OKComputer1016
10/07/08, 08:56 AM
HR – Hey Wella
Record Label: DC Hardcore
Release Date: October 21, 2008
It’s a sad thing when a musical icon fades into obscurity and/or appears on P.O.D.’s Satellite, and HR has done both. Now the insane soaring vocals of Bad Brains are no more than a memory – i.e, it’s been about 20 years since this dude did something cool. Sure, the group put out an album in 2007, but the singer hardly even sounds like the same guy. All we’ve got from HR these days are his wishy-washy solo albums, and they just don’t do justice to the 80’s records at all.
The music on Hey Wella is generally interesting at the very least. You’ll find something to nod your head to here and there, except for on the limp “You Got a Girlfriend” which has absolutely nothing to offer. Particularly on this track, the vocals are just godawful – HR sounds like he’s working on a British accent for some reason, and obviously it doesn’t work out for him. The guitar limps along slowly and generically, and the song sounds like a parody of old Bad Brains. I’d call it one of the low points of HR’s career if I wasn’t so sure we won’t even remember that it ever happened.
The record sounds pretty phoned in, like maybe the Build a Nation sales didn’t do well enough last year. HR sounds older and more tired than he ever has before. Since he can’t throw his voice into higher registers anymore, he kind of just speak-sings his lines, a technique that’s most annoying on the title track. It’s a pretty lousy way to kick off an album – his nasal mumbling drawl is never engaging. As much as I hate to say it, the dude’s just past his prime. As a result, the outro “Hey Wella (Jazz)”, an instrumental (that has absolutely no trace of jazz in it), is probably my favorite minute and 6 seconds of this album.
Everything works out a lot better on tracks like "Yo Here We Go" where the music never deviates from the standard reggae path. Here, contextualized, HR's vocals sound pretty well at home. It seems pretty obvious that this is the music he wants to be making, but that he throws in the heavier songs to appease Bad Brains fans. We're not appeased.
HR stands for ‘human rights’ – Hey Wella stands for ‘lame album title’. This is not going to be anybody’s favorite release of 2008, and we’ll see if it even sticks around in our collective consciousness in a month. It sucks to be harsh regarding somebody I respect the shit out of, but this is definitely not an album that needed to happen. And that’s probably why absolutely nobody hyped it and the liner notes or one little slip of paper.
Don’t Believe Me?
www.myspace.com/hrofficial (http://www.myspace.com/hrofficial)
Recommended If You Like:
Bad Brains, HR’s other solo albums, "This is your brain on drugs" comercials
Record Label: DC Hardcore
Release Date: October 21, 2008
It’s a sad thing when a musical icon fades into obscurity and/or appears on P.O.D.’s Satellite, and HR has done both. Now the insane soaring vocals of Bad Brains are no more than a memory – i.e, it’s been about 20 years since this dude did something cool. Sure, the group put out an album in 2007, but the singer hardly even sounds like the same guy. All we’ve got from HR these days are his wishy-washy solo albums, and they just don’t do justice to the 80’s records at all.
The music on Hey Wella is generally interesting at the very least. You’ll find something to nod your head to here and there, except for on the limp “You Got a Girlfriend” which has absolutely nothing to offer. Particularly on this track, the vocals are just godawful – HR sounds like he’s working on a British accent for some reason, and obviously it doesn’t work out for him. The guitar limps along slowly and generically, and the song sounds like a parody of old Bad Brains. I’d call it one of the low points of HR’s career if I wasn’t so sure we won’t even remember that it ever happened.
The record sounds pretty phoned in, like maybe the Build a Nation sales didn’t do well enough last year. HR sounds older and more tired than he ever has before. Since he can’t throw his voice into higher registers anymore, he kind of just speak-sings his lines, a technique that’s most annoying on the title track. It’s a pretty lousy way to kick off an album – his nasal mumbling drawl is never engaging. As much as I hate to say it, the dude’s just past his prime. As a result, the outro “Hey Wella (Jazz)”, an instrumental (that has absolutely no trace of jazz in it), is probably my favorite minute and 6 seconds of this album.
Everything works out a lot better on tracks like "Yo Here We Go" where the music never deviates from the standard reggae path. Here, contextualized, HR's vocals sound pretty well at home. It seems pretty obvious that this is the music he wants to be making, but that he throws in the heavier songs to appease Bad Brains fans. We're not appeased.
HR stands for ‘human rights’ – Hey Wella stands for ‘lame album title’. This is not going to be anybody’s favorite release of 2008, and we’ll see if it even sticks around in our collective consciousness in a month. It sucks to be harsh regarding somebody I respect the shit out of, but this is definitely not an album that needed to happen. And that’s probably why absolutely nobody hyped it and the liner notes or one little slip of paper.
Don’t Believe Me?
www.myspace.com/hrofficial (http://www.myspace.com/hrofficial)
Recommended If You Like:
Bad Brains, HR’s other solo albums, "This is your brain on drugs" comercials