Customer Reviews

White Trash Beautiful

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been a fan of Everlast since his inclusion in Santana's "Supernatural". I loved his last "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" and would have been happy with something comparable.

This CD is a good deal better. More refined - his trademark acoustic guitar against heavy baseline, his weaving of rap in with Tobacco throated lyrics, even the chorus' are cleaner - you can tell he paid a great deal of attention to this work.

I like pretty much every song on the album, but my favorite are the following:

Blinded by the Sun

Lonely Road

White Trash Beautiful

and absolute favorite on the album (listened to it like 20 times in a row) is "Sleepin' Alone".

I recommend this CD highly. Enjoy.

Christian Hunter

"White Trash Beautiful" finds a maturing Everlast settling into a cohesive folk-rap sound that extends throughout the album. His past efforts tended to lean in both directions at once -- one a more straightforward rap sound and the other a unique blend of folk, rap and rock. This time around, we get a batch of heartbreaking tunes that sound like Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" laid over one killer beat after another. Everlast's folk-rap fusion never lets up for a second here, and this sense of focus makes for Everlast's most consistent album to date.

"White Trash Beautiful" also plays like a concept album, beginning with "Blinded By the Sun," a tune about found love, then slips into the wistful "Broken," a gorgeous song in which Everlast begins to speak in the first person voice that pervades the album, confessing his love and fearing that it's on the brink of ruin. While "Broken" is probably the most tasteful composition of Everlast's life, much of the album rises to its standards and even yields some bursts of lyrical precision that match the intensity of the music:

Your clothes are all gone and you aint there
Your makeup drawer is empty
I found an old picture of you shampooing your hair
Now we aint even friendly

This isolation, seclusion and loss overwhelm the album like a thick stench of gasoline.

For all this albums glories, though, I did find myself wondering at times whether Everlast is painting himself into a corner here, whether he may want to explore a new direction next time around. A few bursts of electric guitar or perhaps some percussion or real drums might have enlivened the album's rather understated production. I fear that Everlast may run the risk of confining his creativity to a rigid formula rather than taking the risks of stretching its boundaries a bit more. However, as most rap albums suffer from tacky overpdocution, it is refreshing to hear such restraint from a former House of Pain member, and perhaps the album's difficult content doesn't really allow for any more production than is already here. In any event, "White Trash beautiful" is a miracle of one man's maturity and loss, and no matter where Everlast goes from here, there can be no doubt that his recent trilogy of albums represents one of the most impressive artistic make-overs the rap world has produced.

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This guy hits the spot with me, with an important kind of musical statement for my generation. The music is a mixture of folk, blues, a little bit of rock and a smattering of rap. The vocal style is perfect for the music; that smokey, raspy, small venue barroom croon. The writing is gut wrenchingly real for a 30's something guy dealing with love, loss, and life in the trenches. I can relate. I am a lover of all kinds of heavy rock, and listening to Everlast once in awhile is simple, pure bliss. This is his finest album to date, and one can only assume he's maturing, and only getting better! It takes a special ear to appreciate this offering.

Glancing at previous reviews, I see a few that are critical of the album for what it ain't when they should be judging it by what it is. I was looking for Amazing Grace when someone burned me a CD that contained many of the songs on this album and, based on that, I purchased it. It hasn't been out of my cd changer since I got it and I will frequently change back to this disc. It is the one disc that has remained, throughout the weekly swaps. I won't argue with its classification as rap as some have done. Whether it is or not is unimportant to me; my tastes are eclectic. I can't think of a single bad track on this album.

This review was originally written in 2004:

If you are casual Everlast fan or a longtime fan, this album is a must-have. If you liked Whitey Ford Sings The Blues, then you will definately like this album. It is much improved from Eat At Whitey's. Being a fan of his music from the Rhyme Syndicate days, I have enough knowledge of his work to give an objective opinion. When "Whitey Ford" came out I was a little suprised, but pleasantly. I felt "Eat At Whitey's" was lacking, but I supported it. "White Trash Beautiful" is much better than I expected. The production (most of it is produced by Eric himself) and the songwriting are excellent. There are more rhyming tracks on this one than the last, which are blazing. The singing tracks are all solid, with some incredible stand-outs, which is saying alot coming from an avid hip-hop / intermediate rock fan. There are no intro's/outro's/skits/filler music/fast-forward material. It is all music, well worth the money. Definately one of the best albums (any category) to come out this year thus far. Pick it up!!

If Dylan or Springsteen ever were a rapper, they would be Everlast. The former frontman of House of Pain has grown as a musician and also as a songwriter. This album is very personal. One subject that is repeated is lost love and the regrets of it. The rap songs are also great with acoustic guitar in the background. This Kind of Lonely samples I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, the Hank Williams classic. Everlast makes it his own song. Favorites include Blinded by the Sun, Broken, White Trash Beautiful, Sleepin' Alone, The Warning, Angel, This Kind of Lonely, Soul Music, Lonely Road, Ticking Away, Pain, 2 Pieces of Drama, and Maybe. Highly Highly Recommended.

I've been a fan of Everlast for years, and his run of solo albums since House of Pain ended is up there with any other genre-bending artist you can think of. He has never let us down, and doesn't here. His mix of blues, funk, rap, rock and folk comes out as a unique signiture sound like noone out there today. Ev expands further hear, with his most acoustic based album to date, which results in beautiful songs like Broken (probably my favorite from the album) and the title track. But this album really can't be classified because all the songs are such a fusion, which is really a return to the from of Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, while Eat At Whitey's had divers e songs that were each firmly one style. These songs have things like samples and drum machines next to live basses and acoustic riffs, things coming from all angles and the soup of sounds just works. His songwriting is top notch, using simple words to describe complex emotions (making them easy to relate to and truly FEEL), and working out great storytelling in songs like Blinded By the Sun. You get melodies, parts and breakdowns that you just don't expect from Everlast which is great. The chorus in Angel just explodes on you but with a great vocal line and chord progression instead of huge beats or riffs. His voice is gruff as ever, but he stays within his range and hits the notes as well as anyone could. It fits the bluesy tone of the music perfectly too, adding to the lyrics' power. Just check this album out to hear something you can't get anywhere else, it's purely Ev and that's all he and we need

In a day and age where we 30 and aboves have to continuously be baraged with horrible and deplorable rap it is wonderful to have an artist like Everlast do yet another album that is new and refreshing. Listening to this album reminds me of what life is really about in all regards and aspects from being in love to having the woman leave you and being all alone. Everlast has made an exceptional album that is as good if not somewhat better than Whitey Ford Sings The Blues or Eat At Whitey's! Thank you Everlast for giving we old school gen x's something real to listen to besides this mindless mess in hip hop and rap! Long live Everlast, Paris, Public Enemy, Etc!

Everlast delivers an album of tale-spinning, love-yearning, line-rhyming and stone-throwing in a mixed bag of crisp acoustic guitar picking, gut-scraping singing, heavy rhythms, and clever sound-mining. It's passionate, inventive, humorous and always interesting. The few pure rap songs include the obligatory four-letter content, and, not being a rap fan I can't get too excited by them, but I do enjoy "The Warning" and "Soul Music". On "Soul Music" and "Ticking Away" Everlast uses melodic speeded-up clips from old soul songs as counterpoint to his raps, and I've been trying to figure out whose distorted voice it is - Otis Redding? Solomon Burke? I'd love to find out. But the best songs here are the melodic ones, which comprise most of the album. My favorites are "Blinded By the Sun", "Broken", "Lonely Road", "Pain", "Maybe" and the title track "White Trash Beautiful", his declaration of love for the "trailer park queen" who "coulda found a better guy" but married him despite the fact that "all he could do for money was drive". Most of these songs begin with acoustic guitar, and could easily have veered off in a folky direction, but Everlast anchors them with heavy rock beats, great instrumental texturing, hip-hop accents and urban poet lyrics. Call it folk-rap. There is a lot of love for womankind in the lyrics and I hope Everlast finds (or has found) what he's looking for. This is the first Everlast CD I've heard all the way through, and I'm eager to hear more. If I actually liked rap, I'd give it five stars.

This is a welcome return to form for EVERLAST after the slightly disapointing "eat at whitey's" in 2000. Its much more balanced this time round with a healthy selection of soulful tunes and more hiphop based tracks throughout. (Which was my main complaint with the last album, not enough hiphop). His writing has steadily improved on every album and his use of his range of singing vocals are perfected here on virtually every cut. He knows he'll never hit the high notes that successfully so he doesnt try to, he just keeps the music+vocals in the same mood and utilises them both brilliantly!!! As written on most reviews so far that ive read, its the perfect album if you've just broken up with a girl+you're feeling down 'cuz ERIC doesnt hide from any issue, he faces it head on and expresses what any REAL man feels like in this situation. I aplaud him for that and thank him for a truely honest+brilliant album. The highlights, even though there are so many, are "broken" (awesome), "white trash beautiful", "sleepin alone", "the warning", "angel", "soul music" (unbelieveable), "god wanna", "ticking away" and "2 pieces of drama". If i could say 1 bad thing its that, i'd prefer more hiphop tracks from the big man. Everyone knows now that he can rip a tight verse and when you hear him on this you realise how much you miss what EVERLAST brings to the game!!!!