Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's a "Living" thing., February 14, 2006
Officially the best collection of Living Colour. There's no doubt that their debut "Vivid" was their best album, but they still put out decent stuff afterwards also. I always thought of them as much more than just a band of black guys, just like I think L7 was more than a band of women. They dished-out catchy rock with great lyrics. This starts with the better half of "Vivid", giving us the huge hit "Cult Of Personality", as well as minor hits "Glamour Boys" and "Open Letter (to a landlord)". We also get a chunk of the 1990 album "Time's Up". Those selections are fine with me. Throw in a few covers from the likes of Talking Heads and Hendrix, and a couple recent cuts, and we have a nice and lengthy "Best Of". However, if I really had to make one point, it would be to get the remastered "Vivid" first. That is solid front-to-back, and this is missing some excellent songs from that album.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What's Your Favorite Colour?, December 29, 2008
For a brief, explosive moment, Living Colour looked like they were going to save rock and roll. Their shining five-star debut, Vivid, mixed hard-rock, fusion, jazz, hip-hop and funk into dynamic rock. By the end of 1989, they were rock media darlings, had won a Grammy, were personally picked by Mick Jagger to open for the Stones, and had smashed the white-rocker stranglehold on the top ten.
This best of captures much of why Living Colour were looked at as potential saviors. The anthemic "Cult of Personality" featured Vernon Reid's fiery guitar leads and the body-glove clad singer Cory Glover, shattering the racial rock stereotypes via a stunning video. That album fearlessly took on rock and funk, complete with fierce blasts at profiling ("Funny Vibe") and inner-city life ("Open Letter to a Landlord"). "Elvis is Dead," they snarled on the second Living Colour album, and they were ready to snatch the crown back.
However, each album was more complicated and darker than its predecessor, and by the time the sample happy Stain arrived, the band that had promoted shattering stereotypes was falling apart. Living Colour still had fire to spare (just listen to the 9/11 heartbreaker, "Flying"), but the folks that had propelled them onto the stages of the first Lollapalooza tour had drifted off to Nirvana. The band called it a day after "Stain" then did a one-off reunion CD in 2003.
It's a shame that Living Colour is often viewed as a one-hit band, because their influence is still reverberating. They could rock out both Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Talking Heads songs (all here), and still hold the rock identity. Even with the diminishing returns of the progressive LC discography, the band's earnestness and in-your-face mission is in full view on "Everything is Possible." They dive-bombed a wall that everyone from Lenny Kravitz to Rage Against the Machine charged through after, and left a legacy (the Black Rock Coalition essentially started with Living Colour) behind them.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vernon Reid is the greatest, January 9, 2007
All the best Living Colour songs on one CD. Great buy for any fan of the band. CULT OF PERSONALITY!
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