Customer Reviews

You're Under Arrest

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Another album that's suffered unfairly in the face of critics in the lexicon of '80s Miles Davis, "You're Under Arrest" isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it's a whole lot better than most people give it credit for. Their biases are based on a distaste for pop music and Miles Davis' decision to cover a pair of contemporary pop songs. But I've always felt that digging below the melody you're hearing, "You're Under Arrest", while a bit uneven, has a lot of really fantastic material.

Let's not shy away from discussing the pop songs outright though-- Davis made the controversial decision to cover Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", two highly successful contemporary pop songs. What's curious is the universal distaste for this action-- in the '50s, Miles Davis established his reputation by, among other things, blowing covers of contemporary pop ballads. While he'd stopped doing that in the '70s, the criticism has always felt to me based on a musical snobbery (and this is coming from a self-professed music snob). Davis' chops were not what they used to be-- years of drug use and a several year layoff are not kind to brass musicians-- the instrument's demands to physical conditioning are high. But what Miles lacked in chops he never really lost in emotive quality, and nowhere is that more obvious then in his optimistic reading of "Human Nature" and his yearning on "Time After Time". In playing modern pop ballads, he seems to have rediscovered some of the fragile beauty in his playing he largely left behind with the advent of fusion.

Is it for everyone? Not really, I get that, but I'd think it'd be the choice of instrumentation rather than the selection of material that would be most difficult to digest. Then again, the dislike of electric instruments is another case of jazz snobbery, but I digress...

The point is, both pieces get great readings and are critical parts of the Davis lexicon. The balance of the originals on the album are a bit weak, there's a trending towards and electric reggae that, while it seems to get quite decent playing out of Davis ("Something's On Your Mind"), it's nothing that stops me in my tracks. It's this inconsistency that stops me from recommending the album highly-- it's inconsistent, with snippets of spoken word (opener "One Phone Call/Street Scene") and dodball interludes ("Katia Prelude"). None of it's awful, but it makes for an inconsistent record.

The bottom line is though, "You're Under Arrest" is a whole lot better than people give it credit for-- newcomers to late Miles should start with the excellent Tutu, but this is not necessarily a horrible second stop.

I have no harsh words of criticism for Miles' 1985 pop-soft jazz effort. While so-called die hard fans of Miles or jazz used adjectives such as "flop", "poor quality", and "worst", it is anything but...The only slight unstable choices he made was to do cover instrumentals of Michael Jackson's Human Nature and Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time at a time when the original songs were still fresh. Instead, he should have opted for writing a couple of original tunes himself (even if they were only going to be filler material---the key word being original).These two tracks ended up being played as light elevator music tunes in department or grocery stores. The rest of the album, however, showed that Miles could adapt to the changing times and styles of music in order to reach younger listeners as well. No longer was his music exclusive to hardcore jazz purists...Miles Davis is for the entire world !

Time after Time and Human Nature are wonderful songs which Miles brings a great interpretation to. Even though Miles may be doing things that are above us in this time period, lets not forget how much he changed jazz.

The trick to this album is not to think of it as a Miles Davis album. If you're looking for Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, or any of the other work that made Miles Davis, well, Miles Davis you aren't going to be happy. Not at all. But if you like that sort of 1980s pop instrumental jazz with slick production and really tight playing then give it a shot. By that standard it's really not a bad album. The first track may not be great, but it's got a hooky groove that's guaranteed to stick in your head.

I am so in love with Miles' version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" - he really perfected his art with this recording. It sounds like Miles took a course on art theory during the 70s and now he is free to change the world with his vision of artistic beauty, no longer making that garish, horrible noise with competing instruments. Miles has come through and he wants to share with us the sound of his becoming.

The two covers (Human Nature & Time After Time) make this worth the purchase alone. Ms. Morrisine and Katia bring out the best of Miles. Even though this CD is mostly post modern, his cool jazz touch evolves the music into a totally new strain. Rest in peace Miles, we miss you...

This is Miles at his most acceessible--meaning anyone can find the beginning and end of the songs and follow what's going on. Horrors! Scofield is enjoyable and funky. Not really a jazz album, but not overly complex and oblique either.

This is a great disc. This is the companion to Decoy and I happen to like it alot better. A Pop type feel. Very accessible music. Great players. John Scofield, Darryl Jones, Bob Berg (I love Bob Berg), John Mac, and many others. Two songs from this disc, "Time After Time", and "Human Nature", became a staple for Miles in the 80's till his death. These songs were introduced here, so it is an improtant disc. "MD1/Something's On Your Mind/MD2" is just the coolest, hippest, deept groove that you are going to hear. Seven minutes of it. If you want to know why Miles is so cool, this is the cut. I would buy the disc just for this. The opening cut is silly with the rap, but who cares. The whole disc is a cool groove. It holds my interest all the way through. Very cool Miles.

1st the correkt list of tunes: 1. One phone call / Street scenes 2. Human nature 3. MD 1 / Something's on your mind / MD 2 4. Ms. Morrisine 5. Katia prelude 6. Katia 7. Time after time 8. You're under arrest 9. Medley: Jean Pierre You're under arrest Then there were none

... I love the music of Miles Davis, so I'm not objective, but the previewer were not, too. It's wonderful music!

This album was just another Miles Davis album in the 80's. The fans and critics new not to expect the straight ahead or even progressive jazz he once recorded to be on his albums. Bitches Brew came out about 15 years earlier, and everybody was used to the new music that Miles was playing. Well almost.

I'm assuming Miles was very proud of this recording. As some of the tunes here get frequent radio play. He was not ready to be forgotten and albums like this he wasn't. But only to the popular audience.

Sadly this album sounds out of date. And although he might of been, 'with the times' then, it sure ain't now. I dont think Miles really cared at this point what anybody said, he just played this "jazz" the way he wanted to, and let no one stop him.

Fortunately, though not able to get a good Davis album at this time, you could still catch a more lively preformance from him live in concert. Miles's horn playing is basically the same as it was 20 years before this album, but his backing musicians are very different and although the trumpet playing is rather good, the other musicians make the sound as a whole, very unabarrable. I wouldn't say this is worse then the modern smooth jazz being played, mainly because there are real instruments on this recording, but it is still very below standards. I am somewhat a fan of contemporary jazz, so I can tolerate this recording more then the avid traditional jazz fan.

One thing I like about this album is just its variety, and is why I gave it 3 stars. Miles's albums, over the years were varied and different, it is why Miles's cataloge is rather enjoyable.