Quote:
Originally Posted by RSG
Fantastic track! Real modern, clear and advanced! Great on the album, it's a lot of fun and in a lot ways it reminds me of how I got into Meat Loaf in the first place. Vibrant colours of sound and creativity!
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I'd agree with so much of that. Such a strong track which to me stands as the crescendo of all the frustration and concern that is at the heart of the album.
I've always said rap isn't my cup of tea, but largely from a position of ignorance as it's something I don't listen to' haven't tried to understand, and tend to avoid. But I also find little to interest me in so much churned out pop, am left unmoved by quite a bit of rock music, and would never describe myself as a follower of country .. yet there are some country singers or country songs that have grabbed me, some pop songs which do the same. Some of the latter just come across as pretty featureless, whereas much rap comes across as insistent and angry, so I don't bother with them, have never worked to understand them, and to be honest may never do.
But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Lil John's segment on SITS, and at how well the various styles came together, so I trusted Meat's ability to see how this could be done and to bring it off successfully, and listened to HIAH with an open mind. How glad I am that I did. Hearing some brilliant rap integrated perfectly into a powerful track from Meat has given me a new found respect for a musical style I have always eschewed, when delivered at its best, by one of the best, in a context that seems wholly appropriate, rather than pumping out of huge speakers in a passing car
To me (although I may never get really into the rap genre because the anger, frustration and dismissiveness that seem to me to be so much at its heart don't appeal to me most of the time), Chuck D's contribution is perfect, and brings the frustrated anger of MMW into sharp relief with a stroke of genius.
To me this isn't Meat trying to crowbar something "modern" into his work, but that he is interested exploring and getting to understand other forms of music. Nor is it a new style he has adopted; he is also intelligent enough musically not to attempt it himself, but to bring in someone who IS that style. Rather I see this as his musically intuitive understanding that it is
exactly what was required to give the track a core strength that could only be achieved this way, and the wisdom to bring in the perfect exponent of the musical form who then delivered something quite exceptional. I can only imagine how Meat and Paul's jaws must have dropped when they received the tape, and they have integrated it brilliantly. For all these reasons it is a stand-out track which gets a solid and thoroughly impressed 10 from me.
Caryl