They've got the recipe
Philly born and bred, G. Love (Garret Dutton) and Special Sauce pour out all their emotion and talent into an enticing amalgam of hip-hop, blues, folk, and funk. The band's talent shines forth the brightest on this cd, their third effort. Here's a brief overview of the tracks: 1. Stepping Stones - 5 stars - The hook "you keep using me just like a stepping stone" will be stuck in your head for weeks.
2. I-76 - 4 1/2 stars - This one is a funky tune about hoops, particularly G's team, the 76ers.
3. Lay Down the Law - 5 stars - The surprisingly simple and beautiful prelude to the bulk of this track is exquisite.
4. Slipped Away - 2 1/2 stars - A dark tune about someone deceased in G's family, possibly his mother. Too dreary for me, doesn't fit well with the rest of the tracks on here.
5. You Shall See - 3 stars - Nothing really special on this one, just an average track.
6. Take You There - 5 stars - Awesome, laid-back summer tune with a sweet cowbell.
7. Willow Tree - 5 stars - Another great song for lounging in the sun, good stuff.
8. Yeah, It's That Easy - 4 stars - Nice piano backed up by G's sweet rhymes.
9. Recipe - 5 stars - Very funky and soulful, great track
10. 200 Years - 3 stars - A little bit dull, not bad though.
11. Making Amends - 3 1/2 stars - Fun and upbeat number.
12. Pull the Wool - 10 stars - Absolutely amazing. This song is one of the most beautiful tracks I've ever heard. 9 minutes and 26 seconds of sheer bliss.
13. When We Meet Again - 4 stars - G's standard acoustic, folky last number.
Funky/Cool Fusion of Jazz, Rap,
G Love & Special Sauce are at their most playful and most sentimental on this disc. "Yeah it's That Easy" offers a broader range of song themes than the self-titled previous album. Take "I-76" a blast of song about gettin' to the 76ers game...you can imagine yourself with him and his boys on the way to the game. "Lay Down the Law" employs soul-felt gospel style singing, though it's not a gospel song. "When We Meet Again" is for anyone who misses old friends...G Love will reminisce with you. "Slipped Away" (the ballad) is kind of a downer for me, but doesn't keep me from appreciating the whole disc.
G Love artfully blends all sorts of modern styles to deliver his own brand of uptempo music. It's not rock, it's not rap, it's not jazz, it's just good damn music! I think he's in a class all his own. We need more artists like him to keep the scene fresh, upbeat, and accessible.
If you're looking for something new and don't know what to buy, buy this!
Listen, we all know that reviews are nothing more than personal opinions, so let me cut right to the chase. I love this album. If I were stranded on the proverbial desert island, this is without a doubt one I'd want with me. It's a great album from beginning to end. It's great for: the car, parties, housework, just relaxing, you get the point. I'm a huge fan of G. and I dig all of his albums, but if I had to pick just one this would be it. Oh yeah... drummers don't get much funkier than the Houseman...
Rock...Love, Loss,
The lazy blues and rap/rock& roll that G. Love sells is really smooth and relaxed. Never has he collected a better collection than this one here. In other albums, some tracks would rock and others would be soft, and the rest of them would be kinda groovy, well this one is almost all groove. The lone exception being 'Pull the Wool' which is a ballad, but allowed because it's a good message, it just happens to be too repetitive. My theory as to why this is such a consistent record is that the majority of the songs for this album were written by the members of the band while they were broken up and in other bands. So they channel all of the groovy feeling of all the bands combined on this CD. The other bands even guest on the album giving them a bigger sound. If it's the groove you're looking for, you won't be disappointed.
I picked this up after a friend told me I should get it since I thought that Philadolphonic was a bit disapointing(with the exception of Numbers, which is a great song). Figuring I wasn't getting anything "special" I plopped down the money and bought the CD. Low and behold, it is now one of the most charished CDs I own.
The first thing I love about this CD is the vibe! The whole CD reflects a very relaxed and laid back band. While the music isn't quite as tight as some bands because of this, the sloppy blues, groove, hip-hop all works so well together. Another thing that helps that is melody and harmony. The band's ability to play of each other shows up in every song. The background vocals excentuate Garret's deep, low voice. The end result are songs with more soul than most pop-soul acts these days. The drums keep the pace moving. The harmonica adds a nice touch to the band's laid back blues sound. The up-right bass is also just right.
Everthing about this album just feels so right. I never though any band could create a CD that actually discribes my attitude in life, G. Love and Special Sauce have managed to do it. The slackn' grooves are just what need when I need something to sit back and relax to(sorry but it's hard to do that to the new Sevendust album). If I have one complaint about this CD is that it drags in some places. Pull the Wool could have been 3 minutes shorter and still have the same effect. Otherwise this is the perfect CD to grab cooler full of some good beverages and kick the feet up and feel the music. Great stuff.
Love & Special Sauce released their debut album in 1994, the same year Beck made his major-label debut with a similar blend of folk-blues roots and slacker-rap. Though he has never quite matched Beck's aesthetic or commercial success, Love continues to tinker with the formula in interesting ways and has come up with his best album yet in 1997's Yeah, It's That Easy. Like Beck, Love is at his best when he allows pop pleasures to shine through the montage of archival roots and hip-hop experiments. This album, for example, kicks off with "Stepping Stone," which, for all its blues motifs and street-wise beats, is at its best when it reaches its irresistible, sing-along chorus.
Yeah, It's That Easy is an unusual hip-hop album in that it includes a powerful pro-police, anti-gangster number, but it also takes time to make fun of Larry Bird. The latter insult comes on "I-76," a funny, funky number about Love's boyhood hoops team, the Philadelphia 76ers. Less persuasive are the mumbling, monotonous rap numbers such as the title track, but when Love pulls together hip-hop beats, blues guitar licks, and pop hooks, as he does on "Lay Down the Law," an elegy for a street-life victim, he finally lives up to all the great claims made for him at his debut. --Geoffrey Himes
Includes One Bonus Track: 'cookin with G Love'.