Customer Reviews

The Urge

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

 

 

I give this album four stars and that is for one reason and one reason only. Track 7. On track 7 Stu Hamm manages to paste together a melody of sorts that includes six minutes and 12 seconds of the most amazing bass playing you will ever hear. He combines slapping and tapping to create an awesome riff that includes a rendition of the Charlie Brown theme song. I would say that this is the musical equivalent of Eddie Van Halens "Eruption". The rest of the album however can not be spoken about in such a high manner. Stu teams up with Joe Satriani and writes some good musical tunes, but the cheesy vocals reminiscent of bad 80's music kills the rest of the album. The only other song on this that I listen to is The Urge. I must say though that the CD is worth buying for track 7 alone, especially if you are a bass player. I would recommend this to any bass player who is looking to hear the best six minutes and 12 seconds of bass playing ever and or anyone else who likes to hear some good slap bass.

I do agree some of the vocal tracks are uninspiring. However, I HATE rap and loved "If You're Scared, Stay Home." Rather than listening to it as rap (Which is only a few seconds of it), I believe you're supposed to listen to it as comedy supported by funk bass. "Who Do You Want Me To Be Today?" is decent--at least Stu can sing in key, unlike many alleged rockers I won't humiliate by name.

And anyone who can find a duet with Stu on bass and Eric Johnson on guitar as uninspiring needs to check their pulse. They're dead. Absolutely screaming liquid Texas blues with upbeat and restrained playing from Stu. Wow.

And yeah, "Quahogs, Anyone?" is a solo to rank with Jack Bruce and Geddy Lee.

If a couple of tracks don't appeal to you, then skip them. But do catch the rest.

Adam Morse's comments (below) Hits the nail on the head when he says "cheesy vocals reminiscent of bad 80's music". What he is too kind to say is that the production and a lot of the other (non vocal) melodies fit into the same category. This album is fantastic to listen to for the bass playing and terrible to listen to in almost every other respect. I grit my teeth while listening to this album for the pleasure of Stu's playing.

Not as good as RFA or Kings Of Sleep from Stu, but it's still Stu at his best - amazing techniques, beautiful melodies - if he only hadn't started singing on this album is could've been superb!!!!! Anyways - it's still worth checking!

If you like joe satriani you will LOVE this cd.Stuart Hamm was at the time of this cds release the bassist for Joes band.Awesome bass licks great guitar work,It all works!!

This is a good album. Like Joe Satriani, Stu needs to NOT sing on his albums. If he wants vocals, he needs to find a vocalist and lyric writer. And stay away from the guest rapper. I appreciate the diversity he brings, but if he stuck to his strengths - bass and recruiting awesome guitarists - this would be a great album. Quahogs is a very fun song, as he blends together a medly that includes Vince Gueraldi's "Linus & Lucy" and a hoedown ditty, among others.

There's a guest spot from Eric Johnson. If you haven't heard him on guitar, go buy any EJ album right now.

In short, this album has a very distinct way of accelerating the passion between my husband and I!! Without going into details, those bass beats are so encouraging! Thank you Stu for providing my husband and I with a beautiful love tool!

Being a huge fan of Stu's previous album, 'Kings Of Sleep', (well... a huge fan back in the day, it sounds pretty dated now), this wishy washy offering ('The Urge') was just dull, uninspiring and extremely disappointing. For a few reasons, such as Stu Hamm's limited and preddictable vocals (some musicians shouldn't venture into domains they can't master and that goes for Joe Satriani also) to the repetitive nature of the compositions, 'The Urge' is just devoid of any class. The bassplaying on 'If You're Scared, Stay Home!' is incredible but the rapped lyrics over the song sounds like someone is suffering from advanced stages of midlife crisis. It's embarassing, just like my spelling!
Tommy Lee features on the title track and although I am not a fan of Tommy personally, it is the only thing on this track worth listerning to.

After about two months of trying to find something on this album that I may be missing, I just traded it in for something else. I certainly haven't regretted it.

There are songwritters and there are session musicians who accompany other peoples compositions and 'The Urge' clearly displays that Stu Hamm is the latter.

I don't know how this CD could be thought to have been "not so great"!!! I got to tour with them and I loved It. There keyboarder could get some better parts, but other then that, I thought they are great! 5 STARS!

I was a bit disappointed with this relaease. Too much sound effects and singing and not enough slap bass. Some of the tracks are soo short, I can bearly consider them songs! If you're looking for heavy slap bass please try Vail Johnson "Terminator" or anything by Victor Wooten instead.