Album Results
Album Reviews
Smooth New York jazz rappers Fun Lovin' Criminals have quietly built their popularity stateside and particularly in Europe over the last six years by wrapping their tales of the Big Apple's underbelly with sweet grooves and live instrumentation akin to Cake, the Roots, and Luscious Jackson. The smoothness of their grooves and underground culture has always been just a stone's throw away from lounge-lizard heaven. With Mimosa, the band gives in to their Velveeta-smooth cheese urges and delivers a quirky collection of far-out covers and retoolings of their own songs.
It's an interesting collection, and works best when they stick to their own material. Reworked originals like "Scooby Snacks" and the excellent "I Can't Get With That" have a great, easy, witty feel not terribly far from the original recordings. Some tracks, like "The Summer Wind," with the surprising guest Ian McCullough, showcase the band's strong live performances. Others are just plain whacked out, like the ultra-wimpy '70s weepers "I'm Not In Love" and "Shining Star" (not the Earth, Wind & Fire song, another one). It seems like they might have taken a miscue from Cake, whose 1996 cover of "I Will Survive" is both hilarious but true to the spunk of the original. These covers lack the irony or campiness needed to make it interesting. ~ Theresa E. LaVeck, All Music Guide
Track Listing
more| Featured Review | |
|
I Hate This Part The Pussycat Dolls |
| Strange as it may sound, the incredibly ambitious plans to establish the Pussycat Dolls as one of Today's biggest artists, reflected even in the title of their second album "Doll Domination", have been a bit crushed by lack of public interest. It wasn't a good omen when lead singer Nicole Scherzinger's planned solo effort had to be postponed, after none of its leaked tracks generated much enthusiasm; nor the tepid reception the record's lead track "When I grow up" earned. Now the former burlesque dancing troupe promptly strikes again with one of their rather unusual ventures into ballad territory, displaying Scherzinger's vocal capabilities in full. "I hate this part" tells the story of an ending relationship, right when Nicole hits the glossy press announcing the beginning of a high-profile one with Lewis Hamilton. This is arguably better than any of the four hits they had after reaching a career peak with their debut; but, as it happened before with other instantly successful girl bands -The Spice Girls "Wannabe" is a good example- the power of "Don't Cha" may prove to be quite hard to match. ©2008 Shazam Entertainment Limited. All rights reserved. | |
 more
|
|
