Week Thirteen Review ............Rise Up .....Cypress Hill

[gryphon]

This week's album is our first rap album.

There is no link ....it is played from the band's home page on my space which is :

http://www.myspace.com/cypresshill

from which you can play the tracks l


Go to the page

scroll down about a third and a window apears with the tracks

Happy reviewing!

[gryphon]

[FONT=&quot]Rise Up [/FONT]…………………………[FONT=&quot]..Cypress Hill[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
Track One It Ain’t Nothing Energetic and echo laden start to the first track …..difficult to make out any real lyrics here, so I guess we must go on our gut feeling and mine is one of confusion.
Track Two Light It Up Rap over a soul background
Track Three Rise Up Nice guitar work in the back ground , Heavy metal rap maybe ? Lyrics tended to flow past me ………..something about revolution in the city?
Track Four Get It Anyway ..I liked the backing here, it was pleasant and catchy.
Track Five..Pass The Dutch At track five , we have something that I can associate with …some sort of melody and we are passing the Joint on the left hand side. Didn’t need to really my mind was still mangled from track one……
Track Six Bang Bang…….Street culture lyrics with a repetitive beat!
Track Seven K.U.S.H. Great backing track…………………………………
Track Eight Get Em Up Again it’s a good backing riff with a cow boy feel.
Track Nine Carry Me Away Liked the intro from this ,and with a less dark lyric, we could have had a winner here.
Track Ten Trouble Seeker Energy ridden track which made me dizzy to listen to it. (%^&&???)
Track Eleven Take My Pain Again I’m into the backing track more than the lyrics
Track Twelve I Unlimited I like prawns so I enjoyed the start! This track has something in common with the early forms of Ska from Jamaca…..I enjoyed this one!
Track Thirteen Armed And Dangerous Interesting idea for an intro…..again it’s the backing that draws my ear. I was toe tapping at times and that’s good going for me.
Track Fourteen Shut ‘Em Down Nice instrumentals …….we are against something here and we are going to try to shut it down but it’s not too clear as to what …..it seems like social comment on the business world ………
Track Fifteen Armada Lintina Strange title! I was keen to learn more …so, its Latin rap….hey this sounded good to me ………..The backing made me feel bright and happy so it was thumbs up from me!
Track Sixteen Illusions Indian instrumentation…………………novel …….this was nice…..
Track Seventeen Dr Greenthumb Nice riff from The Good The Bad and The Ugly …….
Track Eighteen Hits From The Bong Again, an intriguing title………..Nice sample in the background ..from Son Of A Preacher Man ( Dusty Springfield)
Track Nineteen Busted In The Hood ….Again Reggae rap…..I enjoyed listening ……cute story!
Track Twenty Rock Superstar We are at the last track……an insight into being a rock star ?

To be honest I found this hard going. Rap is an art form an in many ways is the music of today and what’s happening on the streets but………… to take a line from Bob Dylan “ This ain’t my cup of meat “ But…………………. there were times when I was entertained!cared::clap22:

[Music Head]

1) It Ain't Nothin' - 1.5 - not terrible
2) Light It Up - 1.5 - ah, Four Tops ripoff to start it out
3) Rise Up - 2.0 - rock n rap, and pretty good. run dmc and rage
4) Get It Anyway - 2.0 - actually like the synth. coulda left that la la la la la out
5) Pass The Dutch - 1.0 - didn't know it mattered which way you passed it. just don't bogart it
6) Bang Bang - 1.0 - was that cheech? was that the chipmunks?
7) K.U.S.H. - 2.0 - cool! it was. and chong too. K.U.S.H. - Afgan/Pakistan strain of the herb. love all the shoutouts to celeb dope smokers.
8) Get 'Em Up - 1.0 - no comment
9) Carry Me Away - 2.0 - pretty good story of growin' up in the hood. nice Linkin' Park
10) Trouble Seeker - 1.5 - some System Of A Down
11) Take My Pain - 1.5 - House of Pain
12) I Unlimited - 1.0 - bam bam bam bam, jump jump jump jump. all you need to know. but I did like the strings
13) Armed And Dangerous - 2.0 - really like that background melody
14) Shut 'Em Down - 1.5 - from get 'em up to shut 'em down and back to rage
15) Armada Latina - 2.0 - now that was a treat. CSNY made that one. sometimes samples are so well done
16) Illusions - 1.0 - sitar and xylophone.......hmmmmm. I think they were having illusions
17) Dr, Greenthumb - 2.0 - another marijauna anthem. after the 1 minute waste at the start, not bad
18) Hits From The Bong - 1.5 - damn, what's that music from. I hate that. that'll be with me all friggin' day now. maybe gryphon knows
19) Busted In The Hood - 2.0 - some reggae influence never hurts
20) (Rock) Superstar - 2.0 - can't help feeling that's a sample too, but once again, can't place it. wait, is that zeppelin?

Not a big rap fan, although not a hater. This is much better than a lot. Pretty much dwelling on the getting high subject, but that's cool. With an overall rating of 1.6, it fails the buy mark by a measly .1, but that don't mean it wouldn't grow on me.

[Music Head]

aha, Son Of A Preacher Man

thanks gryphon

any idea on that last one?

[gryphon]

I think its Led Zeppelin 4 When The Levee Breaks ???

[gryphon]

Sending this back to the top

[gryphon]

Anyone else going to write areview ?:redface:

[CMB1888]

I will!

First Track - disappointing start - just bravado - nothing interesting.
Second track - they’re still street apparently .
Third track - much better start! Amazing how a bit of guitar makes such a difference - lyrically they need us to know how great they are (again) and that they’re not a fan of the police - quite like this track.
Fourth track - musically meh but I thought the lyrics were a bit more engaging and revealing.
Fifth track - who would have thought they were so concerned with etiquette? I prefer the Musical Youth version.
Sixth Track - I have a particular dislike for rap records with ‘skits’ so not a good start again. They seem to be continually amazed they’re still making music - and at this point I’m starting to agree. Getting desperate for something interesting to listen to.
Seventh Track - sigh.
Eight Track - I wonder if they realise how kitsch this actually is but the faster pace makes this a bit more bearable, at least it’s got a bit more energy.
Ninth Track - with that guy out of Linkin Park, I see - well now - melody and vulnerability - much better.
Tenth Track - sometimes disjoined works and I get what they’re doing but I think the execution just doesn’t completely work and this ends up just sounding a bit out of tune
Eleventh Track - I like the lyrics better on this, just some more interesting rhymes (those expecting a ‘Jump Around’ vibe will be disappointed) - leaking into sentimentality though.
Twelfth Track - This is much better - bit of funk - and is that Kriss Kross!! I like this.
Thirteenth Track - poor Jay-Z impersonation.
Fourteenth Track - anti-government ranting with a driving quitar - one of the better tracks I suppose.
Fifteenth Track - very catchy latin melody - don’t really care what they’re saying, it sounds like summer!

Overall I’m disappointed because I thought they’d be a lot better than this because of their reputation but it was pretty interesting to listen to it and I‘m glad I did. I do like some rap but this was a little bit standard for me.

[Music Head]

thanks for participating

[Drealm]

I did not knew that the reviews were back...I was sure Gryphon was gone and this review thing was dead so I did not came back for a while.

So, they finally came back and used one of my suggestions, thanks. So now, I had time to listen to this album a lot so I can give a good review.

Please everyone note that I'm a big fan of Cypress Hill, I have all their past albums and enjoyed every single one of them; a great band for me, and this album was the longest gap ever between 2 albums: 6 years; so I was waiting this one for sure.

So, I prepared myself with some beer and weed and hit the play button. It's fun when it begins well: you hope that this will continue all the way until the end of the album, but a lot of times there are some deceptions among the album at first listen that finally grow on you later. Not this time. I was blown away. I can honestly say that I was "raised up" by the album! Every song was good! So this first listen was a complete satisfaction. I could not resist to re-listen to some songs after the album ended. (normally I keep further listens to tomorrow)

So Cypress Hill continue to be of high quality. I can resume this album by one word: fun! I really feel that the title of this album reflect his content: Rise Up! After my initial trip, the album just grew on me more and more and now I'm at my peak listening period: I totally enjoy it! I can say it's really good knowing bands we love and that each albums makes us happy; damn I love music so much some times. Viva Cypress Hill!

I read your reviews everyone and of course, one listen and not really knowing this band and/or enjoying rap ended up with what you all said more or less negative/positive. So I can only feel sorry for you that you will never enjoy this release. But feel free to be sorry for me not enjoying some Beatles! (because I don't like The Beatles and everyone else seems to really enjoy it)

WARNING: The album contains 15 tracks. The tracks from 16 to 20 that Gryphon and Music Head reviewed are from older albums. They were probably there before they introduced the 15 new songs from the album.