Search - Victor Wooten :: Soul Circus

Okay CD, not great.

Clifford Lynn | Mayfield Village, OH United States | 05/29/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Yeah, I know only 3 stars? Well I have to admit that I was disappointed from the latest installment by the great Victor Wooten. It grooves at times and has some killer bass solos. It just doesn't move me. I listened to the cd 3 times and have little interest in listening to the cd again. So what's wrong? 1. from song to song there are familiar sounds of monstrosities from the 80's (especially the keyboards). 2. stating the obvious is not poetry 3. a show of hands is 10 times better 4. It just sounds-Cheesy

I still love Victor Wooten. He is one of the most amazing bass players alive and continues to baffle me in his live performances. This disc is for the hard core Wooten fan only."

Mixed Feelings

rio | Nashville, TN | 07/18/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I'm a huge VW fan. I bought this album the day it came out, and I had been awaiting it for months.



I think I would have given this album 5 stars if it wasn't for the vocals/lyrics. I'm an instrumental junkie overall, but I would tolerate (and even enjoy) lyrics if they matched the quality of the music. In this case, I don't think they come close.



The first theme (Victa) is a good example. 10 seconds into the funky riff and I was loving it, but then the vocals ruined it for me. Personally, I don't think he's a very good singer overall, but the lyrics in this one is what I found most distasteful. I thought (and I'm still in doubt), "is this guy this cocky, or am I just not getting it?".



As the album progresses, I keep finding it difficult to ignore the vocals (in which case I would have REALLY enjoyed it). Overall, I find them uninspiring, unnecesary, and full of mediocre rhymes. There's a few exceptions here and there, but for the most part I would have loved for this album to be mostly (if not completely) instrumental.



I'm not necessarily dissapointed at Victor, he's doing what he does and obviously having fun at it, which I applaud. I don't think of this in terms of 'better' or 'worse', but if you dig his pure instrumental work , then this may not be the CD for you.



I'm still as much of a VW fan as I was before buying this, though, and I will go see him live every chance I get. Looking forward for many more Flecktones' releases, and possibly (if rumors are true) an eventual VTT3!"

Keep the so so soul, gimme the bass!

Ear2hear | Florida,USA | 07/01/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"He is THE monster bass guitarist of the times but you would never get that by listening to this recording. This sounds like a fun time with the family in the recording studio but Victor's brilliant playing takes a back seat to mediocrity on this one. Almost ANY one song played by VW with the Flecktones buries most of his efforts here. If someone told me that this was a Bootsy Collins disc I could believe it, but a Victor Wooten offering? Actually, the Yang side of his Yin-Yang disc tended to go in the Soul Circus direction which surprised me back then too."