Customer Reviews

Strange Attitude

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Now's your chance to experience the wildness of Benjamin Diamond's scratching by picking up the DJ's greatest tunes in this 2-CD set. Hailing from France under the name Benjamin Cohen, Diamond started his career off as a punk rocker, playing guitar with bands like El Destroyo, Sister Double Happiness and on numerous compilations, before finally hitting it big by teaming up with Thomas Bangalater of Daft Punk in Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You. Realizing that he had great potential as a mixer and vocalist, Cohen changed his name to the more illustrious Diamond and released his first album Strange Attitude in 2001. Tying in with his Asian tour comes the Limited Edition, including an extra disc that features B-sides, video clips and remixes - but, as everyone knows, bonus features can't make up for a terrible album, with Diamond's first recording sounding like a perfect clone of fellow French band Air. Filled with pretentious lyrics, overused bass lines and numerous repetitions, the album seems only suited to yuppie-types and brainless supermodels - ironically, the majority of which frequented his gig. Numerous critics have praised his singing on former recordings (which we acknowledge and agree with), but here it sounds monotonous and dull, lacking the passion that Diamond had in his former bands. And while the album has also received acclaim for Diamond's wide repertoire of talent, with him playing the majority of keyboards and guitar, we refuse to chalk up the instruments as one of his "gifts", mainly due to the fact that he just isn't any good at playing either one of them. Don't bother with this; pick up something by Daft Punk, Phoenix or Air instead.

another french invasion after phoenix, daft punk, and AIR french band,...disctinctively, this man goes solo... this album is a great hybrid oh heavy discofunk, house, and a taste of mellow pop.notably, ben did a great vocal work,and a very smart instrumentation.playing most of the guitar and keyboards parts him-self and backed up by very,very slinky bass lines from cello. selected trax:titletrack,the rain,and rich personality. a must have.

i feel strange why there's no one writin' any review about this fabulous album? first i didn't expect much of it, i just thought it a cd pleasing to the ear, but after listenin' it over and over, i found it really a great one full of various music types, and ben's voice brings people into different moods. i appreciate his talent highly, and undoubtedly i like the way he writes the lyrics, direct and revealing. this's definitely an album worth listenin'!

Nice and fluffy music. "Little Scare" makes you dream, grin and smile. And that's enough for a fine disc. Yeah, nice and fluffy.

This is definitly not the typical album, great mixture of vocals from up beat to slow jams. Great Album a must get.

when i first got the chance to listen to "little scare," the first single from the french band, i rated them as a band that would benefit from modjo's recent success, and create funky-dance music of the same stile without any innovative edge. But then i got the opportunity to watch them perform live, and everything i had thought of them before had faded into the dark corners of my mind.
I remember that they amazed me. They were tallented, and the music was awsome. I could not stop dancing. After that concert i had made my mind up about buying the cd. A few months later, i finally got it and put it on my stereo.
The firs track got me really excited, even though it lasted for only a dozen of seconds. Then came little scare, a song i had learned to love. The following tracks were ok, but i was not dancing like i thought i would be.
When i got to track number 6 i found the cd to be a little over produced, controlled, and lacking the purity and energy that i got to dance to before. Track 6, "joyride" surprised me, i had heard it on the radio some weeks earlier and loved it. This track could easily be made (and sang, for the voice sounds too familiar) by moby, if he were hooked on funk.
the following tracks proved a little weak for me, and the cd ended without me moving my body for more than a couple of minutes.
Some could say this is a weak cd, or a bad one, but this is not the case. This is a promising cd, that forshadows a great band who will probably create amazing music. This cd is very good at times, but mostly it has a funky ambience, that does not step up to the next level and grab a hold of you movements. Its a good buy, but if youll buy it at an import price i recommend the singles, wich will prove to be cheaper, and will probably make you dance more often than the full lenghth album.