Thursday, May 29, 2008

Review: Living Colour "Collideoscope"


Sometimes you take a chance on something in the ol' bargain bin and it exceeds all of your expectations. That could be said about this 2003 release from Living Colour called "Collideoscope"...it sucked far more than I ever expected.

After the failure of their third record, 1993's "Stain" the boys in Living Colour took a break. Unfortunately, they thought it would be a cool idea to reunite a decade later to put out a heavy, dark, and utterly unmelodic collection of noise. The production sounds like crap, the songs are not memorable, and even the guitar solos make no sense - like they are being played independently of the music. There's a horrendous cover of AC-DC's "Back in Black" that sounds like a bunch of drunk frat guys doing karaoke.

On the plus side, Living Colour stayed true to their roots in that their lyrics are smart and poignant, and they mix musical styles that run the gamut. But they left out the most critical element of all...the hooks they could crank out on their first two releases.

If you are going to check out any of the tracks, try "Song Without Sin" and "Holy Roller". Queensryche fans may want to check out the track "Operation: Mind Control." And check out "Back in Black" just for the laugh.

iPOD-worthy: sorry, nothing

Living Colour on MySpace.

1 comment: