FORTE's pain & passion poured into his lp b4 he left 4 jail.
"I hate rhyming!" - John Forte... He does... He only raps like 5 times on the 14 song album... but hey... I like it... It a cool album.. sure, it's not the kind of lp you bump in your ride.... but it has a respect for music...
Forte SINGS... and he does a good job with intelligent lyrics. There's passion and a soul behind that voice.. and of course...trouble.. Guests include: Herbie Hancock, Tricky, Esthero, Carly Simon, Dinah Washington, Jeni Fugita.. There are like 3 ROCK songs...the one with CARLY SIMON "Been There Done That" is more of a rock track.. it's an odd combination... Tricky and Carly Simon sing/rap a verse instead of a hook on their songs...
He talks about The Score... he talks about partying.. but the whole PRISON thing is only in the background... there aren't any blatent PRISON songs... you have to "hear" between the lines. "Fed time makes you hard" he sings on "Difference".
Still.. FORTE is a talented musician and decent singer. He's very much on that male Lauryn Hill vibe... There is a lot of acoustic guitar, pianos, keyboards...
"All The Pretty People" is actually a piano-driven ballad.. very slow and all sung with violins in the background..unusual for a rap record...well.. this is an unusual rap record.
It is an interesting listen... but extremely different from POLY SCI... If you played both of them to the same person, they may not realize that it is the same person. the best thing about this new john forte is that he actually makes the effort to try new things. its not like any other record out there right now. he's at least trying. too many artists out there just take the easy way out and make that radio friendly pablum to get to the top of the charts. trhis record sounds like he never even considered how the charts would react. he just came at it honestly. and it shows. thank god for efforts and experiments like this.
The best tracks are : "What A Difference" f/dinah washington
"Reunion" ,"Lady" , "Take Time, Slow Down" f/ herbie handcock,
I give it a 4 out of 5
― Todd, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Thanks, Todd. I am at least intrigued, if nothing else.
Polystylism seems to be spring 2002's big thing - cf. also The
Herbaliser, Télépopmusik, Cornershop ...
― Jeff W, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Is this the same John Forte who drew the Legion of Super-Heroes in
the '50s? My guess is that it isn't.
― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
one month passes...
There's a free street team and free player with trax off i John at
http://i-squad.com/transparentmusic/street_teams/JohnForte.html
You might want to check it out. This IS a good cd!!
Surprising. Not at all what I expected.
2 locks up ! :)
oo
― i John, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
six years pass...