Frenchy’s Fracas

General Description
Artist/Band: Platinum Pied Pipers
Album Title: Triple P
Year: 2005

Real Soul, real R&B
 
How I Got Into This Music
Another discovery through the folks at Last.fm. It was love at first sight.. ehm.. hearing? Well, you know..

Album info at Answers.com || Google Search: Other reviews of this album

Tracks that got my attention:
Shotgun Intro
Another track that triggers association with Kanye West, but doesn’t succeed to annoy me like mister West does..

Deep Inside
Great set of ingredients: Prince’s Controversy, a pinch of Zapp and a dash of Cameo

Stay With Me ft Tiombe Lockhart
That beat and those keyboards: nice! Miss Lockhart does an excellent job too on the vocals!

Fever ft. Neco Redd
Just the intro of this song gives me the shivers!! Then Neco Redd’s voice just gives you that all-time classic Rhythm And Blues feeling that wannebees like R.Kelly can ever achieve. Best song on the album, yep..

No Worries
Nice change of style: more of the latin vibe that’s been going around the US music scene these last coupla years. Works nicely

Now Or Never ft Saadiq, Tiombe Lockhart
It’s the guitar sample that makes this one stand out, again, a different style and very well produced

The Pee’s
Straight up rap production, I guess the wordplay is the reason why I like this song best

Detroit Winter ft Invincible
Straight up rap production again, the lady’s rap is strong

I Got You ft Tiombe Lockhart
Tiombe Lockhart, gotta check out this dame’s other work - there’s some Jill Scott vocals and attitude in her performance, love it!

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover ft Rogiers
This is the track I heard at last.fm that got my attention: a cover of one of Paul Simon’s classic tracks! Of course the bonus after this song is a sweet one: a way better remake of Lenny Kravitz’ Flowers For Zoe - icing on the cake!

Conclusion
Fantastic album, although most of the rap songs don’t work for me. I just love the way these producers set up their whole album: tight, colorful, Soul, subtle, fun and Rhythm And Blues. Great vocalists, nice variation in styles.

Rating: (adjusted)

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General Description
Artist/Band: Brian Wilson/The Beach Boys
Album Title: Pet Sounds
Year: 1966

Classic material
 
How I Got Into This Music
Well, like most people who didn’t really experience the sixties as a teenager, the only way to encounter music from this band is on Golden Oldies radio stations and Retro Specials on TV or even worse: the “Wipeout” remake single of the eighties with the Fat Boys (ouch!).
The weird thing was that about ten years ago I noticed that the professional (and possibly serious or credible) music journalists refer to this album as one of the best ever made in the history of Everything and such.. Quite a bit of high praise for some California surf music, but would their opinion be correct?
That’s something I always found interesting, so I planned to sit down and listen to the album some day.. Well, quite some days later, I finally did get to listen..

List of tracks of this albums that have been covered can be found at SecondHandSongs.com
Full album credits can be found at ArtistsDirect.com

Tracks that got my attention:

Wouldn’t It Be Nice
A typical Beach Boys track you’d get to hear on the radio. The only noticeable thing would be the choir harmony vocals.

You Still Believe in Me
Stronger quality, less bubble gum pop, but with quite a bit of bubble gum lyrics. Love the bombastic final with the little horn at the end..

Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
More of the California Dreaming stuff, but it’s getting to me, the right way! The strings at the end would be kinda of cliche nowadays, but you have to remember: in ‘66 this type of stuff was being done for the first time (not saying that this’d be the first track using the strings this way, but.. oh well, you catch my drift..)

I’m Waiting for the Day
Don’t know if I really get the lyrics, let me check them out at SeekLyrics.com.. Sounds a bit stalker-possessive-aggressive at the end..

Let’s Go Away for Awhile
Love the bombastic mellow thing in this instrumental track!

Sloop John B
The only way I can enjoy this track without violently kicking puppies would be if I was heavily (and probably terminally) sedated with morphine..

Here Today
First coupla times when I heard the intro, I thought that I’d heard the track earlier on because it’s so similar to the other stuff. But then the chorus sets up very differently and that part gives me goose bumps!!

I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times
Love the lyrics, it’s the teenage angst mixed with old man’s wisdom, weird and haunting. The way the vocals are mixed up also enhance the weirdness. Even though it’s not 100% my type of track, I sure as hell acknowledge the incredible skill of the composition and production, damn it’s fine!

Pet Sounds
I can not believe this track!! It’s funny how people like Beck and the Beastie Boys made their weird instrumentals and even though I knew it wasn’t anything new, it always sounded fresh and/or refreshing. Now with this title track, I kinda “discover” one of the possible sources of inspiration for those artists.. I really, really love this track!

Caroline No
Okay, so this could be categorised as a bit of the “typical” Beach Boys Sound.. But what I’ve kinda learned is that, besides the happy surfer thing, these guys are total “Sad Song Meisters”. This track, I just can’t ignore it..

Unreleased Backgrounds
From the 1996 edition with bonus tracks
This isn’t a real track, only.. the technical view of such a “bland” thing as Harmony vocals, makes this fifty second track one of the most impressive things I’ve ever heard.

Trombone Dixie
So the closing track’s the opening to “Sergeant Pepper” from the Beatles? Here, click this for an enjoyable read of likes and dislikes, opinions, debates and rants..

Conclusion
Impressive..
You can browse the web to find out what happened with the Beach Boys and their main man Brian Wilson, but I can say for myself that I kinda understand why this album’s been labeled a “Classic”, and it sure as hell deserves the title. All the blahblah about who’s better doesn’t impress me, what really impresses me is that I can hear something and some things that I know for sure have influenced an unbelievable large amount of artists.
Is this a quality album? For me, it doesn’t get full marks, but it does deserve High Praise: you know for sure that some of the sounds, vocals, instrumentation and production were probably done that way for the first time. So, the Greatest? Not quite. One of the Most Influential? Definitely!

Rating: (and a coupla surfboards)

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