SOULIVE — Break Out (review)

Album · 2005 · Funk Jazz

3/5 · 2012-06-11
darkshade

A good Soulive album. Nowhere near their best, but there is some strong material here. The beats are groovy, guitars and keys are top notch, of course. Unfortunately, the band has allowed a lot of guests on the album, many of them collaborated with the band, and thus, they provided vocals for these songs. While some of them are not bad vocals, they're not anything special either, and some of the vocals are terrible. With that, the albums goes from funk-jazz, to soul, to R&B, to hip-hop. A little all over the place.

The album also has 3 Interlude tracks, maybe to give the album a cohesive feel, which I never thought they had a problem with on previous albums anyway, but they're each a minute long on average, so they almost feel like filler tracks.

The great:

After the first Interlude track, the album starts out pretty good, as "Reverb" is a nice slice of funky soul-jazz.

"Cachacha" is a more Spanish flavored instrumental track with the traditional Soulive sound, kind of a rare mood to find in this band's music. Not bad, though a little smooth at times. The title track is also a great tune. Mysterious in it's funky glory, but also melodic. Maybe the best song on the album.

Pretty good cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic". Nice fuzzed out, wah'ed out guitar from Eric Krasno, in tribute to Jimi, I'm sure. Krasno does not try to sound like him, though, and plays more in his own style, but with those effects I mentioned. It's cool to hear him in this way, as he usually does not rely on any effects.

The good:

The the first of the vocal tracks, "Got Soul" kind of reminds me of The Meters, which ain't bad. The music just doesn't seem memorable, with or without the vocals.

"Take It Easy" starts out so promising, and is not a bad track, but the vocals are just kind of there. This would be better without the vocals, as it's some good mid-tempo funk. "Vapor" is another mid-tempo tune, with some nice Scofield-esque guitar work and trumpet solo, but just another OK song.

The not-so-good:

Chaka Khan makes an appearance on "Back Again", well, I just do not like these vocals. Mixed with the type of music being played, it's too R&B for me. "She's Hooked" is ruined by the awful vocals. I feel bad because the beat is tight here, and there's some nice clavinet. The guitar melody is a little annoying though. "What Can You Do" is even worse. These vocals are just so bad and whiny.

Everything else is just very unmemorable.

All in all, a very up and down album for me. While the good tracks are good, they aren't the best tunes that the band have released; before or since this album. And unfortunately, most of the vocal tracks bring this album down considerably.

This is more for fans of Soulive, as there IS good stuff here, and the good outweighs the bad, but I would not recommend this for the casual fan or newbie. Too many tracks I feel like skipping. 2 1/2 stars really, but I'll bump it up to 3 for the good songs, and because the band themselves are tight.