The B-52's - Good Stuff
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Free Music Notes for Good Stuff
Free Music Review: Great CD (even if not a great B52's CD)
Hit: 5 Stars
The short staffed B52s took big chances here and won me over. However, most of their fans did not consider this Good Stuff.
This album is rather uncharacteristic with very little of their simpler, bouncy music (i.e. "Rock Lobster".) The rhythms are more subdued but still danceable. The music is much more expansive, but I still find myself singing along. I think they retained the party atmosphere for most of the album. I guess it's a party with wine and cheese instead of pizza and beer.
Track by track:
1. Tell It Like It T-I-is: Sets the tone nicely like I mentioned above.
2. Hot Pants Explosion: Naughty fun!
3. Good Stuff: The vocal play comes out for both Fred Scneider and Kate Pierson.
4. Revolution Earth: More etheral, more Kate; if you can get past the obvious overdubbing, it's really nice.
5. Dreamland: My favorite B-52s song - probably because I am a Yes fan; very unlike anything they've done before, but Kate and Fred take their vocals to a whole new level (for Kate, that's going above the stratosphere;) absolutely beautiful!
6. Is That You Mo-Dean: Back to simpler fun about an alien abduction.
7. The World's Green Laughter: An instrumental... sort of; Kate injects the "laughter" with the vocal play that she does so wonderfully - it makes rainforests sound romantic.
8. Vision of a Kiss: To quote History of the World Pt.1, "Nice, nice, not thrilling, but nice."
9. Breezin': Again, a smooth nice feel, but nothing spectacular.
10. Bad Influence: One of those occasional political songs they do; in this case, about people being outcast just for being different.
So if you're expecting a great B-52s album, you may be disappointed. But if you're open-minded that these are very talented musicians willing to step out of their comfort zone, you'll probably love this one.
Free Music Review: Underrated and Overshadowed
Hit: 5 Stars
"Good Stuff" is a great album that has been overshadowed by "Cosmic Thing." On its own, it is a solid, well-crafted album that deserved both wider play and a wider audience. "Cosmic Thing" is an amazing album, and when "Good Stuff" was released three years later, people were expecting more of the same. What they got was the B-52's exploring more new territory. No worries, there is plenty of fun and plenty to love on this album, but it is definitely NOT a follow-up to "Cosmic Thing." "Good Stuff" stands on it's own and deserves more respect than it received upon it's initial release.Free Music Review: I like it better than Cosmic Thing
Hit: 3 Stars
Released in 1992, this is the B-52's last studio album. It is 56 minutes long and sound quality is very good. Although it does not have a smash hit like Love Shack (best song of 1989), I like it a little better than Cosmic Thing.
This CD is no longer in print, but is readily available at any used CD store at a very low price. I got mine for 3 bucks.
I previously wrote that the B-52's were a one joke wonder (which, of course, upset a lot of long time fans). But, they were one of the many gimmick new wave bands to come out of the late seventies/early eighties. These gimmick bands were fun but usually very limited, musically. The B-52's gimmick was beehive haircuts, electronic music and yodelling. When they first started out, they couldn't even play instruments, and used recorded guitar loops. But, they did make some fun, danceable music.
When the B-52's started out in the late seventies, playing in punk bar bars, they were young, novel, innovative, exciting and edgy. Trying to prolong that music style when they are 15 years older is just pathetic.
The CD starts out with the dreadful Tell It Like T-I-Is. This is a song that goes back to the original B-52's sound. If it were a quick 2 minute romp, it might be good. The problem is that it gets strecthed out to 6 minutes and just becomes annoying. And this is the problem with most of the later day B-52's songs. Their songs used to be edgy, short numbers. Now they try and drag out the songs too long.
The next song, Hot Pants Explosion is another case of trying to drag out a song too long. It is really a fun, and funny song that is ruined by being stretched out.
The worst track is the World's Green Laughter which is a rhythm with a bunch of silly noises.
This CD is at its best when the group abandons the old sound and goes for more traditional rock, but still with that new wave influence. The good songs are Good Stuff, Revolution Earth and Bad Influence.
Free Music Review: Caution, ye B-52 fans
Hit: 1 Stars
I have loved the B52s since 1980. I bought this CD when it came out and listened to it once. I just took it out and listened to it again, before throwing away so I could make good use of the case. There's a reason why Amazon currently lists 150 used starting at 40 cents.
I wouldn't even waste my time writing this, but there are some really good reviews on here, and somebody has to tell the truth.
Free Music Review: Solid cd!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Really this cd is underated I mean ok it is a little annoying with like Mo-dean and stuff but the intermentals sound great and alot of the songs have really catchy vocals. Lot of hits like Hot pants explosion, Tell it like it t I is, bad influence and all those others. The worst song on the album has the coolest band beat tho so it makes up for it's annoyinginess. As for Mo-dean the tought was there the concept was great song tho rather annoying.