Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Guess who's back (back again)

Alright, so half of my crap sorted itself out and I'm back to doing some writing. Tonight we have a three-way album battle between three of G. Love's best albums.

First up is Coast to Coast Motel.
Coast to Coast is G. Love and Special Sauce's second album, released in 1994. This was the first release by the Philadelphia group that brought them to the front of critical love, though it wasn't quite as popular as the self-titled debut.

Coast to Coast Motel has a much smaller hip-hop influence than, well, almost every other G. Love album. It's more groove and jam based which makes for a much different sound. Unfortunately, this vocals sometimes come across as lo-fi, which ruins the enjoyment of G. Love's . But the instruments are perfect, and ever melody and harmony fits just right making a weirdly retro sound. It's good. Here's my favorite song off of the album, probably one of the catchiest, Kiss and Tell.

Next up is Electric Mile, released in 2001 on 550 Music (once part of Epic Records).

This album is really sort of bizarre. It's almost impossible to predict what sort of music or sound will pop up next. GLaSS play around in soul, funk, rock, folk, etc. In fact, you'd have a shorter list writing down what sort of sound they don't use. Here's a song called Free at Last. Weirdly enough the usual G. Love funk isn't here. And I miss it. I mean, it's still good, but not quite as good, y'know?

And thirdly, we have Lemonade.

This is G. Love at his truest. Released in 2006, this is the quintessential summer album, full of relaxed funk-filled melodies. I can't praise this album enough. Everything about it is great. The lyrics are smart, but don't revel in their own cleverness (Mraz- I'm looking at you and your smarmyness). Every song has the same general sound, but feels completely different from the last one. Here's Hot Cookin, one of the best on the album.



Overall:
Electric Mile, Coast to Coast Motel, and Lemonade are exceptionally different from each other, but only Lemonade provides a consistent sound. And that sound is sweet.

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