Passengers on Different Cars Steppin’ off the Same Train; In the End Makin’ it Right’s the Main Aim

Friday. Yeah! Well, another boring day to end an extremely boring week. There isn't much going on here at all today. I'm just trying to keep myself busy doing odds and ends and putting through whatever orders come in. Not exactly thrilling, but I guess it could be worse. At least it's Friday. I'm ready for this week to be over.

So, I was reading music reviews in The Onion AV Club the other day and I was ecstatic to see that Jurassic 5 was finally putting out a new album after a long hiatus. I've been waiting for this one because I am totally down with the J5. They are good stuff indeed. However, after reading the review I have to say I came away with three major reservations about this album:

First, Cut Chemist had no part in the production of this album because he is busy with his solo career. Actually, I already knew this because I read an article a few weeks back in which he discussed his solo career and his love for Star Wars (yeah!). So, that was disappointing. Second, Scott Storch produced a track on this album. For those who aren't familiar, Scott Storch has been the producer behind some of the biggest commercial pop hits recently. That's all nice and good I guess, but I don't listen to commercial pop music. One of the main reasons I love J5 is because they aren't commercial. Which is an excellent segue into reservation number three, which is that the Dave Matthews Band collaborated on one of the tracks on this album. The DMB?! Those guys are totally lame. I know they are super popular and all the ladies think Dave is hot, but really, to me they are to jam band music what, say, Good Charlotte is to punk. To paraphrase what the guy in the Onion said: this track will be sure to usher in a bunch of new fans for the J5, while pretty much alienating all of their old ones. Exactly.

I overcame all of this trepidation by reflecting back on how sweet the J5's old albums are. This one couldn't be that bad, could it? I gave Feedback a listen on the way into work to find out for myself. Admittedly I thought the album got off to a slow start. It was good, but it didn't compare to their older work. Then it started to pick up. I started getting into it. Even the DMB song wasn't too bad (not that I'm reversing my position on the DMB). It had a pretty catchy hook to it that was reminiscent of Action Satisfaction. As the album progressed, so did the overall quality, in my opinion. While (at least on the first listen) I don't think that Feedback can compare to the Jurassic Five's earlier releases, I can't deny that there are a few pretty good tracks on this album. I ended up fairly enjoying it. I recommend this album to any previous J5 fan looking to hear their new stuff. If you are new to the J5, though, check out Jurassic 5 or Power in Numbers first.