Customer Reviews

African Space Craft

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great album. Keziah Jones is totally funky and jazzy and groovy. Not just run of the mill but with his own style and thoughtful messages in his lyrics to go along with his absolutely amazing musical abilities. I gave this album four stars only because his first album "Bluefunk" (which Amazon doesn't list for some reason) is better.

All the songs on African Space Craft are done in Jones' very own style, he can do things with his guitar nobody would think of. The title is full of energy and funky power. A good tip if your a fan of crossovers of Blues, Jazz and Funk.

You obviously didn't get this album, nor should I say this tale of re-discovery, re-alignment, and this mature tale of visual perception. Sound pretensions, but it would to you. This album has a lot of deep meaning, similar to Mechanical Animal,(if you know what I mean). If you don't, you shouldn't be listening to this great album.

I loved Keziah's first album. It was corker for a debut. Tracks such as "Rhythmn is love", "Invisible Ladder" and "Pleasure is Kisses Within" were fantastic because Keziah manage to blend rock and funk in such a human, uplifting way.

But upon hearing his second album, "African Space Craft" I was somewhat disappointed. Where were the beautiful melodies found on his first album? Sure, this album is pure funk rock meets the blues, but I wanted my beautiful melodies and carefully crafted pop structures.

African Space Craft is more rythmn oriented than the first album (which is not a bad thing when he gets pumping). But Keziah's melodic range is narrower and less distinctive, hinting at a greater push towards accentuating the rythmn than defining singalong melodies.

There are some fast funkin' tracks such as "Colourful World" and "Prodigal Funk", and "Speech" manages to surprise with it's unusual song structure and beautiful chorus guitar riff (that riff makes me want to sail away into the distance!!!).

But in the end I couldn't help but miss my beautiful melodic pop songs where the song structures were more diverse, yet potentially more mainstream. I also found that some of his singing was a bit cheesy. It certainly didin't help when he had children singing in the background at the end of the second last song (it reminded me too much of that annoying Pink Floyd song).

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