Search - Buck 65 :: Talkin' Honky Blues

Worth it for "Roses And Blue Jays" alone!

Kevin Satterwhite | Houston, TX United States | 10/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Seriously, I find that "Roses And Blue Jays" make this album a worthy purchase alone. It's ****ing aesthetic! I haven't listened to a Buck 65 (**** that, a hip hop) song so much since "Pants On Fire" (Track 13) off his "Man Overboard" album. Lucky for me (and everyone else, I guess) that this album has a bunch of other really good songs. A consistency that I found he lacked before on previous albums.



Buck 65 has mostly been hit or miss for me, more often miss. I want to like him; his lyrics are some of the most intelligent you will find. But his delivery and voice are often hard to sit through. On this album however, I find his delivery and voice are at their most accessible. And of all Buck albums I feel this has the best production.



While "Roses And Blue Jays" is my clear favorite, there are a bunch of other good songs. "Craftmanship" is my second favorite of the album. Very straight forward song, excellent production and lyrics. On "Exes" Buck dwells over old relationships with again great production, but emphasis is as usual on his lyrics. "Wicked And Weird" is one of the first hip hop songs I've heard (and liked) with aspects of folk. It's actually done quite nice, and hearing Buck on it just seems unusual and funny. "Tired Out" is another notable folk/hip hop song on this album. Really though, there are a bunch of other songs worth mentioning, but you should just buy the album and listen to the songs rather than reading about them.



A reviewer at Pitchforkmedia.com (who rated this album too low in my opinion) called Buck 65 the most "eccentric emcee" out there. And I've thought about it, and I can't think of anyone else I'd label that before Buck 65. But being weird isn't necessarily a bad thing. As with Buck, it's sometimes serendipitous."

Incredible stuff

alexliamw | Oxford | 11/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I absolutely loved Buck's concept album 'Square', which was atmospheric and made up of four extremely long, flowing tracks, and a lyrical focus. 'Talkin' Honky Blues' is far more song-based and clearly produced and produces an interesting alternative. Sporting quite possibly some of the greatest lyrics you've ever heard, this album is just a pleasure to listen to, a classic, weathered, world-weary album. 'Roses and Bluejays' is a wonderful example, filled with poignant imagery, and produced with powerful, evocative electronics and almost country-ish guitar licks. The album has a lyric reference point of baseball which it keeps coming back to, which endears me to it very much.



'Wicked And Weird' is one of the few more upbeat songs, powered along on a bouncing bassline; 'Sore' sounds dub-influenced; 'Protest' is more conventionally hip-hop, with chipmunk-ish backing vocals, an excellent guitar lick and a memorable chorus. The sheer melange of sounds here is incredible: everything from electronica to acoustica to soul to country to dub is here in the sound of the album. '50 Gallon Drum', a slow trip-hop number with dark piano and a gruff delivery, harks back to the sound of 'Square'.



'Killed By A Horse' is an electronica instrumental and finally, single '463' is an extraordinary combination of a gothic harpsichord, a relentless beat, an aggressive, almost scary chorus and, strangest of all, a metal rock guitar riff that could have come straight out of an AC/DC song, in marked contrast to the subtle, atmospheric guitar of the rest of the album. The album is enormously consistent and never flounders over a long playing-length. An extraordinary, incredible and essential album."

Seems to be the fan favorite...

Chris | Philly suburbs, PA | 06/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"because of its consistency...



I love this record for so many reasons. How often do you hear blues/country-style guitars mixed in with phat hip-hop beats, with intelligent and fun storytelling? Right. The correct answer is never.



All of Buck 65's music is completely ahead of its time. It's thought-provoking and fun... great rhymes, great storytelling, and man, how could you not love the guy's voice. Some have compared it to Tom Waits but I think it's far more listenable! Ha.



Standout tracks are:

"Roses and Blue Jays"

"Craftsmanship" (man, if this isn't THE BEST song about keeping things real in whatever you do, especially hip-hop... I don't know what is)

"Wicked and Weird"

"Leftfielder"

"463"



The list goes on and on...



I have to mention that in addition to Buck 65's awesome music... he is seriously THE NICEST and most humble musician I have ever talked to. I hung out with him for a half hour the other night in Philly when he played with Sage Francis and Alias, and during Sage's set, I just hung out and talked with him... he was running the merch booth by himself and no one was around because everyone was rocking out to Sage. He was talking to me about all sorts of stuff from books and movies to the tour and music in general... all of this while he was on his Mac powerbook, making bootleg CDs (his own) for sale at the show (tour-only CDs). Busy with that, but plenty of time to talk with me at great lengths about all sorts of stuff. Awesome. Again, how cool is that.



I bought everything he had for sale at the show, t-shirt plus the four tour-only discs... even though I lost my job the week previous. I am still unemployed as I write this. I have to support the guy. He is hands-down my all-time favorite hip-hop artist/turntablist/lyricist. And the fact that he's as down-to-earth as one can possibly get, makes the investment all the more worthwhile.



Unconvinced about this record? Buck has a page at myspace, and it is simply /buck65 after that popular domain. He has plenty of audio to hear and/or download, plus more on his official site which is his name dot com. Plus, you can find more audio if you do a basic internet search... most interviews with him have accompanying audio.



I really wish Amazon would get on the ball and put up some audio for this guy's work... there's only one album with audio clips.. but there needs to be soundclips for all of his releases.



I hope this review helped, if you were unsure about buying his stuff. You really should... no one sounds like him and no one is as down-to-earth as him. Completely influential in every possible way."