My Amazon Reviews: The Script "#3"

What Happened to The Melodies?
3 Out Of 5 Stars

I really liked "Science and Faith," Irish trio The Script's second album. There was just the right balance of anthemic pop and modern rock/rap to keep a balance. On #3, the rapping overwhelms. The album tends to bland out after the first few songs and the stronger singles. "Hall Of Fame" drew me in when it was used on the World Series' baseball commercials, and it sounded like the band was once again going to hit the right notes. But the lyrics/raps are loaded with cliches, the rapping is excruciatingly monochromatic, and only "If You Could See Me Now," lead singer Danny O'Donoghue's ode to his dead father, has the emotional wallop of anything from "Science and Faith."

I'll also give a tip of the hat to "Kaleidoscope," which grapples with a U2 sound and "Glowing," which is a well structured piano rocker minus the annoying rapping. That makes four songs I like on an album of 10; not a good batting average. #3 is not a bad album, just an average one, slickly produced and full of confidence, but just feels like a step in the wrong direction for The Script.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Beastie Boys "Licensed To Ill"

They are Most Def
5 Out Of 5 Stars

One of my criterion for a five star album is that it bent the popular culture in a direction where everything afterwards changed direction. The debut from The Beastie Boys did just that. The mere fact that they became the first rap act to have a number one album alone makes them historic, but the album itself still stands the test of time from 1986 on. Made by a trio of well heeled inner city brats, "Licensed to Ill" was noisy, brash, snotty and made like a punk rock album. It rocked harder than many current rock albums of the period.

That came courtesy of the sampling. Among the usual array of funk samples were lifts from Led Zepplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Clash and others. These upped the volume and the more jagged feel of "Ill," spiking the sound to match the juvenile force of the lyrics. Those words centered mostly on getting high, loose women, and partying your brains out in the most politically incorrect fashion possible. To that extent, "Fight For Your Right To Party" may be as radical a single as "Anarchy In The UK" was for the Sex Pistols.

That the Beasties also were traditional song structuralists made them more accessible. "Party," Girls" and much of the album used traditional song bridge chorus structure that made the songs concise punches of aggression and teenaged snottiness. Nobody was going to tell them what they could or could not do, which meant that their raps were punctuated by the heavy metal of a Kerry King (Slayer) guitar solo for "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." This was the album that made rap creep into the suburbs. "Licensed To Ill" was so radical an album that The Beasties never quite could make another one like it, despite their continued success (and their more mature attitudes as their success grew), making it not just a great album, but a call to arms for plenty of musicians to follow.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Maroon 5 "Overexposed"

Over Everything,
3 Out Of 5 Stars

The irony of titling their new album "Overexposed" must have been lost on Adam Levine and Maroon 5. The album is overproduced, over-compressed and over-just-about-everything. Like so many bands in the current pop zeitgeist, they decided that they needed to conform to current popular production memes, which means having a guest rapper-of-the-moment (Wiz Khalifa, adding bonus profanities to "Payphone"), auto-tune, writer/producers of the now (Max Martin, Ryan Tedder) and multiple other steps that rob the band of any of their previous individual qualities. Take Adam out of the equation, and this would be another generic, over-compressed/produced pop-album.

The saving grace is Adam, who's white-boy soul is on a par with Daryl Hall at this point. Given the material he has to work with, he milks every hook and croon he can. Good numbers like "Lucky Strike," "Lady Killer" and even the obscenity laced "Payphone" stick like rubber cement. I'll make a quick point to say that I'm not a prude, but for a band that seemingly prides itself on their pop craftsmanship, the swearing in "Payphone" and "Tickets" just seems more gratuitous than effective, like the band has to prove how hard they are. But when you're capable of making really good light funk that hits its groove like "Fortune Teller" and "Doin' Dirt," you don't need to prove you're anything but a great pop band.

Which is what, ultimately, Maroon 5 is. "Overexposed" hits all its marks seemingly without effort, with craftsmanship that most any other band would sell their bubblegum machines for. Adam's unique voice gives the band enough identity to cut through the generic sounding production here, and when they horn-pump Prince's slinky "Kiss" (a bonus track on the deluxe version), they demonstrate that they're above the cookie-cutter sound that plagues this album.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Beastie Boys "Solid Gold Hits"

Beasty Besties
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Who would have thought the three snit-nosed juvenile delinquents that deployed their forced obnoxiousness onto the world in 1985's "Fight For Your Right To Party" would have ever made albums into a oeuvre of classics? "License to Ill" even sounded like a one-hit-wonder; silly frat boy posturing, misogyny, drunken loutishness from a trio that looked like nerd drop-outs trying to make AC/DC sound like Run/DMC. Boy, did they prove us wrong.

By "Paul's Boutique," they were already collaging samples in a way that would soon be de rigueur for most rap groups (even if the growth meant the "Ill" audience didn't catch on at first) and "Check Your Head" saw the trio turning into a band, picking their old instruments back up and hitting gold with "Sabotage." They'd finally managed to do what no-one else had; weld rock to rap without losing a shred of credibility on either side. It took almost another five years before the Red Hot Chili Peppers got it right on the opposite end with rock, and only Run/DMC could touch the Beasties for innovation.

You'll find that in the clever rhymes (my personal favorite is pairing 'my wok' with 'Mr Spock' on "Intergalactic") and tricky samples (Herbie Mann on "Sure Shot," The Sweet on "Hey Ladies"). In the interim, their voices and attitudes grew up (Adam Yauch became a leader in the "Free Tibet" movement) and they kept the albums coming. As a single disc, some will feel shorted, but "Solid Gold Hits" covers the turf from "Ill" to "To The 5 Boroughs," which is a pretty broad swath. As a casual collection, this and "Ill" would likely fill all your Beastly needs.