Customer Reviews

High Time

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With all the hoopla heaped upon their raucous debut, "Kick Out the Jams" (an essential purchase in itself), I'm baffled as to why this classic is so often merely referred to as being "their last album". In my opinion, it's easily the MC5's best, and indeed one of the greatest pure rock'n'roll albums of all time.
Firstly, some context: by this stage in their career (1971), the MC5 were on their last legs. Loathed by the West Coast hippies for being too loud and rambunctous, and equally derided by much of their radical, hardcore following for the supposed "sell-out" of their previous effort, the flawed-but-still-good "Back In the USA", the band was in no man's land. The revolution didn't happen, Nixon was still in, and what's worse, kids were starting to listen to Cat Stevens and James Taylor instead of the Rolling Stones, the Velvets or, yep, the MC5. Whadya do? Make the ultimate statement of disillusionment and despair and wrap it up in incindiary r'n'r riffs.
This disc is certainly a product of its time, yet it hasn't dated a bit in its call to arms for true believers. The given theme may be despair at the state of the world, but there's also an intense feeling of liberation in the cabalistic world - now that the band had little if any audience left - it inhabits. In other words, this one is for YOU.
The songs, in particular, are their strongest; "Baby Won't Ya" has a pile-driving riff brought to the fore with the twin guitar attack; "Miss X" is the kind of "power ballad" (for the lack of a better term) useless nudniks like Bon Jovi only wish they could pen; and the last 2 minutes of "Future/Now", with its creepy, quiet descending guitar notes, is some of the best and most effective music ever recorded to tape.
Let's make it plain and simple: if you're at all partial to the history of punk rock, hardcore, garage rock or even heavy metal in its pure form, you need this album. End of story.

I remember hearing Kick Out The Jams and seeing a few photos of these guys but never picked up any of their stuff until this album came out. After a few listens, the songs grew on me and I like every track. My personal favorite is Sister Anne.

After getting their first two albums, this one seems to be the most refined and mature which is usually what ruins a group's sound. In this case, it was just the opposite. I think they grew into one hell of a band and had such potential, ruined by excess, bad management, the usual stuff. Too bad.

If you want a great slice of rock history and hear how this band could really "kick out the jams," buy this album!

Highly recommended.

This record is rock. It is power. Its is energy, heavy, loud, everything a rock record should be. This is my favorite 5 record. Buy this if you wanna here loud, rockin' tunes from the early 70's. Gotta keep on movin folks, KICK OUT THE JAMS!

I bought this album on vinyl when it was brand new, and it sounds even more relevant and bold now than it did nearly 30 years ago. So much live stuff has been released in the last few years, that if you have not heard "High Time" it may shock you how tight and skilled these guys were in the studio. The production is a little murky in places (could have used some of the crispness of "Back in The USA") but the material is great (with the only exception being the last half of "Future/Now") with layer on layer of heavy guitar work. It's also sad, cause this was the end of the MC5. All that unfulfilled potential wasted by drugs and ego. This album should have been huge...

With the honourable exception of the Ig's Raw Power this is easily the best rock album of all time (I kid you not).Shamefully ignored by both fans and critics(though not by musicians)this album not only features drumming Kieth Moon would be proud of-and bonzo could only dream of-but some of the most ferocious guitar and powerful lyrics ever commited to plastic.Frankly it makes Zeppelin sound like ledden fingered bores.Buy this album it might just change you life-though not nessacerily for the better!

Forget everything you've been reading about the Stooges's seminal punk efforts & be serious...Get this cd,give it a listen with a a good stereo equipment .The result is one of the best records ever made,the band being at last perfectly engineered (thank you,Mr Haslam).The Five had almost everything:exceptional musicians,the best singer this side of Roger Daltrey(what he does on "over and over"is incredible),a collective songwriting genius,not to mention they sounded like a panzer division on any stage...
The reason why they didn't make it still remains a mystery today ,but this record is something like the Himalaya of Rock & Roll,few did better than the Five indeed!

The 5's last album (if you disregard the plethora of latter-day compilations and concert recordings), High Time leaves you wishing the band had stayed together instead of going out in a blaze of vinyl glory. This is a remarkable album by a remarkable band. What's even more remarkable is that "Over and Over" alone, is worth the price of the album; this is surely one of rock's masterpieces (and an all-but-forgotten one), a battle cry for a generation, in the vein of The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again. Yeah, it's that good.

This is one of the finest rock and roll albums ever made(The Beatles never made anything this good, and neither did the Stones for that matter). It's uncomprosing in both it's search for complicated and uncharted song writing frontiers and that raw "live" or improvisational, "free jazz"-as-applied-to-rock approach which made "Kick Out the Jams" one of the best records ever. You really need to put a helmet on before you crank your stereo to eleven and unleash this demon. Is this Chuck Berry or is this Sun Ra? it's both and niether. THIS ALBUM MADE ME WANT TO PLAY MUSIC.

This is a great album, one of the greatest straight ahead rock albums I've ever heard, and yet it's sad too, because it was the last album by the MC5, and it's their best one. The MC5 had been through a lot, starting off with John Sinclair and being part of the "revolutionary" movements of the 1960's. Despite this, their first album, Kick Out the Jams, is all rock and roll. By the time they hit this album, they were on their own. One last shot, as it were, and they knocked it out of the park. This is not only their greatest rock album, but it's also the most musically adventurous album the MC5 ever made. There are only 8 songs, but they are all extended ones. The opener, Sister Anne, is arguably the best song on the album. It's a great rock song, and it has a great guitar solo in the middle like an extended jam. Then it breaks into an equally long harmonica solo, which is fabulous. Then the song ends with a horn section! But yet, it all works. The next song, Gonna Get Ya, has a really tight twin guitar solo in the middle of it. The band really gelled on this album. It's a shame it hardly sold during its initial release, but it has amazing energy that still sends people today. Many of the MC5 are no longer with us (Fred "Sonic" Smith and Rob Tyner), but their music lives on. There are also great liner notes that are just as good as the album itself. I'll end this review with a quote from Rob Tyner...."think of a world where art is the only motivation".

Originally released in 1971, as this was the band's third and final proper/actual/legit/all new material ...call it what you like(not counting compilations)record.Not as earth-shattering as the 'Kick Out The Jams' lp,but still very decent. I felt 'High Time' gave most MC 5 fans what they had come for. Most of these cuts here have resurfaced upon numerous compilations and live archive CD's.Tracks that did it for me were "Sister Anne",the wailing "Miss X",the Rob Tyner penned "Future/Now" and "Skunk(Sonicly Speaking)". Good old school Detroit rock&roll.