Customer Reviews

In Your Face

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this is a great record from the early days of fishbone, before they broadened out to the undefinable band they are now. lots of bouncing ska, high energy beats, funny to sad lyrics.

I love Fishbone's first LP. The purposely-misleading gangsta inlay design (before there was any such thing as gangsta rap), sums up Fishbone well: What you see is NOT what you get. In Your Face is filled with gorgeous and soulful songs ("In the Air" and "Give it Up"), as well as a few that are a bit raunchy lyrically ("Cholly" and "Knock It"). And as expected, there's lots of silly Fishbone-style humor (like "Selection", which says that no matter what day-to-day choices you make, it's all the same in the end). But no matter what the songs are about, they maintain an excellent sense of melody. Like I said, don't expect the music on this record to be how the "stereotypically-black" cover would suggest it is.

This is music that everyone can enjoy.

Before Nirvana brought rock and roll back into rock and roll, Living Color and Fishbone were two of the few bands out there making music that resembled what rock fans knew as the real deal. It may be hard to conceive now, but in a world ruled by Micheal, Madonna and hair metal bands, Fishbone were one of the few true tickets. It may have been Ska, but this music had real guitars, sounded like modern blues, boasted attitude that came from real guys, not metal monsters who's hair could not fit through a doorway. I didn't know them until I got to college-that is where you had to be to hear a band like this in non-internet 1988.

If you can get past a little dated production, this is a terrific album. Lots of slamming ska, thumping bass and fantastic writing. This is long before Sublime, and long before a form like ska was acceptable in the vomit-shrink wrapped world of MTV rock.

You may not have had an opportunity to hear Fishbone if you are one of those who was in pampers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But a non-white band playing hard rock-with or without the ska tinge-was even an alien concept on this Reagan youth planet. The world was this small a place

And Fishbone holds up today: the playing and singing are so good. Even the 1980s production works, adding a unique flavor to music that we would not even consider different in our sphere of Ipods and limitless options

If my history lesson means little to you--I lived through Thriller and am scarred for life, forgive me-this music will. Check it out, litte babies.

Movement in the Light. Listen to the lyrics. This just shows how well they are musically. To slow it down, with the horns, Norwood on that bass, his brother Fish keeping that smoooooth tempo. Great cd.

I guess there is nothing much I can add that hasn't already been said. This is the fishbone album with the most polish, but what everyone else is seeming to overlook, is that although it is calmer, the abscence of chaos makes it much easier to listen too. get this, and get Give a Monkey a brain... and tell me which one you find picking up more often. If that wasn't saying enough, the more simple flow heremakes it fishbone's most consistent release. Not that the experimentation was bad but it divided the albums to come between stunning ("Freddie's dead," "Sunless saturday," "LEmon meringue)" the good ("bonin In the boneyard," "Pressuere,") to the downright cringe-worthy ("the warmth of your breath"). Here it's all great. However it only really works here, and I'm glad they moved on (they tried to bring this sound back for the psychottic nuttwerx album, with pretty ugly results). But for now,although it's ,by far, not the "in your face album (that would have to be "the reality of my surroundings")" here's a great album to take off the rack and just chill to.

People can say all they want about their other albums. Maybe it doesn't have the social message of the some of their others. But for pure fun, "In your face" is possibly one of thier best. How can you listen to "Selection" and not smile when Angelo yells, "what? no toothpaste?". To this day (14 years after I first heard it) "when problems arise" is one of my single favorite tunes by any band! This is very good, and often times forgotted album, but one worth getting and enjoying the hell out of!

An interesting name for the album, considering that of all their albums, this one is the least "in your face" with their trademark hard-funky-ska mix of music. Leave it to the music industry to try and tamper with Fishbone's sound.

Don't get me wrong, the songs on this album aren't bad. It's a very solid selection of cuts. "Movement in the Light" is one of the nicest songs they've ever released, "Knock It" is a straight-up funk jam, and "In the Air" should have been a hit single - well, it would have been if they were white. This is actually the album that got me into them, but after hearing the band's other stuff, I realized how much it was overproduced. Fishbone still constantly plays quite a few cuts from "In Your Face" live (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #9) because they're good songs, but I also think it's a way to show how strong the songs were before they became squeaky clean on record. A bit of a middle finger to their previous record label, if you will. "When Problems Arise" especially needs to be recorded live sometime. The studio version is very good, but it just catches fire live and you can't help but get down.

I always thought it would be fun to hear them re-record this album. I'm sure contractual stuff will prevent this from happening, but it's a nice thought.

I love da Bone, but I got to say, this is their best album. Sure, it's a lot cleaner and mellower sounding than later albums, but that's part of the appeal.

It's one of those albums you can put on and relax to, not to mention, most of the songs here are funny, which I like much better than their later, more serious work.

I bought this to keep in my collection and be able to re-add to my library if anything should ever happen to my computer files. Good to know that I could re-add it if there are ever any problems with iTunes.