Search - Incognito :: Life Stranger Than Fiction

A good vintage.

Torquemada | Atlanta, Georgia USA / Madrid, Spain. | 10/10/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I generally don't talk about things I don't know of or do not have enough information to give an opinion. It seems there are two different releases of Incognito's latest album, and this is the one I have. So my review will be on this one, although I have read the critics about the other version here on Amazon, and I will refer to them.First, it is true that Maysa is not on this one. She has been on and off Incognito's Albums for some time and when this first happened, I wondered if there were problems with Bluey. Maysa is a big "plus" for any band, but the truth is that Bluey is trying to keep the members of the "Incognito family" working on his projects. The family is quite large, as I recently heard on an interview on a local FM station, so it is normal to see all these changes. My opinion is that the vocals (men and women) are not a weakness on this album, and no reproach can be addressed to Jean Paul Maulnick for keeping the tables turning, like any good coach would do with a team. It keeps the level of involvement of the members, and it guarantees different sounds and approaches (you can't expect any artist to keep on sounding the same forever, can you ?). Second, this new album is more consistent than the previous release. It is more soul-funk oriented, with more bass play, and less experimental. True enough, it has a couple of weaker tracks (the opening "stay mine" is not a materpiece, "There will come a day", with its gospel flavour, doesn't call my attention either, "Got to know" is a bit repetitive), but what about the rest ? Can anyone tell me that the album is boring or poorly executed ? What about the super "Rivers running black", or "Reach out" that literally get me out of my seat to dance ? "On the road part II" is another masterpiece. I would not be as sure as one of the reviewers that this is full of fill-ups, and that the band only had half an album but decided to stretch it to release a full cd... I really don't agree that the band "should" have released this cd and the previous one under only one release. If you want a best of, make it yourself on MD, Cassette or cdr...Third, I have read that the lyrics are stupid on this album. Well, what about the average quality of the lyrics in the music industry ? Not to talk about the quality of the music itself... Way below Incognito's sounds in so many cases. Fourth, the family is alive ! The band has been there for over 20 years and it doesn't seem we are close to any kind of fall. Bluey has his own record label (RICE records), he has worked on the Inner Shade and Citrus Sun projects, the Incognito family is large, his Son is even getting involved in this, and the reaction of the crowd to songs like "Skin on my skin" when performed live is amazing. Even if this is not Incognito's best album to date, it is better than the previous one and a must have for acid jazz and good pop soul lovers. Is it worth 25 dollars ? No, but what album is worth that ? Get it for the same price you can buy any other cd, and you will certainly not be disappointed."

The hard facts about Incognito's "Fiction"

John Jones | Chicago IL | 09/26/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Once upon a time in the late 80's, a British R&B outfit called Soul II Soul burst onto the music scene with the talented, charismatic singer Caron Wheeler. Their sound was fresh, their sales were big, and a good time was had by all. But then Wheeler ended up going solo, and though Soul II Soul enjoyed a few more less-successful hits without her, things were never quite the same. Change the band and singer to The Brand New Heavies and N'Dea Davenport, and the story repeated itself in the early 90's.Now, if anyone should be making a note of these things, it's Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick, considering his group Incognito enjoyed a similar success in a similar genre, time span, and georgraphical region. But no, for the band's ninth release, "Life, Stranger than Fiction," on-again/off-again diva Maysa Leak, the voice behind some of Incognito's biggest hits, is once again conspicuously absent. This will be a big problem for some of their fans and is a noticeable one for the album; Bluey has enlisted no less than three female singers to try to fill Maysa's shoes, but curiously they all end up sounding pretty much the same. That's not to say they don't handle their material well: Sarah Brown lays down some righteous funk stylings on "Slow Down (Get a Grip)," Dianna Joseph offers a soulful fire on "Bring You Down" and "Cut it Loose," and Kelli Sae caresses "Skin on My Skin" to sultry near-perfection. And then all three divas join male vocalist Xavier Barnett on the optimistic 70's-flavored ballad "There Will Come a Day." These five tracks are also the finest in the set, as Bluey and company branch out to explore chord progressions, production flourishes, and rhythms all atypical than the usual Incognito fare.As it turns out, the real problem isn't a missing vocalist, but rather the fact that the band only had half an album on their hands and decided to stretch it into a whole one. "Stay Mine" and "Reach Out" are similar enough to past Incognito tunes to try our patience from the get-go; respective lyrics like "since you came into my life/I'm caught in a wave of ecstacy" and "light the inner fire/it will see you through" sink them straight to the level of downright boring. "Rivers Runnin Black" is another routine, string- and horn-laden Incognito instrumental, and sounds no better than the weakest material off 1993's "Tribes, Vibes, and Scribes." The funk track "Got to Know" borrows a page out of the Isley Brothers book and reads it well, but lyrics are again the downfall, as "got to know/got to know/got to know/people got to know it" isn't much of a hook and the line "no more wars" is enough to make you retort, "no more cliches." Bluey has plenty of musical ideas on "Castles in the Air," but the unusual rhythms and overcrowded chord changes are hard to follow, and even vocalist Xavier Barnett sounds lost and is exposed as a limited singer.Even when the band samples Beatnik Jack Kerouac on the Bossa Nova gem "On the Road" and expand it into a second, more fiery experimentation that begs repeated listenings, it isn't enough to stop the notion that Incognito was either rushed, lazy, or uninspired for half the album. Thank God for CD burners; with modern technology you can take the band's too-brief 1999 set, "No Time Like the Future," and compile it with the best tracks from "Life, Stranger than Fiction" to make the one strong album Incognito stretched into two. There are bright spots to be had, yes; but the fact is, "Fiction" has weak spots even Maysa Leak couldn't rescue. Strange but true."