Fishbone Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996) Genre: Funk Rock, Hardcore Punk, Ska-Punk, Punk Funk

Fishbone

Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996)

Genre: Funk Rock, Hardcore Punk, Ska-Punk, Punk Funk   

 

The departure of two founding members Kendal Jones and Chris Dowd, can be felt in this album, you can hear a band that’s trying to decide in which direction to go.

Vocals and Lyrics: The lyrics on this album are bad, with a few exceptions like “Rock Star”. The band sounds like there trying to write a sound track too really bad teenage comedy movie from the 90’s. It really undermines the political message against racism that the album trying to get across, at some moments. 6

Instrumentation:

Guitar: John Bigham, does very little on the album, but I think its no his fault. It like the band is back lashing against guitar players in general, thanks to Kendal and the hell he put his old friends through. When John does pull off a solo they hide it in the mix, man that messed up.

Bass: Norwood is one of the highlights of album, he pull off some badass bass lines, especial on the super slapped “Chim Chims Badass Revenge” track.

Drums: It’s Mr. Fish Fisher, last album with the band. He’s the dynamo behind insanely intense hardcore punk tracks. 

Horn section and Theremin: The horns section as usual do a good job and this is first album where I can hear Angelo use the Theremin, it sort of becomes there new trademark for the post Kendal Fishbone, and marks the birth of Doctor Madd Vibe (Angelo’s alter ego). 7.5

Melody and Structure: Kenadal and Chris brought a lot to the table; now that they are gone they took away the sophistication in there song writing, with this departure there’s a trade off, melody for speed and more energy, which isn’t bad, it’s that Angelo as a singer drops the ball. And we can’t expect certain types of songs like the heavy  metal ones, to be extinct for Fishbone. 7

Sound, Production and Feeling: The guitars sound terrible in the heavier songs, they are trying to shed their heavier sound, but it just doesn’t work. The Ska and funk rock songs sound much better. 6

Songs: I’ve been bashing this album but it has some really good tracks, “Rock Star” is a top notch Fishbone song, and Psychologically Overcast is an admirable funk rock, with a surprise guest of Busta Rhymes. 8

The Bad: There are some Stinkers on this album especially Monkey Dick, the horn section just adds to much chaos and the lyrics are terrible, and I don’t want to get started with Beergut. -2

Originalty: They try new stuff and some of it just doesn’t work out, but  at least they tried.  They should have made an EP with the 6 excellent instead of a full album. 8    

Overall: 40.5