Customer Reviews

Play More Music

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

 

 

Consolidated is one of those groups that you will love or hate. They have a huge political agenda and throw it right in your face much like Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy or more recently System of a Down. The MAJOR difference is two-fold: First they love to piss off their fans. They expose their political views like a raw nerve and then let people who have bought tickets to their shows get up to the mike and either rant or rave. And Consolidated is happy to instigate arguments. You'll find a lot of that on this album. This is pretty interesting as it represents a wide swath of viewpoints from around the world. The second major difference is that the album is musically as diverse as the people they talk to. They have put together (with their own twist) a compilation of rock, rap, electronica, punk, and a plethora of sound bytes on the twenty-seven plus tracks within the album. While normally most critics would hound on a group for a lack of consistency, because of their strong political agenda and wit, the album is held together well and flows from one track to another seamlessly. Part of that is because of the "live" feeling of the album. Most major tracks have a live sound byte inserted between them leading you to the next song or finishing off the thoughts of the previous one. They are masters of mixing.

If you are a person that buys music for the sound and never listens to the lyrics then don't buy this album. You won't be able to get by its strong vocal personality. While the music holds a little something for everyone, (this album is much like a sound-track in some respects with many genres represented) you have accept (or bear to hear) alternative viewpoints in respects to religion, environment, politics, gays and lesbians, drugs, consumerism, capitalism and much more. They profess, for example on the "Hip O Crits" track (number 23) "...yeah, we are hypocrites: For the left." Generally speaking, folks from the blue states will LOVE this album and those from the red states will HATE it. For those of us in-between it's a hilarious harsh mix of bashing with a great beat that you can dance to. And that's another good point. They do have a great mix of comedy ranging from the Beastie Boys parody "Yeasty Girls" singing "You Suck", to track 18 "The Men's Movement" with great bytes from the old WWF "Summer Slam" woven into angry concert-goers comments.

When rating albums I consider originality first and lyrics and music second (but equally important). In the end this album gets five stars because of how unique and original it is more than anything else. While I like the sounds and the vibe you will be hard-pressed to find another album anything like this one. This may be the reason why it constantly finds its way to the front of the list of the thousands of albums I own. It's a real classic.

This is one of my favorite albums. Although the audience clips seem to annoy some of the reviewers, I found them interesting and at times, hilarious. It gives the ambience of "being there" without the feel of a live record.

The high points on this album are "Veggie Beat Manifesto," "The Men's Movement" (which juxtaposes chauvanism and professional wrestling), "Industry Corporate" (in which they take on their detractors and happily announce "We're not Fugazi!"), and the club-friendly female empowerment song, "You Suck" with the Yeastie Girls.

Like your industrial music with a side order of politics and tongue-in-cheek humor? This is definately the album for you.

This is an important album as it documents a segment of sample-based music that should take a space in music history alongside the politically and socially relevant compositions of Public Enemy and KRS-ONE. In the early 90s, when most so-called "alternative" and "punk" music had dozed off into an apolitical stupor, Consolidated was one of the most intriguing bands. They invited debate with live audiences and passed mics around -- probably the only real innovation in live rock in decades. Their political focus was well-documented. But most often overlooked by the squeamish white press was the fact that the instrumental aspect of Consolidated's music is accomplished and exhilarating. In their heyday, no one was indifferent to Consolidated. With the latest Bush administration, their early 90s music has, sadly, become equally relevant in 2002.

This is my second Consolidated CD, the first being "Friendly Fascism" (which I loved). I hadn't heard of these guys until maybe two months ago so what do I know. There are some good songs on this CD, "Praxis" is awesome, "Guerillas in the Mist" and "A Day on the Green" are great, but (for me) there is way to much audience banter on this CD. Half the tracks are short audio "snippets" of the audience which get in the way of the music. And some of the tracks really don't seem to be songs at all. "Veggie Beat Manifesto", "Gone Fishing", "Industry Corporate" and others just seem to present political viewpoints without much thought going to the music. So for me, this CD is a mixed bag. If they would have dropped some of the more extraneous stuff and just played more music like the title suggests, it would have come across much better. (Maybe they were being ironic with the title?)

Ah, Consolidated. Difficult to find a more ernest bunch of gigaPC "rappers." I agree with their message and enjoy their music, but history has left them hanging. I now find listening to their albums provokes some humor at their oh-so-serious attempt to make their audience do something other than buy CD's.

This album has too many tracks of the audience complaining to listen to straight through. It is a good evidence of the necessity of programmable CD players - or mix tapes. "Tool And Die" and "Infomodities '92" are fine industrial rap, but the real reason for this disk of shiny plastic is "You Suck." Technically, it's not even Consolidated - it's credited to "The Yeastie Girls." Never before has there been a better sex-positive song... Admittedly, a small segment of recorded music, but my hat is off to you. Bravo.

I just picked up this CD and I was completely blown away by it. I don't care much for hip hop, or rap music ( especially music by so-called white rappers ) But Consolidated is the exception. Their music and message is powerful. They take aim at cruelty to animals, anti abortion nonsense, the NRA, & racial issues. Play More Music is not just one of the best CD's of the 90's, but of any decade.

Great condition, it had been stolen & I'd been looking to replace it for years.

I wish I could do just a two word review and say, "Stupid Crap" and let that stand as all that should be needed to be told about this album.

The other day I found a song on youtube called "You Suck" and really wanted to track down where it came from because I thought it was hilarious.

I was expecting this to be a comedy album; but now, after one listen, I have thrown the CD up against the wall and stomped all over it. And realize the song wasn't meant to be a comedic song, it was political B.S.

This is nothing but a stupid album filled with 10 second audio clips of political speeches and debates, and a lame attempt to get kids to say no to drugs, get into politics and save the world.... you may as well think of this album as Captain Planet mixing up some hip hop songs which consist of a form of music that is usually somebody elses song's chopped up into beats and tid bits and scratchy sound effects while these guys rap over the top of it. However the Captain Planet theme had more impact on kids then anything on this album.

But what is worse, is how annoying the arrangement's are. just non stop political gibberish with the same beat repeating over and over and over and no chorus, no stand out lyric, no memorable parts... the songs kick off like they are going to be ok, but it just goes stale, not changing or mixing anything up.... and yeah, the annoying lyrics for what they are.

The only decent track on here is the "You Suck" song, featuring the Yeastie Girls, whoever they where. That track alone I give 4 to 5 stars to, but I see why it was not easy to track down, as no body in there right mind would play any other song off of this thing again.

And reviewers saying it was really inspirational? huh?????? no chorus, no catchy tune, just stolen beats with political crap over it? Might inspire a person to make a Frisbee out of the CD, or drive them insane, so I guess the inspiration was not positive related.

The other thing that made me cringe was the attempt to make the same song into more then one genre; most of the crap attempts on here at music is hip-hop, but they have tried to add some rock and alternative to, and to the reviewer who was praising them for expanding out into other sounds as creative and keeping people interested... i disagree, i see it as a lame attempt to try and get everyone's attention and ram there way of life down people's neck... and I for one am glad it failed.

I am not saying they did not send out positive messages, or have good intentions to help benefit people... but hey, I can tell you from my own experience, I do not do illegal drugs, or support them, due to an ex girlfriend of mine becoming a heroin addict and almost dying in my arms from it... I have seen it first hand, what effects these can have on loved ones, friends and family around the user... but I do not believe in trying to preach to kids staying off drugs and staying in school and all that stuff because when I think back to the times when people would come to our schools and give these lectures on things to stay away from, probably 5 out of every 10 kids listened and decided to stay off it. The rest eventually did it anyway... and they just figure they need to find out for themselves if it is so bad or not?... and you only truly learn these lessons in life by experiencing it, and I am not referring to experiencing drugs, i am talking about the consequences and outcomes that come from it, in a negative matter... and even then, some will just never learn, but hardly any of them listen anyway and go out and do stupid things, or know of someone close to them who does it, which makes it a choice you learn from in life, preaching it is a waste of time.

So let these guys preach all they want, try to ram it down everyone's neck, but they can sit around now wondering what went wrong from the fact that the major majority of people in this world do not want to hear this stuff.

To the normal person, this is about as appealing to them as politicians writing their own hiphop/rap songs and having them take over every radio station in the world... would you want to listen to the radio again?

So please, i can understand you complementing this album on it being different, and thought provoking, a little different from other artists, but even going in this direction, they couldn't even get a decent tune to ring out, this simply is just not music. It's preaching with a soundtrack behind it.

In High School, a fellow student gave me this CD in an attempt to convert me to his vegetarian/anti-establishment views. He swore it would blow me away.

I found it again recently and, sixteen years later, it bores me just as much as it did in 1992. As for the messages, it's a bunch of hamfisted preaching to the choir. Musically, it's passable but not astounding. If you believe their message, you'll probably gloss over the mediocrity of their performance and general hypocrisy (wonderfully illustrated in a song about their attempts to get MTV airplay while condemning the culture it illustrates).

Anyone else will lose interest quickly, although the rap for "You Suck" is hilarious, although not intentionally so. It's worth a listen and a laugh (a shame, really - cunnilingus is such a wonderful thing and THAT is the salute it received?).

There are better bands out there. There's a reason Consolidated never got very far - and, frankly, never will.

Sanctimonious as a concept does not begin to describe the sheere stupidity of this crap. "I'm white, so, implicitly, I'm guilty by virtue of my race for all the ills of society," they seem to be chanting with every lame rhyme and butchered metaphore. Stop making this crap you claim to be music and read a book you ignorate jerks!