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Review By:

Shamples

Review Date:

01/27/2003

Label:

Jive

Released:

01/21/2003

Rating: 4 out of 5 Planets

 


Groove Armada is back with another Electronica album.  Masters of that chilled out dance groove, this album makes attempts to place its stamp on other musical genres.  Tom Findlay and Andy Cato are a couple of 30 year olds just doing their own thing, playing with how far they can push musical boundaries.  Known for using technology to their advantage while still staying true to playing original instruments, ‘Lovebox’ is the duos fourth official studio release and they don’t disappoint again.

We are treated to a great crack at a variety of styles.  The opening track ‘Purple Haze’ just flat out rocks.  With Red Rat and the Nappy Roots on vocals, this one here rocks out to knock you out.  This along with ‘Madder’ brings that Rock genre to the forefront and just shows further how these guys do push their envelope.  With rapper M.A.D. bringing absolute strong vocals here, this along with ‘Purple Haze’ are two of the best tracks off the disc, properly showing how Groove Armada can rock when they want to.

Disco and Soul also find themselves in this mix.  ‘Easy’, featuring Sunshine Anderson’s soulful singing, brings a full-on Disco vibe. Jamiroquai fans out there will no doubt dig this track.  Stepping over to the Soul side, we got ‘Hands of Time’ with legend Richie Havens bringing that nice laid-back soul tip on vocals.  The more you listen to this song, the better it gets.  Neneh Cherry shows up to sing on a couple tracks and does a nice job with the piano driven ‘Think Twice’, which has a nice lull vibe to it.  She shares duties alongside rapper Kriminul, which tries to be smooth with ‘Groove is On’.

Of course a Groove Armada release wouldn’t be complete without some crazy house and dancehall rave tunes mixed in.  With ‘Final Shakedown’ and ‘Lovebox’, the boys transport us back to some old abandoned warehouse where we can all dance ‘til dawn.  ‘Final Shakedown’ has Red Rat again with more strong vocals, which gets everyone really up on their feet and moving.  The self titled track features a gospel choir supplying vocals over the rhythms. One word came to mind while listening to this track: Ultra-sleek.  Heck, they even close the set with such a crazy and happy song.  ‘But I Feel Good’ has a sort of zany and loony playfulness to it, with rapper M.A.D doing another great job with strong vocals.  The style here plays out to what I describe as Reggae-Ska.  Really a lot of fun to dance like an idiot to. 

It’s impressive to listen to a couple of guys putting their own unique Electronica spin on different genres.  This is, at the very least, an interesting listen with intelligent ideas.  Music for the spirit, this album registered a 3.9, which I suppose I’ll bump up to that clean cut 4 planets.   

Track Listing:
01. Purple Haze
02. Groove is On
03. Remember
04. Madder
05. Think Twice...
06. Final Shakedown
07. Hands of Time
08. Tuning In
09. Easy
10. Lovebox
11. But I Feel Good

Shamples Rating: 4 out of 5 Planets


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