Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Living Colour
Label: MegaForce Records
Release: 2017
Length: 48:31
Rating: 4.5/5
In the world of rock’n’roll, Living Colour are absolute oddballs. This is a band kneaded from a thoroughly eclectic dough. Their fusion is a byword for artistic, expressive insight, where elements of blues, hip-hop, metal, funk, punk, jazz, pop and world music have always lived side by side in perfect dialogue, which makes Living Colour a one-of-a-kind musical phenomenon. In the post-millennium era, albums have come slowly for them, and after »Collide-O-Scope« (2003) and »The Chair in the Doorway« (2009), which they also presented in Ljubljana that same autumn (making it their third visit to Slovenia, after 1994 and 2001), »Shade« finally lands on the scene after eight feverish years of waiting.
Even the cover feels very familiar, like something you saw long ago. Yep. It recalls the cover of the debut. In fact, that’s already a pretty good clue to where this new huge jam by the four-headed musical powerhouse is taking us, a quartet brimming with virtuoso brilliance and expressive insight, made up of Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Doug Wimbish and William E. Calhoun. The opening stretch of the album doesn’t yet hint that Living Colour have, for the first time in ages, taken a serious look back at the roots of their sound, but then come the songs Come On, especially Program (with a superb hip hop spot from Houston rap icon Mr. Scarface) and a little later Pattern Time and Who’s That, and it’s as if the guys are bursting with surplus testosterone again, because »Shade« turns out to be a distinctly hard, noisy and in places even punky record (especially the song Glass Teeth – »afro metal punk«)! When it comes to noisy fury, Living Colour make no compromises this time. The guitar phrases are pushed to the front again, they grab your attention, and the tracks sound more compact than you’d expect from the band’s famous experimentalism. In terms of rhythmic kinetics, tied to the metallized guitar phrases, Living Colour flex their muscles once more as some of the most brilliant fusionists of metal and funk ever to walk this planet.
For this album, Living Colour called in Andre Betts to help shape the sound. Those who know the band will instantly link that name to their third studio album »Stain« (1993). In a way, Living Colour are returning with the new album to their wildest days, so picking Betts was a pretty logical move. The opening Freedom of Expression (F.O.X.) already signals that this album is going to be especially hard. This is a song that really captures the point of the metal funk collision. Vernon’s riff comes crawling out of the dark depths of the blues, no doubt about it, and its fury is underlined by the vocal expression of the unbelievably piercing Corey Glover, who at times screams as if he wanted everyone around him to go deaf. Throughout the album Corey is vocally incredibly wired and foaming at the mouth. The following Preachin’ Blues is a proper heavy metal blues. That is, the Robert Johnson original in metal garb. A brilliant combination. A thoroughly black song, certainly one of the darkest on the album. The dedication to the late king of hip hop Notorius B.I.G. is also remarkably successful, when Living Colour take on the original of his Who Shot Ya? And turn it into a wonderfully lucid number that of course sounds like yet another standard Living Colour original, which indirectly shows the band’s eternal affinity for working hip hop inserts into their sound. Always Wrong, an excellent song that, with its musical appeal, belongs on radio playlists, is the moment on the album that eases the heavy pain, tension, aggression, anger, all those emotions of rage that the new Living Colour album stresses. Yet through all of it, Living Colour keep up an exceptional dose of sarcasm and an incredibly sharp sense of humor, mocking both themselves and the reality around them. In terms of passion, emotion and energy, the new album really works like a throwback to the first three albums of Living Colour’s career.
The whole album is dressed from head to toe in a pile of brilliant finesse, in the way the musicians place decorative ornaments within the compositions. All these (seemingly small) tricks of rich, juicy seasoning, take your breath away again. Add to that all the jazzy whispering, for which Vernon is above all responsible in his famous solo spots. In insight, shocking originality and expressive individuality, Living Colour remain, even with »Shade«, unique masters of their craft, with no equal.
The album took an extremely long time to make, its release was postponed several times, the guys were never happy with the sound, and over the course of that long process the songs were thoroughly polished and are, in that respect, tremendously refined. As a result, Living Colour never reached this kind of compactness in their songs, either on »Collide-O-Scope« (2003) or on »The Chair in the Doorway« (2009).
Living Colour – Program (official audio):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88uc5fzh__0
Line-up
Corey Glover – vocals
Vernon Reid – guitar
Doug Wimbish – bass guitar
Will Calhoun – drums, percussion
Production
Andre Betts
Track list
1. Freedom of Expression (F.O.X.) (2:54)
2. Preachin’ Blues (4:20)
3. Come On (3:22)
4. Program (4:43)
5. Who Shot Ya? (3:38)
6. Always Wrong (4:04)
7. Blak Out (2:29)(
8. Pattern in Time (2:56)
9. Who’s That (4:10)
10. Glass Teeth (2:59)
11. Invisible (3:45)
12. Inner City Blues (4:00)
13. Two Sides (5:12)
