Strange Attitude [Import]

Benjamin Diamond | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 24, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Sbme Import
• ASIN: B00004XRL6
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,619 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Intro

2. Little Scare

3. 18 and Over

4. Strange Attitude

5. U Were Born

6. Joyride

7. The Rain

8. Just a Little Time

9. Playin' With Myself

10. In Your Arms (We Gonna Make It)

11. Rich Personnality

12. Read in Your Mind

Editorial Reviews

(EPC4998202)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIAMONDS, December 17, 2000

By 

Dsc "dsc" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Attitude (Audio CD)

I bought it because it said Daft Punk was involved in this album. Regardless, after the first song, I was hooked. What a great album. I can hear a bit of Daft Punk in the driving drum rhythms and the influence of eighties synth pop. Benjamin sounds like early Peter Murphy or the lead singer of the Call and at times like early Bono. Great song craft. Worth paying the import price.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Music for supermodels., June 15, 2001

By 

Watujel (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strange Attitude (Audio CD)

If glossy European disco music and bored facial expressions aren't necessary accoutrements of supermodel life, I don't know what are. So what better CD for these runway mavens than Benjamin Diamond's "Strange Attitude." Even if they show up to the photo shoot engrossed in Proust (hey anything's possible), by the time they hear Diamond singing "back a new day" (and somehow pronouncing it "love your music") for the tenth time, they'll have that perfect glassy-eyed, slackjawed look that photographers love.

Though Diamond uses some fat bass synthesizers and thanks George Clinton in the liner notes, this stuff is too polished to qualify as funk. Many of the songs (especially "Little Scare," "18 and Over," "Strange Attitude," and "In Your Arms") boast promising, catchy intros, but quickly lapse into seemingly endless repetition. It's good to have a strong hook and interesting title, but that doesn't mean you can just repeat them mindlessly for six minutes and claim that constitutes a song. Especially foul is his cover of Oran "Juice" Jones' "The Rain," which doesn't even have a decent intro; it sounds like a six-year-old is playing the piano. And his singing betrays a lack of interest in the material.

This CD will set the right atmosphere at a party, but if you're looking for dance music that will hold up under closer, and more um, sober inspection, better stick with the Pet Shop Boys.

5.0 out of 5 stars House music with heart..., August 12, 2005

By 

Jeffrey Bussmann (Warrenton, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Attitude (Audio CD)

As noted in the product information Benjamin Diamond (real name Benjamin Cohen) was one of the masterminds behind the massive 1998 single "Music Sounds Better With You". Apparently, gobs of money were offered to Diamond and co. to create an entire album around the concept of this fictional group Stardust. Thankfully, they walked away and this is our reward. While it has already become a classic of house music "Music Sounds Better With You" lacks any kind of depth. It's job is simply to get you moving on the dancefloor and does a damn fine job in this regard. But what Diamond has created with the album Strange Attitude is so much more in so many facets. He has written thinking-man's music that happens to be danceable; it's house music with heart. As proof, I would say it's been one of the only dance oriented albums that I've owned which I can listen to straight through.

The songs work well with one another, though they are not meant to have any kind of story arc. But I believe that the reason why they work is that you can feel genuine emotion from Diamond. He's not just a detached "voice," as they're often called in this genre, scanning through lyrics that he couldn't care less about in a song where the real star is the beat or the DJ. These songs matter to him because he has actually written most of them. For example, the song "U Were Born" is a sincere and yet groove-worthy meditation on fatherly pride over the birth of a son. In the frosty "Just A Little Time" he pleads to a lover for more time to find himself and to learn how to be a better man in their relationship. Finally, on "Rich Personnality" he tries to win the affection of a lady friend through sincere love not money. All of these songs are so thoughtful, and yet you can move yourself to them as well. Of course, there are the more traditional dance tracks, such as the optimistic, jaunty keyboards on "Little Scare," the let's-get-it-on vibe of "18 and Over," or the pulse pounding '80s funkiness of "Strange Attitude". Perhaps the best praise I can offer about this album is that as a unit it stacks up comparably well in cross-genre comparison: it's not just house music "good;" it's a worthy contribution to the greater music world. All that and five years on it still sounds great. I hope that in the future more people will discover this first solo effort by Diamond; they will see that there can be house music which is both intelligent and infectious.