Chino brings his usual quality vocals
585164
A review from the perspective of a Chino fan:  If you are a fan of Chino's vocals, you will enjoy this.  The musical accompaniment is a bit different from Deftones or Team Sleep, but trust in Chino's talent.
1398735
If you're familiar with the internal machinations of these seminal musicians, you'll know the band's history chock full of good ole' rock-and-roll dramaturgy. There were some who were against this album being made, so I hope they enjoy the taste of freshly eaten crow.  Vista Chino has now eclipsed their former works with a more mature and thoughtful approach to the craft of song writing the listener cannot deny. This is American Rock and Roll at its finest.
4300019
Big Bill Broonzy was another of the great blues singers.  This album well illustrates his talent and his art.  Cuts were recorded between 1936 and 1951.

A few songs to exemplify his work:

"House Rent Stomp" is an instrumental.  He flashes nice guitar work (acoustic).  The work moves along smoothly.

"John Henry": Yes, he is covering the old traditional song that we all know so well.  It's just Big Bill, his guitar, and the music.  And a great blues voice.  He provides the listener with a wonderful blues sensibility in his rendering of this song.

"Big Bill Blues": A standard blues song about "losin' [his] baby."  This was recorded in 1936 and features some nicely done piano work to support his vocals and guitar work.  He is in good voice indeed.  Some basic lines:

"I got up this mornin'
Feelin' so blue.
I lost my baby
Now tell me what I'm going to do.
I'm so lonesome.
These blues keep doggin' me."

This CD is a prime indicator of why Broonzy is held in such high esteem by fans of the blues.
4799012
He is a wonderful singer.  Very easy to listen to.  He has been a favorite of mine for years.  His version of "Desperado" is a good as the Eagles' which is saying a lot.
2637098
Ethnicity is a wonderful album. Yanni has used a lot of human voice in the songs of this album, and this makes it a unique production and a nice change of style in Yanni's music.
78352
Duarte uses a more controlled and varied rhythm than you will find in many salsa and timba albums.  The touch of reggaeton comes in using the genre's beat and melodies with a salsa band instrumentation in a few of the tracks, most notably in "El Chino Chulo" and "Olvida La Pena".  Not only that but he injects his singing with rapping similar to reggaeton stars Daddy Yankee and Don Omar.  While bridging salsa and timba with reggaeton is now commonplace nowhere is the fusion so complete that it feels not like two sepparate genres coming together, but only one genre.

He also adds a little guaguanco on one track.  And there are some straight up Timba tracks as well like the title track.  If the price seems a bit high here in Amazon, shop elsewhere.  If you must have some modern tropical dance music or if you love that reggaeton-salsa combination get this now.

The only downside is that he recorded all of the tracks around six minutes and a couple feel a bit longer than they should have been.  Most of the tracks fill the six minutes well, but a couple drag longer than they needed.
4048836
This 2-CD set is awesome.  It's comparable to his recent 'Perfecto Presents Another World' but is a lot more devoted to his non-commercialized style.  The vocals are great and the mixing is seamless and smooth.  The song 'Leama - Melodica' alone is worth paying the price of this import.  You will not regret buying this set.
1719697
Clear voice, yes it's in Italian, so if you want to know the lyrics and don't know Italian, you're stuck. But if you listen to the sound of Matteo's voice, you will be pleasantly surprised. The music fits very well with older melodic progressive music, sometimes bordering on the eerie. You can get a good feel for this album by searching for a few of the songs on youtube.
2948533
Michael (see other reviews) is right about this one. The sound is actually pretty OK and the performances fresh and energized.
1773937
These 16 tracks were recorded in two all night sessions at the Music City Recording
Studio in 73 and 74. Darondo comes on like a grittier version of Al Green and cooks
up a range of rhythm and blues styles, from JBs influenced funk in "Get up off your
butt" to ballads with a grief-strucken falsetto in songs like "Didn't I" or "Listen
to my song".

Comparisons to Al Green is both easy and unfair to make. His voice, the phrasing and
the music has similarities. Like Green he shifts from a moaning tenor to a high falsetto
in the same song. His falsetto isn't always supersmooth. Sometimes it sounds as it's
going to dissolve, but his voice had a certain swagger about it and the emotions run
deep.

A lot of these songs are basically demos, and I'm going to skip some of them whenever
I play the album, but the songs that work, like "Didn't I", "Luscious Lady", "Get up
off your butt", "The Wolf", "Listen to my song" and "I'm lonely", work to wonderful
effect. At first I thought the arrangements were a bit thin, but a lot of them are flat
out gorgeous, with violin swells, short and sweet flute parts, harmonica, organ, horns
and Darondo's guitar work; a fingerpicking, funky strumming.

Dorondo's cult reputation have been based on only a few songs. "Listen to my song"
should give him a much bigger audience and some well deserved recognition. When he
was asked about these recordings, Dorondo answered "This is the root. You got the root!"
120986
This was a welcome memento of a tenor who was a mainstay in spinto roles during the 1990s, when he appeared at San Francisco Opera singing many of the arias on this album. Though he never achieved superstar status, he was in some ways something better -- a tenor who had the volume, vocal quality and high notes for roles that were often assigned to singers who didn't reliably have those attributes (especially in a huge house like SFO), yet whose appearance in town didn't trigger box office madness. I listen to this album often and remember happy hours hearing Margison as Calaf, Pinkerton, Gustavo and others.
3472065
Iv'e been a loyal wu-tang fan ever since i had their promotional "protect ya neck/m.e.t.h.o.d. man" single and autograph promo stickers in early '92'. So i can be honest without sugar coating anything. For me "the pretty toney Album" is the lowest point in ghost's career, and a lot of reviewers aren't consistant with their ratings or don't know how to rate correctly, because how gonna give this album 5 stars when he made a classic LP named "iron man", obviously they can't both be 5 star albums, right? people givin' it 4 stars i'll let them have that, but don't give it 5 stars, that's just plain retarted. Everyone is allowed one bad LP, i can't think of any mc who hasn't had a bad album.

(lyrically) I wasn't feelin' this album because ghost didn't come off lyrically like he did on "ironman" he seems to be showin' his age in most of the tracks. what happened to that guy who used to spit long-ass tongue twisting jibberish, i miss that guy. so for the majority of the album, COMPARED to his early works he is humble with his lyrics, still better than alot of rappers out now, but don't go in with the USUAL ghost expectations, also i found it too much on the mushy side wit tracks about girls and relationships, i hate mellow ghost i like when ghost is rippin' mc's apart  ("iron man") or spittin social comentary ("supreme clientele".)

(production) this album was too damn motown infused. i love when people rhyme over a motown track, i find it kinda decent, but this album is to heavy with the oldies samplin' that it dulls down the originality factor in the same album. Unkown producers aren't a bad thing, because all my great producers (rza, large prof., premo and pete rock) were unknowns too, but it's not the same when u don't have your usuals workin with you. Rza is almost absent , the only real song he did was "run" that other joint is really just a tease. where's mathemactics, 4th deciple or trumaster? i hope Def Jam isn't involved because i heard they scrapped rza's production on meth's album tical:prequel too. the highlights of this album beat and lyrics wise are: "biscuits" (trife is nice) "beat the clock" "metal lungies" and "run" (i'm glad they cut that wack-ass third verse) other than that, this attempt falls to the bottom of ghost-dini's collection.
1498451
This album follows the same pattern of the earlier two albums; but has more edge to it. BSO covers the popular Louis Prima song, "Jump, Jive and Wail" used in the Gap commercial. There is a perky rendition of "Rock This Town" and some other popular tunes which are used in concert, including "This Old House" and "As Long As I'm singing" (usually used to close down the joint). Brian's has written a good number of the songs with a nice mixin of older standards. You'll want to add this one to your BSO collection!
4233097
He is a strong, boss tenor with class and style. Not a great  innovator, but good music. His choice of songs on this album is good.
3680465
The Foreign Exchange is not just the collaborated efforts of Phonte and Nicolay, but their ability to bring together a host of talents.  Phonte does not rap on every track (in fact he only raps on 10) but he certainly is responsible for the album as a whole, taking on executive producer role, finding the talent and having 9th Wonder mix down some of the beats.

I always have trouble in trying to describe the production of Nocolay.  Many of his beats sound like they use elements of The Nutcracker Suit or Pete and The Wolf (I'm not sure that helps a lot of people out).  They are smooth, well laid out tracks, yet far from any other hip-hop production I've herd.

The beat for Title Theme gives you a pretty good feel for the kind of production that is going to follow in the rest of the album.

Vons Sees is a track featuring a short rhyme by, well Von Pea and unfortunately is forgettable.  The real album starts on Raw Life when Phote finally drops over a head nodding beat.  Joe Scudda also contributes the second verse and comes off pretty well.  But, a distorted Phonte comes back on the track to rip it up ("I speak with no prejudice/ You thought kissing ass was in my blood type, O Negative").

Hustle, Hustle is another well produced track, the chorus with some infectious jazzy horns.  This track features Critically Acclaimed, Phote only can be herd in the background of the chorus.  The group holds there own, but the beat hear steals the show.

Let's Move is a Little Brother union of Big Pooh and Phonte, as well as the following track Nic's Groove, which not surprisingly enough is one of the better tracks.  The two mesh perfectly together over Nicolay's beats just as well as they do over 9th Wonder's.

Be Alright and Sincere are both tracks featuring Phonte and some soul crooners.  Brave New World is a solid track where Phonte really shines just relating to the daily struggles in his life and out society.  The Answer returns the album to a more hip-hop feel with Oddiisse and Ken Star helping out Phonte.  Come around is an entirely sung by Darien Brockington (who sounds faintly reminiscent of Sisqo).

Happiness, Big Pooh and Phonte join up again, which works pretty well excluding a weak chorus.  End Theme is completely sung by Yahzarah.  All That You Are is a solid track featuring Phonte and Median.  The album then closes with a couple of Remixes which are nice, but don't add anything exceptional to the album.

One thing that is clear throughout the album: both Phonte and Big Pooh have improved which is scary.  They put everything into whatever piece they are trying to create.

This is a solid album, very creative and different.  It also stays away from your typical hip-hop music.  While there is enough on here to satisfy most, some might be disappointed in the lack on straight up rap or even a lack of Phonte in general.  Chances are if you're a Little Brother fan, this will defiantly be something you enjoy.  If your just getting into them or want an impulse buy, I wouldn't recommend this.  As a rap album it might not be what you're looking for, but as a creative piece of music it's defiantly high quality.
96906
while these guys aren't the most innovative emo band to hit the scene, you still can't deny the catchiness of their songs and the broad vocal range, and conviction that singer chris lawrence (who, btw, does stay in key..) brings to them, particularly w/ the falsetto vocal lines in 'afraid to say this' which are also backed by honest eloquent lyrics. Plus for all you zolof fans (i'm not a fan in particular, but, i think i'm the minority)there's a duet between the lovely rachel minton and chris lawrence which is pretty amazing. If you're an avid emocore fan, this album won't disappoint.
1376177
Pablo Cruise was based in California. In 1978 they scored a major hit with this tune. I like the lead singer's clear voice that can reach high notes without effort. The back-up harmonies are smooth and silky. The guitar work is excellent. I always loved that song. The MP3 sound is ok, better than I had expected.