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.

DJ SHADOW - Outsider - 2006 - Album review

DJ SHADOW - Outsider - 2006 - album review
HIGHLIGHTS: 3 Freaks / Seein' Thangs / Backstage Girl/ Enuff
SOUNDBITE:/ I gotta stop fucking with these ho's offa Myspace dog/
RATING: 3/5
Apparently Shadow's fed up with having his cinematic soundscapes analysed by music-obsessed men in their 30s. That's a bit rich you might think - given that this description could also apply to him. So he heads to the dancefloor with a vengeance on 'Outsider'. Well almost. If I'm being completely honest, this dancefloor does still have a sizeable chill-out room at the back with some coffee tables in it. However, there are a large number of proper hip-hop tracks on here, though if you're expecting Quannum style boom-bap forget it. Shadow the music fan is currently digging hyphy. That's hyphy pronounced hi-fee (as in the San Francisco hip-hop movement) you know. And make no mistake, you will know, whether you like it or not by the end of this album. The first proper track 'This time (I'm going to do it my way)' sounds like a mid seventies funk track but heed the title as Shadow gets all 21st century on everyone's ass with the next track '3 Freaks' - all furious scratching, scattershot snares and hi-hats, squelchy loops and no bass until the irritatingly catchy chorus loop which has been pitch dropped to sub-bass levels - /Turf Talk and Keak Da Sneak/ - also the names of the two guest rappers on the track. The next four tracks are similar in tone and all feature guest rappers. Nu-skool? True-skool? Primary skool? It ain't old skool that's for definite. There follows an interlude of the UNKLE style acoustic 'Broken Levee Blues' reflecting on the Bush administration's New Orleans cock-up, 'Artifact' - a pointless Napalm Death style metal track and 'Skullf*ckery' - a gritty funk track that eventually grows on you. This is followed by, for me, the high point of the album - the majestic 'Backstage Girl' where Phonte Coleman from southern hip-hop crew Little Brother tells a tongue in cheek tale about man's ruin (i.e. a wanton beauty) over an edgy guitar led 7 minuter complete with a short drum solo - which somehow Shadow gets away with. If you're now on your knees desperately weeping at your betrayal by the godfather of trip-hop - cheer up - the next four tracks are for you. You'll love all that indie-singer tosser singing over cinematic breakbeats crap. The last two tracks are 'Enuff' - a hip-hop track featuring one of Shadow's Quannum homies from way back - Lateef Truth Speaker - and Q-Tip - who sounds more comfortable appearing on something this poppy than Lateef (who doesn't generally get out of bed unless the beats have old-skool written all over them) and 'Dats my part' featuring hyphy godfather E-40. There's no escaping it - this album will divide people. I suspect the Shadow knows...

PHAROAHE MONCH - Push / Let's Go 2006 Single review

Who's your daddy?

PHAROAHE MONCH - Push / Let's Go 2006 Single review
RATING: 5/5
In which rapper Pharoahe Monch makes a glorious return to the world of hip-hop by - er - singing. He does it rather well actually - for the first two thirds of the song with a laid-back, early seventies funk-soul style over a fat, heavy, rolling break, seismic soul bassline and epic horn riff - provided by seventies west coast funk band Tower of Power. Finally, somewhere about the point when you're wondering if maybe there's been some sort of mistake after all and you're listening to the wrong track, the man re-enters the funky flow, spitting rhymes about the plight of the disadvantaged in Bush's America. So there you have it - an angry political song that's so drenched in heavy funk and superdisco sunshine harmonies that you don't even realize it's political at first. The flipside's phat shit too. My nipples are hard just waiting for the new album.
Listen to Pharoahe Monch - Push

LILY ALLEN - Alright Still - 2006

LILY ALLEN - Alright Still - 2006
HIGHLIGHTS: Knock 'em out /LDN /Not Big/ Take What You Want /Alfie
SOUNDBITE: /Riding through the city on my bike all day/ Cause the filth took away my licence/
RATING: 5/5
Basically this is the bomb - really shiny nasty POP music. You have been warned. Maybe you've seen that Banksy stencil where there's this dodgy looking bloke bending over towards a little girl in a dress and she's holding a scythe behind her back. Well, that's this album. The majority of the tunes are skankin' pop tracks, quite a lot of which feature either loops or replayed aspects of various ska or reggae classics but the production is as hyper-polished as only producers who are slags for the top ten can make it. These are the sort of tunes that would have even Mary Whitehouse so happily humming along that she wouldn't be sure whether she'd heard lines like 'It's quarter to and we get to the front/ Girl on the guest list dressed like a c***' - a bit like that bit in 'Fight Club' where Tyler Durden splices the odd frame of a porn film into a Disney matinee while working as a projectionist. 'Knock 'em' out borrows the mad piano riff from Big Chief's ancient New Orleans funk 45 'Professor Longhair' but replaces the original break with a stuttering garage beat and a nasty synth bass while Lily rips into those really annoying blokes that can't tell when a lady just ain't interested - 'Nah, I've gotta go cos my house is on fire / I've got herpes, err no, I've got syphilis...' and more in that vein. 'LDN' is more laid back pop-ska track with brass and steel drums nicked from an old dancehall reggae number as Lily politely points out, in her Laahnden accent, the everyday nastiness that escapes the unobservant on the street. 'Alfie' is the album's up-tempo closer about her stoner brother and sounds like it uses that fat drum break from the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) with Abba type synths and xylophones in what, tunewise, could be a Eurovision Song Contest entry. Man, imagine that. Terry Wogan should be all over that sh*t.

AUDIOSLAVE - Revelations - 2006

AUDIOSLAVE - Revelations - 2006
HIGHLIGHTS: One and the Same, Sound Of A Gun, Original Fire
SOUNDBITE: Very superstitious, writing's on the.../ - er I mean - /The original fire has died and gone but the riot inside moves on/
RATING:3/5
Allegedly Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello has claimed that 'Revelations' is 'ferociously funky...like Led Zeppelin meets Earth Wind And Fire'. If you're the sort of person who can see how Cream and Parliament have been a massive influence on Linkin Park and recognise the huge debt owed by Rammstein to Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone - then you'll probably agree with him. If you're like me however, and your knowledge of funk stretches beyond James Brown and Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' you'll be disappointed that the album doesn't live up to Morello's grandiose claims. To set the record straight (no pun intended – for anyone who still remembers vinyl) this is not a funk album or even a particularly funky album. There is a bit of a groove to some of the tracks notably 'One and the Same' but this is nothing new for the band and certainly no 'groovier' than say 'Show me how to live' on the first album. Fans of Audioslave’s brand of chugging riffs will still like the new stuff - but the heavier tracks are all variations on a theme of what appeared on the first album (as, to be fair, were the heavier tracks on the second album) - so there’s no longer the freshness, plus they lack the poppier prettier tunes from 'Out of Exile' like 'Doesn't Remind Me' or 'Dandelion'. One slight change on this album is that the band seem to favour a slightly faster tempo on some tracks than previously as evidenced on opener 'Revelations' and 'Original Fire'. 'Broken City' is memorable as a largely bass dominated groove - but not one that would trouble Bootsy Collins. If you are an Audioslave fan hoping for a metal record that bravely (or foolhardily) had decided to reinvestigate rock's occasional flirtation with the funk - you know - heavy syncopation, screaming wah-wah, a brass section and elastic bass riffs, or expected a major change in direction then forget it - as far as Morello's claim goes it's the emperor's new clothes. There have been claims and rumours that quality has taken second place in efforts to deliver the number of albums on their contract a.s.a.p. so that Chris Cornell can go off and enjoy a solo career. I'm not sure how much truth is in that as Cornell released solo stuff while he was still in Soundgarden. On the other hand, if you don't know the band it won't matter whether you buy this album or one of the other two as the law of diminishing returns won't apply to you.