A combination of blues, jazz and hard rock
You can find Bens classc acoustic sound to high gain slide guitar to the delta blues and even some jazz. I love Ben Harper and this has to be his most creative CD yet. It is one of my favorites now.
Burn to Shine is a fantastic all purpose album....(4.5 stars)
Some of his other albums have come and gone but Burn To Shine is his masterpiece that will forever endure. Most of us in our mid-20's went through that Ben Harper phase around 2000 when he started touring campuses around the nation and the buzz built. It's his most even album and I still listen to it semi-regularly 5 years later.
Harper's music is guitar driven poetry. It's mellow with the occasional upbeat tempo thrown in to liven things up. There are many immitators out there but I think what separates Ben from the rest is the raw emotion he emits not just from his angelic voice, but also from his ingenious guitar. At times subtle, at times barraging, he wears his heart on his sleeve through every song.
The great thing about this album is that it can stand alone with a glass of wine or can be great in a background setting. It's not overpowering (except perhaps the best song - Please Bleed) and I often read or do work with this on in the background.
Bottom Line: Great for all music lovers. Appropriate for all ages. For the younger crowd looking for some music they might have missed out on. . . . this is disc you must have for your collection.
Rockin
I am not disappointed. I had heard "Steal Your Kisses" on the radio and fiogured I'd see what the whole album sounded like. What a great artist. You can really feel the emotion in his music.
Magnificent Masterpiece For All
Thinking it not be the style of my more hard-rocking mates I was suprised to look into their CD case and see a giant collection of Harper CD's. Working on a college radio broadcasting team - we continually obsessed with playing the song "Always Have To Steal My Kisses" on a regular basis - as it's upbeat gutair sequence and drum kicks mix perfectly for a sort of southern type sound, with pop written all over it, always put us in a good mood. This intreged me to buy "Burn To Shine"
As soon as I flipped it into the CD player I was already impressed with the army-like drumming to introduce the first song "Alone" a song that I immediately fell in love with. The song sounding a bit more sinister and darker than the rest of the album, a good kick start.
Following this album was the almost Hendrix-type-soul, "The Woman In You" this song is tremendously laced with Harpers voice and strong lyrics.
Just a few tracks away stands the best track of the album "Two Hands of A Prayer" 7 minutes and 50 seconds of pure brilliance of a song - this is what a song is all about.
Other strong points along the album are "Suzie Blue" which inspires from a jazz-blues type area, and the awesome track "Forgiven" which is probably the easiest song on the ears as far as the lyrics are decent - and the rock of the song will keep you listening.
Track 11 and 12 is a strong way to finish too - "Beloved One" is a piano, and violin backed song that I listened to probably eight times continually when I first really got into it - and continually do now - on a regular basis.
And "In The Lords Arms" is Harper all over, easy voice and decent lyrics.
Apart from some - B Grade songs such as "Less" and perhaps "Please Bleed" (although I wont skip the track) the album is top notch all the way, Ben Harper as a music writer - covering almost every style possible (and making each style seem like it's his front style) and The Innocent Criminals have put together another masterpiece - this probably being his best in my opinion.
Get A Hold of it. Don't miss out. . . . . .
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Burned and Shines!
This Album is the exact oposite. It gets tiring hearing the same bands who play the same songs over and over again 12 times and call it an album. It provides proof that you can always distill the essence of Rock and Roll down to a solitary man alone with his guitar and concience. It is inventive, yet firmly rooted in the blues-rock singer/songwriter/guitarist tradition.
Ben's music taps into the soudns and souls of musicians that have lived before him and explodes histories of oppression, love and courage. Harper's music enables me to listen to something .
You can see a complete list of all Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals discography, or go back to the Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals tabs
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