The Love Movement [LIMITED EDITION]

A Tribe Called Quest

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 29, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 29, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: Jive
• ASIN: B000009S3D
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,869 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Tribe's last album--they announced their breakup just prior to its release--has all of the problems of Midnight Marauders and Beats, Rhymes, and Life: they're just not People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm or The Low End Theory, Tribe's first two releases. That said, so what? Late-era Tribe is still a force to be reckoned with, even if it's not as much fun or doesn't have all the possibilities of Phife Dog, Q-Tip, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's early work. The Love Movement's backing tracks recall previous releases but tend to be subtler--and therefore less than memorable--and a few of the tracks here are almost indistinguishable from one another. Q-Tip and Phife Dog bust out with few catch phrases (the exception is "Give Me," on which they rhyme "Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD--naw, we ain't none of them"); overall, they sound more mature than ever before. Are they really? At times, yes, and it seems that maturity is one of hip-hop's few unforgivable sins. --Randy Silver

URB

The Love Movement? Don't call it a comeback. The simple, stripped-down Ummah production from Beats, Rhymes continues, at times rendering tracks indistinguishable from each other--same tempo, same drums. While the "love" concept gets respect, the execution falls short.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The break-up ends this downhill slide ..., October 5, 1998

By A Customer

I've been a Tribe fan for a while, and have been waiting for this album since BR&L came out well over a year ago. It's a pretty disappointing album, all told. Too much of the production sounds exactly the same ... even worse than was the case with BR&L. Not one track of the new stuff, except possibly the track with Noreiga, has anything real interesting. The inclusion of the remixed stuff at the end was a bad idea ... every track at the end is better than almost all the stuff in the beginning. It shows how far Quest has fallen lately. That Scenario remix has been crying out for a release evre since the original Scenario 12" dropped years ago, and the jazz and oh mi god remixes just show how great and funky the Tribe sound was in the years up to Midnight Maurauders. I hope the breakup spurs Q-Tip to some good solo projects ... I'm afraid the group's creative juices dried up after MM, and Love Movement is the musical equivalent of an open casket.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's not the album I'd like to see the tribe disband with., August 1, 1999

By A Customer

I am prolly one of the biggest Tribe Called Quest fans in the world and I'm gonna have to say this album isn't even close to as great as there first three albums were. This was the first album I bought of the Tribe and when I did, I thought that The Love Movement was the best album I've heard in a long time. Because of how much I loved the album I thought that I should buy all there albums and see how great they were. When I did I noticed that The Low End Theory, Midnight Mauraders, and Peoples Instinctive Travels were just unbelievably incredible. Thats when I became a huge Tribe fan. Back to The Love Movement though. I must say "Find A Way", "Common Ground", and "Busta's Laiment" are great songs with excellent lyrics as always and superb beats. Those 3 songs alone give the album a star. The rest of the first 15 songs are given another star and the bonus tracks deserve to give the album a third. If you were thinking about buying this album while not owning the first 3 albums of the Tribe, that might not be wise considering the extreme enjoyment and relaxation you can get from the first 3 excellent albums.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "After the love is gone...", December 12, 2001

By	Phil Watts, Jr. (Petersburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

While I happily defended BEATS, RHYMES, & LIFE from the onslaught of disgruntled Tribe fans, I am not prepared to do the same with this album.

Whether it be the in-fighting between Tip & Phife, the label drama with Jive Records, or JayDee trying to juggle this & Slum Village's FANTASTIC VOL. 2 (FANTASTIC VOL. 2 was also suppose to be a 1998 release, until A&M Records shut down, and the album wound up being released in 2000 instead), THE LOVE MOVEMENT is not all it could have been.

The Ummah beatwork this time out seems rushed. Considering that the album was held back (it was originally suppose to be a Valentine's Day release...get it?) They at least could have polished it up a little bit more, as most of the production sounds unfinished. Meanwhile, Tip & Phife's chemistry doesn't seem to be...THERE anymore. It's seems that they just said their verses and go home. Even though they try to convey the LOVE aspect of the album, it's hard, considering that they were on the verge of splitting and can't show their chemisrty anymore.

While the first single, "FIND A WAY", has a pulse as far as chemistry goes, the others like "STEP IT UP", "PAD & PEN", "BUSTA'S LAMENT", "HOT 4 U", & "AGAINST THE WORLD", show that Tip & Phife are lost a duo. Other inexcuseable moments are "DA BOOTY" (Ugh. Too bad for words), "LIKE IT LIKE THAT" ("Do/You/Like it? Say 'yeah' if you like it like that". Nice hook, guys!), & "ROCK ROCK Y'ALL" (a very sucky track for a very mediocre posse cut!). The biggest crime is "GIVE ME". You see, Tip is planning on singing on his next solo project next year, and if this song 'GIVE ME', where Tip sings the hook, serves as an indication, Tip needs to stop it! NOW! It's as if the insomnia-curing beat, and the unwelcomed appearance of NORE are not enough to make you turn from this tripe.

This album has it's good moments, like "START IT UP", "FIND A WAY", "MUDDY RANKS", & "THE LOVE", but the album's real redeeming value are the unreleased remixes, which is the only thing about this CD that makes it worth the purchase.

Considering all that Tip, Phife, & Ali went through, splittig up was the right thing to do. If only they didn't go all out by releasing sub-par side album's (Tip's commercial tripe AMPLIFIED, Phife's coulda-been-better VENTILATION, and Ali's nonexistant contributions to the weak LUCY PEARL project) that made the Tribe look even worse.

Now that a major force in progressive hip-hop is gone, who's gonna take the weight?