Rising Above Bedlam

Wasn't really sure what to expect with this, but I thought it was quite fun

Man, we need to make it illegal for Westerners to make music in the style of other culture's music. It just comes off as incredibly cringe and appropriative. Especially when there's a shitton of this on the list and not music from the actual culture that this stuff is ripped off of. I've complained about this a lot when 60's psychedelic bands appropriate Indian music, and it's no different here.

Overall, it's FINE-ish, I guess, but it's not particularly good. It just sounds like someone who doesn't really understand the music he's trying to copy. Just incredibly basic. Vocals are pretty awful when Mr. Wobble is on the mic.

And why is this even on the list? The thing it seems to have going for it is the bassist was in Public Image, Ltd., and that it was included in the 1001.
If anyone can elucidate me on why it should be included, let me know.

Man, England will let anything get radio play, huh? Like, I praise the 90's for letting anything get radio play, but generally that "anything" was pretty good. Beck, New Radicals, Butthole Surfers. But even in the wild west of weird but good music that the 90's cornered the market on, you're bound to find some trash.

Lastly, bro... can we stop with the English bands with awful names? Jah Wobble. Badly Drawn Boy. Elbow. Klaxons. The Boo Radleys. Enough. Come up with a good name for your band, otherwise I'm putting you in time out.

interesting and entertaining!

This is mostly just the kind of irritating "crossover" "world music" that seemed to be everywhere in the 90s. Very varied, but at least some of the tunes are actually enjoyable - Erzulie and Wonderful World were standouts. Overall, not great.

The solo album of the bass player from the guy from the Sex Pistol's solo project. The fixation of British music critics with niche aracana offshoots of one summer in the late 70s needs to be studied. That said, this is a pretty fun album that epitomizes a gloriously eclectic early 90s approach: a bit of trippy pyschedelic dub new age multicultural optimist post punk electronica Bollywood sophistipop that is truly all over the place - like taking e and wandering around WOMAD.

I had never heard of Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart or Rising Above Bedlam before this challenge, so today’s listen was a complete surprise. It was also a bit of a challenge to track down, as it wasn’t available on Apple Music, which always makes these lesser-known albums a bit more interesting to explore.

Straight away, “Visions of You” stood out as a beautiful song and an early highlight.

The album itself is a very easy listen, but there’s also a huge amount going on beneath the surface. It constantly throws different sounds, rhythms and voices at you, which keeps grabbing your attention and makes you stop and properly listen. Tracks like “Visions of You”, “Rising Above Bedlam” and “Ungodly Kingdom” were particularly strong.

What really struck me was how many genres and influences are blended together here. There are elements of world music, electronic, dub, ambient and rock all mixed into something that feels very unique. It’s highly experimental, yet never feels inaccessible. In some ways it feels almost ahead of its time, multicultural, genre-blending and ambitious in a way that feels very modern.

This feels like exactly the sort of album that would be a Mercury Prize nominee, unusual, clever and artistically bold. It’s not always easy to categorise, but that’s part of what makes it so interesting.

Favourite tracks: “Visions of You” and “Ungodly Kingdom” are both excellent
Least favourite tracks: Every track was worth listening to, and each brought something different from the one before
Album artwork: Cool album cover, there’s lots going on visually

Of course the side project of the BASSIST of one of the bands that have various albums in this list has one spot on his own because why include new music if you can copy/paste the same guys over and over again.

This was actually a really nice time, which is some surprise from an artist called 'Jah Wobble'. I think the music itself across the album is really good, and nicely varied. Some of it is vibrant and fun, with a really good beat. Other parts are super chill. The guest singers and backing singers are good. His singing is a bit questionable on some tracks, but actually I'm mostly into it.

I have a feeling I would appreciate this even more with more listens, but for now, I'm going...

3.5 rounded up.

This was an acceptable listen. I do not think that the album is able to mix well its cultural influences despite being quite interesting on that regard.

6/10 [DROP]

Go invade someone else's heart because mine hates Jah Wobble

This album felt like being on hold with Comcast for most of an hour: in the annoyance and type of music. The only thing missing was the vocalist popping in every now and again telling me I could use the website instead of being on hold, after the website specifically told me I couldn't do the thing online and I needed to call

I hate to rate this as low as a Lou Reed album, but here we are.
⭐.49

Some of the later songs felt like "fattened" trip hop. Did not enjoy this record. It felt way too long.

Curious

Grote hoeveelheden matig. PiL, maar dan iets minder kut en met een soort oppervlakkige invloeden van muziekstijlen van ver. Wtf doet Sinead hierop.

yay! more reggae. . .oh, nevermind.

Jamais écouté avant.

Top : Visions of You
Flop : Soledad

Any moment that Jah participates in singing this goes down towards a 1 for me. The other sounds and artists he brings in are fine, but not his culture and kind of boring. There are a few musical bits that salvage this project, but overall not impressed. 1.5/5 -> 2/5

Started out strong with a song featuring Sinead O'Connor. This album was all over the place. Switching things up with different ethnic styles was cool. The music got a little strange sometimes... Interesting album, I don't quite know what to make of it.

Was very wary when I saw that this guy was in Public Image Ltd. but this is better than anything PiL ever put out. I was a bit higher on it in the beginning but the best songs are a bit front loaded. It's fine and it gets a mid score.

Interesting, like the world music sounds, a little chaotic for me