Album Details

• Artist: Buck 65
• Album: Secret House Against The World
• Label:
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: MusicCritic on 2011-02-18

"I look like a dandelion and feel like a wrecking ball." Buck 65 may not have been intentionally describing himself in his song 'Drunk Without Drinking,' but it's an apt assessment of the eastern Canadian musician. Unimposing and soft-spoken, Buck 65 (real name Richard Terfrey) is like the Clark Kent of the music world. Put on his new album Secret House Against the World, though, and he turns into superman. Blending hip-hop with the traditional talking blues, Buck 65 talks his way through stripped down, though sometimes spastic, beats, all the while in full control of his trademark wit.

Buck can do pretty much whatever he wants with a song. Lyrically, some of his songs are relatively straight narratives, while others seem more like word association games. Either way, things are always kept interesting by his off-kilter wit - his ability to talk in a straight line for thirty seconds, and then suddenly swerve in a different direction without the least bit of warning. All the while, what's going on sounds like hip-hop, but the album is littered with banjos and Neko Case shout outs. Whether Buck 65 doesn't know where he fits in or whether he just doesn't care, Secret House Against the World is an absolutely necessary, if sometimes challenging, listening experience.

Nathan Atnikov

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