The Many Faces of Oliver Hart

Eyedea | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 10, 2001)
• Original Release Date: October 10, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhymesayers
• ASIN: B00008UQT2
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,911 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Many Faces Of Oliver Hart

2. Weird Side

3. Song About A Song

4. How Much Do You Pay?

5. On A Clear Day

6. Walking

7. Step By Step

8. Prelude To Coaches

9. Coaches feat. Carnage

10. Bottle Dreams

11. Soundtrack Of A Romance

12. Just A Reminder

13. Infared Roses

14. My Day At The Brain Factory

15. Ode To The Wall

16. Here For You

17. Motormouth's Anonymous

18. Forget Me feat. Slug

19. How Eye One The Write Too Think

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars With every album, Eyedea is realizing his potential., March 8, 2004

By 

jesse luke (Salt Lake City, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Many Faces of Oliver Hart (Audio CD)

The best song on the CD is "Bottle dreams", a poetic, vivid and depressing masterpeice. I know you might think that's a bull$hit, that an underground rapper could make a "masterpeice", but it's not an exageration, this song is a masterpeice. The song is about a 10 year old girl, a prodigy violinist, who in desperation writes God, asking It to help her, and putting her written prayers in bottles throws them into a river. The song builds up beautifully to a horrific, yet gentle end. This song is a perfect display of Eyedeas poetic abillity and of his potential as a great rapper. One thing Eyedea lacked on his first album, and perhaps this one in some places as well, is making songs that are pleasing to the uninterested ear. Eyedea shows with Bottle Dreams that he has grown in that respect, as well as others. The melody on this track is great, and I hope in the future he does more singing/rapping. "Here for you" is my second fav. track on the album. Eyedea rapps his best style, in my opinion, at the begining of the second verse. A mellow, soft and smooth voice that glides over the beat. He should do more of that, I think. "Weird side" was weird, in that I have never heard an Eyedea track that I thought could be a single on the radio. This song is fresh as hell and is very easy to listen to. Ill track! "How much do you pay?" is dope too! I like Eyedea's style when he raps agressivly, as he does on the hook of this song. "Step by Step" is a great track. The only flaw is it is a one verse story, and would have benifited with a hook and a format. "Forget me" feat. slug is ill too. I don't get why Slug, it seems, is always mentioned when the subject of dope underground rappers comes up before Eyedea's. On this track, atleast, it's clear that Eyedea is on another level than Slug. But I guess that's arguable. "Soundtrack of a romance" is a great song with a not so great hook. Well, the hook is good, it just doesn't seem to fit the melody of the song. "Ode to the Wall" is an ill ass beat, I don't know why Eyedea didn't rap over it, it seems like such a waste. "How EYE ONE the WRITE TOO Think" is ill too. There are very few times on the CD where EYEDEA seems to be lacking in lyrics. The problem Eyedea faces is trying to get people to listen to them. Most of the beats on the Album really aren't that good, with the exception of "Bottle Dreams" "Step by step" "Wierd Side" "Here for you" and perhaps a few others. "A song about a song" is creative and great lyrically but there is a lot of dissonance between the 'beat' and the words. Same with "Motormouth's Anonymous" "Infared Roses" and others. Great Lyrics, but not that easy to listen to. Over all this is a awesome CD, and I highly recomend it to anybody who appreciates great lyrics. Just be sure not to judge too quickly, Eydea is different, but increadably gifted. I love the names of the songs too, very creative.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love DJ Abilities, but who needs him..., August 30, 2004

By 

Alan Pounds "Minnesota Hip-Hop Fiend" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Many Faces of Oliver Hart (Audio CD)

It should be pointed out that Eyedea (Oliver Hart) had written, produced, arranged, mixed, and engineered this whole album on his own, aside from a track or two (not to mention this album is 73 minutes long).

Eyedea would have been 20 years old at this point. Every project that Eyedea takes part in makes me respect him even more. There is just talent and potential oozing out of this B-Boy. There is not a bad track in the bunch. This album takes you on a unique ride in hip-hop, spewing philosophy lessons in nearly every song.

It seems that Eyedea wants to stand out from pretty much every recording artist out there; and after hearing this album, and E&A's two albums: First Born, and E&A (2003), he has succeeded with flying colors.

The title "The May Faces of Oliver Hart" is self explanatory. Each track is very different. Mixing several different kinds of music and styles. The second track "Weird Side" introduces the album quite nicely. The track after that, "Song about a song" is also very unique. There are plenty of standout tracks on this album; "How Much Do You Pay?," "Walking," "Prelude To Coaches," "Coaches feat. Carnage," "Forget Me feat. Slug"...the list goes on and on.

I watched the MTV video awards 2004 last night. They were probably the worst MTV VMAs I've ever seen (I say that every year). All the nominees for rap and hip-hop were just absolutely horrible. For best rap video, you have: 50 cent ft. Snoop Dogg & G-Unit, D12 & Eminem, Jay-Z, Lil Jon & The Eastside Boys, and Ludacris with Jay-Z winning for 99 problems. For best hip-hop video, it was Black Eyed Peas, Chingy, Nelly, Outkast and Kanye West, with Outkast winning for "Hey Ya", Outkast is great, but "Hay Ya" is a way overplayed radio and MTV song. I was just shaking my head in embarrassment, for all the morons who think MTV knows good music. It's too bad that more people couldn't be exposed to quality hip-hop groups such as Eyedea & Abilities, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Anticon, The Roots...etc.

Eyedea is the illest, freshest, most sick MC on the planet. MTV needs to take a step back and recognize what real music is. Get out there and get this album, and the other Eyedea & Abiilities albums if you want to experience a REAL journey in hip-hop.

One more thing, Clear Channel Blows!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars - Eyedea in top freestyling and abstract form, April 18, 2006

By 

7th Angl (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Many Faces of Oliver Hart (Audio CD)

The Many Faces of... is a spectacular album that rarely buckles under the weight of its own creativity. Eyedea is in fine form here as he displays his pananche for freestyling that is carefully balanced with heavier content-laden tracks. He is satirical without being too wishy-washy or disenchanted (luckily this album was recorded pre-war on Iraq), and is quite introspective. Eyedea craftily segues each track, so that the varied themes conjoin nicely. "message in a bottle" is truly a heartbreaking, albeit poetic, song and "here for you" is equally moving. I can't pick a favourite song among these brilliant tracks, but "walking" really hits home for me as Mr. Oliver Hart ponders his restless nature: "...its like my soul holds a song that eternity has left undone.." and "Im eager to unplug my speakers, let my heart be my teacher". In my opinion, The Many Faces Of... is indeed one of the finest releases from Rhymesayers Entertainment.