Tag: music

audio review : a Chesky Records compilation : The Vocal Collection

audio review : a Chesky Records compilation : The Vocal Collection

This is a Chesky Records compilation. Each of its eleven songs, one of which should’ve been excluded because it barely includes Vocals, is from an album by an artist on the label. That makes this a sampler of sorts. About half of the songs are good, which is more than I can say for most albums, but the best has a patient LaVerne Butler Covering an old jazz standard. “I’m watching the sea,” she sings, “for the one I love must soon come back to me.”

my rating : 3 of 5

1994

audio review : Gnat ( song ) … Eminem

This song starts to sound good near the end when the music makes its second change for the better. “I’m still totally inappropriate with an opioid, groping it while I’m holding it like a trophy,” the former drug addict fantasizes to a mellow thumper soon enhanced by the addition of what sounds like a small horn ensemble. The whole song should sound like that, though it’s Eminem’s lazy hook that bugs me the most.

my rating : 3 of 5

2020

audio review : Music To Be Murdered By [ Side B ] ( album ) ... Eminem

audio review : Summertime ( song ) … Will Smith

It would be hard to go wrong over a sample of Kool And The Gang’s Summer Madness; a song that, in contrary to its title, could induce even the purest of grammarians to use “chill” as an adjective; in any case. Still The Fresh Prince deserves props for updating the scene from a general sense of summer to a hot day on the streets of urban America. “Girls out hunting and guys doing likewise,” he observes, “honking at the honey in front you with the light eyes.”

It’s “a groove that soothes and moves romance,” which for most of the college crowd is code for sex. Others are satisfied simply showing their fashion and beauty; “fresh from the barbershop, fly from the beauty salon”; playing basketball, eating barbeque or just partying and having fun. Will Smith and the gang; his background boys provide a fitting soundscape; cover it all, but it’s the girl singing; for her, it’s “time to sit back and unwind”; that keeps you hooked.

my rating : 4 of 5

1991