Customer Reviews

Shake Me Up

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

 

 

The last CD from Little Feat with Craig Fuller on lead vocals. The band jokingly refers to this CD as their "stealth album". While a solid collection of classic Little Feat originals, the band's label at the time, Morgan Creek, was struggling, and subsequently got out of the music business. The band occasionally plays songs from this CD at live shows, especially "Spiders Blues" and the title cut.

My main exposure to Little Feat was Waiting For Columbus -- perhaps the greatest live rock album of all time. Time Loves a Hero is another great feat. LF are definitely musician's musicians. For some strange reason, I never came across Shake Me Up earlier in my life, but a few years ago I stumbled across it in a used-record-and-tape store. Anything by LF had to be worth trying, and I was right--this work is fantastic.

Tired of the old used tape, I purchased the CD here off Amazon. In one word, this album is "versatile."

Spider's Blues - Fun story song in typical LF style.
Shake Me Up - Straighforward rock and roll.
Things Happen - An introspective tune. It's all gonna work out!
Mojo Haiku - Gripping rock funk - "in your face" ... quite dynamic w/ a great drum line.
Loved and Lied To - Catchy love-gone-wrong song w/ great slide guitar.
Don't Try So Hard - Well placed in order - ties to previous track. concept. Great vocal syntax & musical dynamics.
Boom Box Car - Another fun LF story song - Somewhat simplistic musically, but fun.
Fast and Furious - A straighforward driving rock number.
Livin' On Dreams - Musically intricate: Lots of 2/4 measures slipped in creating catchy hooks. One of my favs.
Clownin' - Fun, upbeat, and engaging, makes you wanna dance.
Down In Flames - an absolutely beautiful composition with intricate harmonies and lyrics. A golden river of music.

This is one of my favorite albums of all time. If you like true musicianship with riffs and lyrics that catch and hold you, you will love this CD.

Whereas this recording is not one the same level as Let It Roll or Representing The Mambo, there plenty of snappy tunes that will get your toes tapping. Spiders Blues and Clowning have spunky rhythms that will catch your listening ear and have you saying,"Thats pretty grooving material". Mojo Haiku and Loved and Lied To feature some strong vocals by Craig Fuller. Whereas Shaun Murphy was an excellent replacement, Craig added alot to the Little Feat sound when he was on board. This collection has a nice balance of songs. I rate it 3 1/2 stars to distinguish it from the ordinary three stars in my previous reviews.

Little Feat's 1991 album, Shake Me Up, would be the third and last album to feature Pure Prairie League singer/guitarist Craig Fuller. The first two albums with Fuller (Let It Roll and Representing the Mambo) featured several strong tracks as well as an even distribution of tracks sung by Fuller, guitarist Paul Barrere, and keyboardist Bill Payne. However, Fuller dominates the proceedings here. As a result, while the songs here are all good and well played, only a handful of songs really catch fire. The first four tracks are very solid as "Spider's Blues" opens the album with a laid back New Orleans feel. The title track comes next and features the same relentless vibe as "Let It Roll" and "Texas Twister" even if it isn't quite good as those two tracks. The melodic "Things Happen" would be the single and its video got some VH-1 airplay while the percussive "Mojo Haiku" is the best song here with a great vocal from Fuller. After this, the album is decent but not overwhelming with the highlights being Paul Barrere's "Clownin'" and a couple good Fuller ballads in "Don't Try So Hard" and "Loved and Lied To", the latter which features some great drumming from the late Richie Hayward. Also worth noting is that you hear a lot of backing vocals from Shaun Murphy and she would replace Fuller on their next release, Ain't Had Enough Fun. All told, Shake Me Up is not essential Little Feat but it's still an enjoyable listen.

...Craig Fuller left or was booted or something! While this album isn't a classic, it is a whole hill of fun and background vocalist (soon to be lead vocalist) Shaun Murphy really shines. Their roadhouse/cajun mix was really becoming infectious and it would continue with their next release. While Lowell George was not forgotten, the band seemed to becoming a little more comfortable with his absence.

I was a huge Little Feat fan and appreciated all of their later life recordings until this one. It marked the end of their collaborations with Craig Fuller and was a lyrical disaster. Boom Box Car is the most out of touch song I had ever heard at that point in my life.
It's almost rude to trash on Little Feat. I love them as a band, but this record was awful.