Search - Miles Davis :: You're Under Arrest

Reinvigoration through an infusion of modern pop standards.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 12/09/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Another album that's suffered unfairly in the face of critics in the lexicon of '80s Miles Davis, "You're Under Arrest" isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it's a whole lot better than most people give it credit for. Their biases are based on a distaste for pop music and Miles Davis' decision to cover a pair of contemporary pop songs. But I've always felt that digging below the melody you're hearing, "You're Under Arrest", while a bit uneven, has a lot of really fantastic material.



Let's not shy away from discussing the pop songs outright though-- Davis made the controversial decision to cover Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", two highly successful contemporary pop songs. What's curious is the universal distaste for this action-- in the '50s, Miles Davis established his reputation by, among other things, blowing covers of contemporary pop ballads. While he'd stopped doing that in the '70s, the criticism has always felt to me based on a musical snobbery (and this is coming from a self-professed music snob). Davis' chops were not what they used to be-- years of drug use and a several year layoff are not kind to brass musicians-- the instrument's demands to physical conditioning are high. But what Miles lacked in chops he never really lost in emotive quality, and nowhere is that more obvious then in his optimistic reading of "Human Nature" and his yearning on "Time After Time". In playing modern pop ballads, he seems to have rediscovered some of the fragile beauty in his playing he largely left behind with the advent of fusion.



Is it for everyone? Not really, I get that, but I'd think it'd be the choice of instrumentation rather than the selection of material that would be most difficult to digest. Then again, the dislike of electric instruments is another case of jazz snobbery, but I digress...



The point is, both pieces get great readings and are critical parts of the Davis lexicon. The balance of the originals on the album are a bit weak, there's a trending towards and electric reggae that, while it seems to get quite decent playing out of Davis ("Something's On Your Mind"), it's nothing that stops me in my tracks. It's this inconsistency that stops me from recommending the album highly-- it's inconsistent, with snippets of spoken word (opener "One Phone Call/Street Scene") and dodball interludes ("Katia Prelude"). None of it's awful, but it makes for an inconsistent record.



The bottom line is though, "You're Under Arrest" is a whole lot better than people give it credit for-- newcomers to late Miles should start with the excellent Tutu, but this is not necessarily a horrible second stop."

Come on man!!!!

Michael G. Hoelen | Pirmasens, Germany; Merritt Island, FL | 04/08/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It never ceases to amaze me on how fans of Miles Davis (few) claim to really enjoy this piece of garbage! Truthfully, I don't even know why this album in particular was reissued. The first track "One Phone Call/Street Scenes", the crappiest track on the album re-caps from when he was arrested by the police while driving his Ferrari. Sting makes an unnecessary appearance on the track posing as a French cop (gag). "Time After Time", and "Human Nature" are the only songs worth listening to out of the rest. I'm not so sure what a genius like Miles Davis was thinking when he put this one out, but this was a big let down. It does, however, feature some great musicians i.e. John Scofield, Darryl Jones, etc. If you're interested in 80's Miles, start with Tutu. The songs on Tutu were written by Marcus Miller and way better than this one."