Living Colour

Instrumentally, Living Colour tower. Add their happy disregard for genre limits, their
propensity for song arrangements of jazz complexity, and their fully developed social
conscience, and they dwarf most bands. On their fourth album, they're still growing.
Vernon Reid continues to reinvent heavy guitar by crossing Hendrix's electricity with the
harmonic sophistication of a be-bop saxophonist. "Hemp" and "This Little Pig" ma... More >

The best thing about this excellent record is how hard it crunches. From the antiliberal "Go Away" to the propansexual "Bi," the first four songs combine simplicity and smarts like no big-guitar music since vintage Aerosmith, and these smarts ain't stoopid. After that the songwriting dips some, although God knows they write about alienation as knowledgeably as any college-rock band. The weak link is Corey Glover, who still sings too well for his own good (cf. Jack Bruce). The fresh blood is Doug Wimbish, who still plays great (also cf. Jack Bruce). (Grade: A-)