Music Review: Aggrolites

The plan this weekend was to completely geek out.  There was a lot of good music that was dropping, and I was gonna break me off some of that.  Nick Lowe, John Doe, Mariachi El Bronx and Aggrolites were going to be my new acquisitions.  This is my equivalent to Christmas, Chanukah and Boxing Day (which I assume involves big boxes filled with delicious sandwiches and fried treats).

I love music, but can't make it to the music store anymore.  Also, all our record stores were eaten up by big box assholes that think that music is the pop crap that falls out of Beyonce's ass.  So it was a going to be a combination of purchasing on line and uploading.  I normally like to buy my CD's, so I can hold it, squeeze it and call it George.  I just could not wait for this round to show up in the mail.  I would upload half and wait for the other to arrive at my door. 

Things did not go as planned, Nick Lowe doesn't come out until September, John Doe end of August, Mariachi El Bronx August 3rd.  One by one, I was shot down.  The music gods were not happy with me, and banished me to musical timeout.

My only saving grace was Aggrolites newest release "Rugged Road"...
This album lacks the intensity and flavor of previous releases.  Aggrolites last album "IV", was a musical masterpiece from the word go.  So it stands to reason that the only place to go, was down.  It is just a little hard to digest when they have consistently excelled expectation with each album. 

The Aggrolites coined the phrase "dirty reggae", a combination of Reggae with a soulful undertones and a nod to punk.  They own this genre.  It is the natural progression that Reggae has made and others have fought.  Look at other types of underground music and you will see how it has evolved, this is one the many evolutions.

It is not fair to make comparisons to this album with previus, but damn it, it needs to be done.  "Rugged Road" starts out slow from the gate, leaning on more of Roots Reggae.  "IV" hits hard with the first track, priming you for things to come.  "Rugged" flexes the Aggrolites muscles by showcasing their musical talent with 5 of the 10 tracks being instrumental.  This is approximately the same number of instrumentals found of "IV", but with double the tracks.  "Rugged" lacks the continuity and brazenness of "IV".  It is more of stroll in the park with Mary Jane, compared to the love, hate, joy and excitement of "IV".

If this album is your first foray into Aggrolites music, you will be very happy.  You will pop it in, and feel the contact buzz as you plow through a bag of Cheetos.  If you love the Aggrolites, then you will be pleased that they did not call this album "V", because it is not a good follow up to one the best albums of their musical careers.

Now excuse me while I try to clean the Cheetos dust off my IPod.