Living Colour - Collideøscope
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Free Music Notes for Collideøscope
Free Music Review: Great Expectations Mashed Up
Hit: 3 Stars
Having come of age in the late 80's I was strongly attracted to hard rock music that stretched boundaries and explored radical new ground. As a result I was heavily bowled over by Living Colour and their two classic albums, Vivid and Time's Up. Strangely enough, my other main mindblower from that era, Jane's Addiction, also have only two classic albums and made a comeback this year (my sense of mysteries in history is thus piqued). But while the Jane's comeback is mostly a success, Living Colour's mostly isn't. I really hate to say it, but the band should have put more consideration into presenting this piece of work as an attempted return to the upper reaches of rock brilliance.The album starts very weakly with the joyless and non-dynamic "Song Without Sin" and "A ? Of When." Then we get the unsubtle "Operation Mind Control" which for some reason is recorded with absolutely atrocious sound quality. Since the rest of the album sounds acceptable sonically, the basement quality of this one song must be some artistic statement, but who knows what that would be. Meanwhile, the two cover songs here are disastrous. AC/DC's "Back in Black" sounds rather cool with Vernon Reid's extra-juiced guitar, though Corey Glover's screechy vocal interpretation (perhaps a failed Brian Johnson tribute) reduces the song to a joke. The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" is an attempt at atmospherics, but merely drifts sluggishly into sleepyland. About the only successful tracks on the whole album are "Nightmare City" and "Great Expectation" in which the band's sounds are haunting and insistent enough to match Glover's urban-horror lyrics, while "Flying" is a moving ballad with a poignant human look at 9/11.
Of course, Living Colour are still among the best pure musicians on Earth. Vernon Reid's continuing guitar god status is indisputable (see his fascinating 1996 solo album for a non-stop demonstration of genius). Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun are the world's most relentless rhythm section, though here for some reason Calhoun adds a lot of unnecessary electronic accompaniment to himself, which merely clutters up already sludgy tracks like "In Your Name" and "Choices Mash Up." The main heartbreaker here is Corey Glover, who still has all of his technical chops, though he sounds disturbingly detached emotionally from these proceedings, and even bored and tired (strangely, he accidentally illustrates this situation in some of the lyrics for "Holy Roller"). In effect, this album is a half-hearted and directionless effort by four brilliant musicians who should have put more intense consideration into their comeback effort. [~doomsdayer520~]
Free Music Review: Weak Material Worsened Only By Poor Sound Production
Hit: 1 Stars
I raged with Living Color and they created the material that allowed me to do that. After 10 years, I turn them on again to find a missed attempt at creative expression, an off-the-mark CD designed to strike chords that the band apparently can no longer touch.A disappointing outing that the band undoubtedly tried to cover up through applying a tinny, garage sound to the overall production. The album sounds like it was generated in someone's bathroom. If I had originally wanted to listen to the messages the band wanted to inbibe in the album--assuming that there really are any such messages in an album with 2 covers considering the depth and breadth of experience this band has--all such desire evaporated as I tested my home sound sytem to make sure that it hadn't malfunctioned with the playing of this CD. Not so--evidently Living Color was looking for something "fresh" with this sound approach--in reality, it was stale and took the edge off of the biting guitars, thumping drums and raucous lyrics I expected to hear.
A message to Living Color--tell me that you haven't lost that craeativity, that ability to mix music with message, funk with hard rock. Better yet, sweep this garbage under the rug and try again--just don't take 10 years this time, ok?
Free Music Review: Messages received
Hit: 4 Stars
This album is full of social messages that hit deep and hard. The most depressing is "Flying" about 9/11. The lyrics may sound stupid upon first listen, but when the deeper meaning is reached they are perfect. Musically they live up to their funk metal genre and get hard, funky, and manage to lay down a groove steady and decent to listen to. As for the covers; they're awesome. The "Back in Black" vocals are great and "Tomorrow Never Knows" sounds like a totally new song.Free Music Review: Black in Back
Hit: 4 Stars
A very nice return from this great band. Vernon Reid still shows the brilliance of fluid guitar playing. Its all here. These 4 find musicians still know a groove or two. The production is more basic than Staind and Vivid, which is good.Great covers and rework of Sacred ground, the unrelease song from the Staind sessions that appeared on their Greatest hits album Pride.
Free Music Review: Not worth the wait
Hit: 1 Stars
What a disappointment. There is the old saying the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but, in the case of Living Colour right now, the whole is much much less. Vernon is the greatest living guitarist, period. Corey is tremendous singer, avoid buying this album or sell it and buy his solo album Hymns instead. Doug Wimbish is an amazing musician, and Will is a damn fine drummer, which makes it all the more confounding that they produced this dog after such a long layoff. The lyrics are terrible, and the music is worse. The only thing worth listening to are the two covers, and that is sad. I hope they try again, but, until then, I'll just listen to the first two albums and hope they get it together.