Tweet

Album Details

• Artist: Slightly Stoopid
• Album: Closer To The Sun
• Label: Lmusic
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: hstisgod on 2007-03-13

Though this review has been a long-time coming like most, its not in the same sense as those I promised but could never muster the metacritic definition. I guess it was late 2003 when I came across the appropriately titled "Everything You Need" that restored my faith, and confidence in Reggae Rock. To say this album was a top pick of '03 is an understatement. So you can imagine my anticipation of their 2005 release Closer To The Sun.

While Closer To The Sun doesn't have near as much punk flavor and diversity as its predecessor, its a moot point as this record still manages to imprint waves of melody and vocals in your brain from listen one.

The perfect example of this overall artistic harmony is of course the title track Closer To The Sun for its aggressive yet beautiful finger pickings. Quite honestly, the only fall back to this album is the over-abuse of fingerpicking. Truth is, you don't fault a band for not fixing something that isn't broken. Regardless of how many tracks begin with the acoustic melancholy of campfire bonding, this album is pure ecletic entertainment at its finest. I dare someone to someone doing a sound similar at this level of genre blending. Just like on previous records, Hip Hop goes hand in hand with their full sound of Reggae acoustic rock. Look no further than See It No Other Way for the evidence. Though the overall rhythm of the track seems recycled from almost every basic Reggae beat ever created, Slightly Stoopid add just a little of their own eery guitar lead, and percussion effort. Listen all the way through, as there's an unfitting little ditty beat towards the end proving just how unpredictably tactful these guys can keep a record going from one track to the next.

If you're new to Slightly Stoopid then the next minute twenty,Nothing Over Me might catch you off guard. Like I said earlier though, throwing the unmerciful punk track in between two melodic guitar blends is just protocol for these guys. Staying with that same shock treatment is Righteous Man, more proof that Slightly Stoopid is multi-faceted, always managing to pay homage to a simplistic but memorable balls to the wall type of punk.

After the meat of this 20 track disc concludes and the blandness begins to fade, high gear is evident once again. An ode to Led Zeppelin is not only obvious in the song title Zeplike, but also in the chord changes and full sounding variations of the 70's Classic rock legends. Without lyrics, this song is a great first listen for any potential Slightly Stoopid listener.

The closing track Open Road continues with the full acoustic 70's sound, straying from the reggae feel, focusing on a belonging mix of vocal and acoustic that eventually flows into a piano ending. But wait there's more...No more than a minute later, like you just lit your bic for a quick encore, this disc rounds out with one more upbeat acoustic forte useless to no one who just loves melody and synchronization of instrumentation.

Babylon is Falling is terrific blend of calming acoustic rock with just a taste of bridging distorted guitar virtuoso to get you from verse to verse. Track five, Bandalero is easily the most memorable track here, starting with a quick drum beat, and flow of string coordination. Echo faders, once again as on their last album, proves to be a fine friend of Slightly Stoopid. The vocals, and lyrics while are fairly elementary, this is no surprise, and most importantly not weakening to the track. It's more about the melody in which they are sung in the coordination with the sound.

I won't lie, this album gets a bit repetitive at times, as the majority of these tracks begin with that predictable contemporary Reggae guitar stroke. Even with most tracks falling well below five minutes long, simple fact of the matter is, if it isn't broke don't fix it. If you're looking for that mood setter, that CD that just brings a get together, well together... this album is worth every cent and more.

User Reviews and Comments

Log In or Register to Rate Albums