Lemonade' is one of the better G Love albums, certainly better than 'The Hustle', which was a reasonable return to form after the iffy 'Electric Mile'. There are more upbeat numbers featuring G Love's loping organic blues-hop beats and less of the acoustic noodlings than on some albums. Also he has a guest list to rival the one on DJ Shadow's latest album with Ben Harper, Blackalicious, Lateef The Truth Speaker, Jasper, Marc Broussard, Lady Alma and Tristan Prettyman all popping round to the G Love beach shack to trouble him from his hammock, along with, of course, Jack Johnson. There's still plenty of harmonica too, as well as G's trademark breathy and slightly strangulated voice, admittedly a slightly more acquired taste than the tones of Jack. He even hands over the keys to let various others 'drive' vocally on several occasions: Jasper on 'Let the Music', Blackalicious and Lateef to rap on 'Banger', which is - er - a banger, albeit a laidback one (oxymoronic I know but you'll know what I mean if you listen), Ben Harper and Marc Broussard on the sultry 'Let the Music Play' and Jack Johnson on a slightly more funky-tonk version of 'Rainbow' which some might know from the original soundtrack to Johnson's surf film 'Thicker than Water'. If this album really was lemonade it would be cloudy, refreshing, and rich tasting without bits in. If anything it's better than you remember from last time. Drink deep. Oh yeah - if the production's too clean for you f*ck off out to the garage, plug a set of 'travel-speakers' into your iPod, whack up the volume till it distorts, record it on your mobile phone and send it back to yourself to download ready to play. Actually you won't be able to do that because, typically, it isn't on mainstream UK release yet. Ah b*ll*cks order it off Amazon. I had to. And lookout for the hidden fifteenth track. Word.