Fishbone Give a monkey a Brain and he’ll swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993)

Fishbone

Give a monkey a Brain and he’ll swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Ska, Ska-punk, Funk Metal

              

   This is Fishbone’s dark album; it’s where heavy metal takes the center stage in their sound. The band at the time had some strong interior conflicts among its members, especially with Kendall Jones the guitar player who was about to leave the band to join a religious cult and will provoke a tsunami of legal troubles for the band because of what  happened after that (you have to look it up it’s a really crazy story it’s worth the read). On the other hand the album was influenced by the bands anger generated by the injustices lived by the black community in Los Angeles before, during and after the L.A riots. This reminds me, that I was living in L.A at the time, I was little kid about 10 years old, and it was freaking scary people where looting and burning stuff all over, it scared my parents so much that we jumped in our car and they went driving up the coast and they didn’t stop till San Francisco.   

Vocals and Lyrics: This is the last album where Chris Dowd sings on, he leaves the band some time after its release. He tends to sing the more heavy metal influenced songs in the fishbone catalogue, and he has a great dynamic with Angelo Moore who is the main singer of the band. I must add the lyrics on this album are not as good as previous albums 8.5

Instrumentation:

Guitars: Kendall’s work is at the forefront of the album, it’s the most guitar driven of their albums. It’s a shame that Kendall went bonkers and left the band, because they guitarist after him haven’t been even close to his expertise.

Bass: This guy is one of my favorite bass players around, he’s always trying to do new stuff, and Lemon Meringue’s bass line is incredible.

Drums: Mr. Fish Fisher, is an amazing drummer and I think he doesn’t get the credit that he deserves in the drum world. His drum playing is a fundamental part of fishbone’s hyper energy frenzy.

Extended band, Horn Section: Here we got Angelo, Walter and Chris, and they do as usual a great job, the album includes a great sax solo on one of the songs, but they made a big mistake not putting horns on the heavy metal tracks, it’s what sets this band apart from other metal acts. 8.25

Melody and Structure: This is the last album where the melody has a really major role in the band; the songs are really well rounded. The departure of Kendall and Chris is pretty notorious on the next album. Structurally the songs are interesting, nothing is too predictable and there are a few surprises here and there. 7.5

Sound, Production and Feeling: The album sounds great, and there’s that ever present fishbone energy on every track. 8.5

Songs: Almost every song on the album is a gem, the only thing there is too much of a contrast between the metal songs and the other tracks. 11

The Bad: Drunk Skitzo, is terrible preview of some of the not so good stuff on future albums. -1

Originality: They don’t break new ground on this album, but they put out a great batch of b-sides for the Reality of my Surroundings. 8

Overall: 50.75