Ben Harper - Live from Mars
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Free Music Notes for Live from Mars
Free Music Review: hard word pays off
Hit: 5 Stars
this is how you make a live album. too many artists simply throw together a bunch of hits that they took to the road and package a live recording to make a quick buck from fans who can't afford to follow them cross-country. from the outset of "live from mars", it's clear that harper has put considerable effort into assembling this project. literally sifting through hours of recorded material from the past seven years (nearly every show was taped), he picked out what he thought were the best versions of the best songs. nearly every selection surpasses its album counterpart musically and emotionally. tellingly, the opening disc's "burn one down," features an ecstatic crowd singing along to every word. another crowd favorite, a guitar-driven cover of marvin gaye's "sexual healing," carries the energy and vivacity a live track should have. a fitting close to the first disc (which features harper backed by his full band, the innocent criminals) is the jaw-dropping medley of the 1997 hit "faded," and the led zeppelin classic "whole lotta love." those eleven minutes undeniably confirm this band's ability to display their grittier rock-n-roll roots. jimi hendrix would be proud. of course, as you might expect if you are familiar with harper's shows, he just happened to throw in a second, entirely acoustic disc - a man and his guitar, as the saying goes. it serves as an ideal balance to the first disc in its simplistic, mellower mood. kicking off with the beautiful "waiting on an angel," this set makes it known that this is the ben harper we know best, a compassionate, reflective singer/songwriter who finds beauty and simplicity in everything. unlike many of his contemporaries, he can pull this off without seeming forced or sappy, or even worse, boring. his startling cover of the verve's "the drugs don't work," and a remarkable take on his brooding "another lonely day," exhibit these abilities best. harper finishes with the political "like a king," and the maya sngelou inspired "i'll rise," another medley of epic, though more subdued, proportions. what's wrong with all this, you ask? well, it's nitpicking to argue with the track-list, as harper did his best to include personal as well as fan favorites. the one drawback is that it's rather difficult to swallow so much quality material at once, but in reality, that just speaks to harper's accomplishments as a dedicated and gifted musician. if you like ben harper at all, i can't imagine any disappointment after listening to this.Free Music Review: Ben looks good on Mars
Hit: 5 Stars
I waited for weeks in anticipation of this album. I picked it up the night it was released, and stayed up till 2:00 listening to it. It was that good.Disc 1 is Ben backed up by the Innocent Criminals, playing some of his best electric work. "Glory and Consequence" is a marvelous way to start this album. A little later Ben plays his one-of-a-kind cover of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing". This is a concert staple for Ben, and the live album probably wouldn't be complete without it. "Steal my kisses" is introduced with some awesome beats, and gives the song a whole new sound by speeding it up a bit. "Burn one down" could be considered a political anthem, but it's hard to think about politics with Ben's beautiful voice uttering "if you don't like my fire, don't come around, I'm gonna burn one down." You get swept up in the music, and the fact that the audience knew all of the words, and sang along quite nicely, added to the superbness of this song. "Forgiven" provides us with a guitar solo of epic proportions, but it's not overdone. Finally, Ben goes into "Faded", a great song in it's own right, but the added cover of Zeppelin's Whole lotta love" makes it even better, and putting the two songs with eachother worked very well.Disc 2 is solo, acoustic Ben. The Ben that we all fell in love with first. "Waiting on an angel" is truly beautiful, and a hellofa way to start off the album, it really sets the tone. "Please Bleed" in acoustic form is, in my opinion, better than his studio version. he gets very emotional on this track and reminds you a lot of "Fight for your mind" songs. "Not fire, not ice" is also a concert staple, and the lyrics on here are really captivating. "Beloved one" is drawn out a bit from it's studio version, which turns it into a very attractive love song. The last song "Like a king" is just one of Ben's many political songs. It tells of two Kings, Martin Luther, and Rodney, and brings them together over the L.A. riots. He adds to this song Maya Angelou's "I'll rise" poem, which was meant to be sung; this is obvious after you hear it.If you've been to a Ben concert, you know how powerful they can be. This album is a very good representation of his live performances. He combines old songs, new songs, cover songs and gives it his all, and puts in pure emotion to make one of the best albums out there.Free Music Review: How good is this??
Hit: 5 Stars
I'm a fan of a lot of different styles/performers - from techno to death metal and everything in between - but never have I been moved quite so much by one artist as I have been by Ben Harper. His voice can be passionate, pleading, forceful or almost anything else and it will have even the hardest man crying.I was persuaded to buy this live album partly by the promise of the covers (more on that later) and also by the fact that the day before I bought it I was in a devotional service about drugs. A fomer student of my school had OD'd and we played "The Drugs Don't Work" (found here) to push the message home. I wasn't quite in tears before the song was played but I very quickly was when I heard the voice of Mr Harper.
As far as all the covers go here - Ben has taken hits from The Verve, Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye and translated them into his own brand of blues/folk/rock. The Marvin Gaye one is amazing, I am quite a fan of the original "Sexual Healing" but here it is reconstituted as a blues song - and sounding as though it was meant to be one all along. The same goes for the Zep and Verve covers, a listener unfamiliar with the original artists would be certain that these are Harper originals.
Instrumentalism on every track is superb - even to the 2 human beatboxes on "Stel My Kisses" (the battle at the end is well worth the listen). It is obvious from listening to this album that Ben and the rest of the Innocent Criminals love playing live and have natural talent for so doing.
By about "Steal My Kisses" on the first disc, it is easy to pick up the vibe of the crowd. By the end of each song they're obviously hanging on his words and are clapping along and singing with him. While never having seen Ben live, I kind of have the feeling that I have from listening to this album.
This is a must for every Ben Harper fan - probably not the best way to get into his work if you haven't already (try his earlier albums). A real must-have though.
Buy this now.
Free Music Review: Amazing display of emotion
Hit: 5 Stars
Okay I need to start off by saying three things about three previous ratings:
1.) the screaming youth do NOT RUIN THIS ALBUM (that reviewer smoked way too much bad herb)
2.) although I like Jack Johnson, he does NOT write very deep lyrics and is not as emotional of a singer
3.) last of all, someone stated that this recording does not have the emotion and the energy of the Live at the Hollywood Bowl DVD (that kid also smokes to much bad herb). Oh yah, here's why you should trust me and not those other three reviewers: I have 100's of reviewers that share the same opinion. Sometimes albums take a few listens to get into. Secondly, I own every album by this man (with the exception of the new album with the Blind Boys of Alabama and the documentory DVD - I DO own the Hollywood DVD, BUY IT!!!)
So now I'll review the cd. I Love Faded. This song would be perfect but the guitar lead in the middle seams random and long (not everyone will agree with this) but this still happens to be my favorite song on this disc. Mixing it with Whole Lotta Love was genius. Ground on down is sweet, too! If you don't own any Ben Harper, this album is probably the best palce to start.
Okay, on the second disc you wil find Ben Harper showing us all how jealous we can become of his skill in both songwriting and singing. Although most of his guitar riffs are not too complicated (most medium level guitar players should be able to play it) they are usually very unique (Kurt Cobain is another musician that comes to mind). By the way, after a while the second disc will probably end up in your cd player a lot more often.
I hope this review helped you. If you want to know more of what I recommend and find some lesser known but tight artists, look at my About Me link.
Free Music Review: Surprising, if you've only ever heard "steal my kisses"...
Hit: 5 Stars
i wanted to pick this up at a second hand record shop. so i called them and asked if they had it in stock. the woman laughed at me and then said, "nope. everyone who buys LIVE FROM MARS is keeping it for themselves".if you're like me, you may have only heard the song "steal my kisses" played on the local radio station. i personally can't stand that song, and therefore wrote ben harper off as another garbage pop performer. this, as i realised when i stumbled upon "live form mars" could not be farther from the truth. and while i still can't stand "steal my kisses", it does sound much better on here then the LP version. almost every song on this album is... well... an EXPERIENCE. unlike some live discs, "live from mars" does a fairly good job of putting you in the audience with the rest of the pot-heads.
i hear many people say that the true gem of the two is the second disc where it's just ben and his acoustic guitar. this MAY be true, but you also can't over look the first disc with the innocent criminals. there are some true classics in live recorded performances found here. ("alone", "sexual healing", "ground on down", etc.)
anyway. if you like ben harper or if you just want to hear some really well produced live recordings of soulful-acoustic-rock, than this is the thing for you. but then again, i love hip-hop (mos def, outkast, jay-z, eminem, etc.) and i still loved "live from mars"... so i guess it doesn't matter who you are. this is just a great album. GO GET IT!!