MTV has once again attempted to make a quick buck and the result is a movie based on the moronic hijinks of two of their biggest cash cows - Beavis and Butt-head. In the process, they also have managed to crank out a below-average soundtrack to accompany the two idiots in their buffoonery.
The music of this disc is a mix of different artists from across the alterna-rock/heavy metal spectrum and a splash of rap. In an effort at increasing the music's breadth, Mike Judge - the album's producer - also threw in Engelbert Humperdink and Isaac Hayes. The quality of the album is definitely improved by the addition of these songs.
The vast majority of the songs are simply formulaic productions of the artists' usual work. There is no real unique quality in any of it. In most cases, the music is below par for the performers' usual quality. It's almost as if the songs that didn't make it past production for the group's most recent albums got dumped onto this disc.
This lack of quality is best epitomized in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Rollercoaster of Love." Obnoxious voices sing in the background while Anthony Kiedis croons incomprehensibly in the foreground. I listened while he rapped in the most obnoxious voice possible, something that sounded roughly like "Foamin' at the mouth cause I'm a double-dipper."
Isaac Hayes' "Two Cool Guys" is quite possibly the best song on this CD. His talent is shown as the '70s-esque music bellows and provides an excellent background for the movie's intro credit sequence. Engelbert Humperdink also shines with his rendition of "Lesbian Seagull" - singing it with a "Love Boat" theme tinge.
All in all, the disc is less than I had expected. Putting just a little bit more energy and wasting a little bit less noise would have doubled the album's value. Unfortunately, Beavis and Butt-head have to put up with a charisma-lacking soundtrack.
- Jack Schillaci
Beavis and Butt-head look at big hard wood.
Yeah, I guess some people like these guys. They've had a couple radio hits and all that, but one fact remains: they suck.
I don't think I've ever suffered through a record as much as I did with this one. I don't even think I got through the whole thing. Imagine the weakest attempt anyone's made at "alternative" music, mix in some sucky lyrics, some really boring songwriting and you have "Pet Your Friends."
"Counting Blue Cars," the song you've heard like 50 million times, is actually the most tolerable song on the disc. "Tell me all your thoughts on God / I'd really like to meet her" is indicative of the fluffy crap "Pet Your Friends" exudes in multitudes. Other songs like "Charlie Brown's Parents" attempt to rock, but "Pet Your Friends" is so overproduced, it sounds like a really bad pop album. The songs drag and just don't leave any impression on the listener at all.
Dishwalla is about as alternative and tolerable as straight vodka, which is what I'd have to drink a gallon of to enjoy "Pet Your Friends." If this is the future of popular music, oh, kill me now.
- Colin Bartos
Perfect. There is no better summary for Luther Vandross' newest LP, "Your Secret Love." And more importantly, there is no better apology Mr. Vandross can make for the disappointing '94 release of "Songs," an album of nothing but covers, many weakly sung, which best reflected the many other soulless "R&B groups" out today. It should never have come from one of the most original and innovative songsters to ever grace a stage.
Fortunately, Luther has realized that. Although "Your Secret Love" does feature a few covers, this time the songs are performed superbly.
Yet no one can overlook the Vandross's original songs on "You Secret Love." Vandross has brought the full "umph" of the old-school ballad into the '90s while simultaneously shaping his music to fit a '90s mold. The five-star example of this is "It's Hard for Me to Say." This is much less a love song than it is a song about love; it captures the feeling of love in all its many faces. Listening to this song, one can envision two lovers, a little boy with his puppy, a two-decades-long friendship, a parent and a child, Mother Theresa holding a leper, or just about any other act symbolizing love in its purity.
Of course, Mr. Vandross is one of the founding fathers of the ballad. And throughout this 12-cut album the ballad serves as a base. From "Too Proud to Beg" to "Whether or not the World Gets Better" (duet with Lisa Fischer) to"Crazy Love" to "Nobody to Love," Luther serves a heaping dish of old-school lovin' upon the "Your Secret Love" platter.
Luther Vandross has in every way imaginable brought the spirit of yesteryear's R&B superiority smack-dab into the heart of the '90s. This spirit should be infused into a number of other performers out there so that "Your Secret Love" will serve as an influence for a number of outstanding releases - and not just remain a sole speck of light in a sea of dreary R&B releases.
- Eugene Bowen
Luther Vandross