Astonishing, horrifying, and great!
ShemaYisrael | Toronto, ON Canada | 09/04/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am reviewing one song, "Angel Dust," which, being over 22 minutes long, has sufficient scope to take you on a musical journey from heaven into hell. Probably no one alive could communicate overdosing on a ghetto drug with the same depth of personal experience and musical genius. It's a jazz-funk elegy, in the middle of which he breaks into a skat "Eleanor Rigby" (!?) that just works perfectly. The skat turns ultimately into intermittent screaming and delirious mumbling that you might wish would end, only because it is all too real. I once watched helplessly as a living groundhog was literally ripped apart by dogs--"Angel Dust" is like that. The soul of Gil Scott-Heron is ripped apart by his personal demons, live on stage, while you listen. It is perhaps one of the pinnacles of contemporary music in any genre, but, like all pinnacles, not for the faint-hearted. The rest of the album ranges from OK to really good, but the rest of the album, along with the rest of most albums, is simply immaterial in comparison."
MY GOD--GET THIS!!!!
Mr. Philip Licis | prov, ri,usa | 03/31/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"this disc jusst blows me AWAY!!!! its worth it if only for ANGEL DUST...hey has anybody noticed that putting the concept of that song aside, that it ends up sounding like dave mathews band at their live best??? hmmmmm...."