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 I love this band! I love this album! Jan 16, 2009
If there was ever a band so unique, it's this one and it's not because they are African American! It's because of all of the styles of music fused within their songs. I know so many people have said so many great things about their music already but I listened to this album the other day and I was really moved by songs like Open Letter and These Memories can't wait and then the other day I saw a WWE add with Stone Cold Steve Austin using cult of personality. Their music is very relevant for today just as it was when I was a kid so I'd say most of it is timeless and can only be dated by the production style on certain tracks but that really can be said of anything. For me, their musicianship is head and shoulders above the bands of today and they balance that with creative songwriting and strong vocals. As far as their social or political ideas, they express themselves in a creative and intelligent way that you don't hear in today's music. They provoke true thought from the listener or maybe that's just me. I pray some day we will have more musicians that will pick up the torch that they have left behind. I truly love this band! If you think they are overrated or you don't like the style, that's your opinion but based on the meaning of the songs and the bands intent, you can not deny the integrity of the music on this album! It's powerful stuff!
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Heavily overrated Mar 18, 2008
Living Color weren't a bad band - well, they weren't exactly a good band either, but their real problem was that no band could support the weight of expectation that was dumped on them. They were supposed to be funky, rocky, metallic, sexy, full of attitude and yet also saying something really intelligent about the condition of being black in America. Nobody could live up to all that, and sure enough, they didn't. Unfortunately, less intelligent white bands (such as Guns & Roses, on their first album) made better music, simply because they didn't have to represent as much ephemeral politico-musical hee-haw as Living Color were being asked to.
It doesn't help that Vernon Reid is not nearly so exciting or even interesting a guitarist as his many supporters seem to think, and that Corey Glover is a one-dimensional and joyless singer with a boring line in lyric-writing. Apart from the edgy and genuinely menacing 'Middle Man' this album sounds like Van Halen with the fun taken out, and when you take the fun out of Van Halen there isn't a lot left.
They made another album which lacks even more lustre. It's a mystery to me why Living Color got so much hype based on so little achievement, while the truly great, majestic, inspirational and hellacious black rock band of the 1980s - Bad Brains - was allowed to languish in indie hell for the whole decade.
What can you say....ROCK & ROLL!!! Feb 23, 2008
Living Colour came storming onto the scene playing heavy hitting rock and roll with a dash of funk. Vernon Reid can outright melt the strings off of a guitar. I bet he drove his guitar techs crazy trying to keep his axes in tune during concerts. In short, this is a classic recording of a non-typical band that can belt out powerful music that makes it impossible to sit still.
4 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Birthing black consciousness through funk and rock Nov 11, 2005
Living Colour may very well be the defining band from my youth. Growing up in vanilla suburbia, this was a band that charted songs that made an impact in my school's music scene. "Glamour Boys" was the single that made it to my high school and the bass player from a band I was in covered it. That led me and others to pick up the album. "Vivid" is one of the most successful fusions of rock with political consciousness in history, and may be the best poltically conscious album by a black or post '70s band. All the musicians are virtuosos, the songwriting is strong, and rock fans see a cathartic band at work.
Looking back, there are a few things that strike me as revealing about *how* Living Colour approached making rock music from a politically black consciousness.
Living Colour embraced sampling. "Cult of Personality"'s use of samples is a creative device that hammers home the message of the song. It begins with a sample of Malcolm X and uses soundbites from Kennedy and FDR. The restricted use of samples is something that hurts Living Colour on their recent comeback work, much like De La Soul was hampered creatively after sampling was greatly restricted.
Secondly, Living Colour was not afraid to include to make some bridges to black america in their work. In a lot of ways, they came towards Public Enemy from the opposite direction. "Funny Vibe" includes a brief cameo from Chuck D and Flavor Flav or Public Enemy. Why did Public Enemy collaborate with Anthrax instead of Living Colour? Ego? Artistic differences? Desire to crossover and broaden markets? Don't know why, but I think it's a tragedy for both groups.
Lastly, many people forget how Living Colour could have been a killer funk band if they had wanted to. This is more explicit on tracks like "Elvis is Dead" on the next album, "Time's Up", but it's present on "Vivid" with tracks like "Funny Vibe" and "What's your Favorite Colour?"
Living Colour was an outstanding band that set the table for me to really examine my history and develop a far more culturally grounded agenda as a musician and an intellectual. I owe them big time for the way they went about their music. I hope more people will discover their music through their currently active reunion work.
5+ stars
--SD
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Saw them play last night - still amazing Sep 14, 2005
I literally wore out this cassette and have nearly worn out the CD. Every musician in this band is phenomenal and their particular mix of soul and hard rock was really a breakthrough when they came out and hasn't been done as well by anyone else. These guys had bottles thrown at them when opening for the Stones in arenas and not because they were playing too loud - who says mainstream music can't be radical?
They shredded El Corazon in Seattle last night - what a great show. So glad they are back :)
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