311 - Uplifter

These guys have made NINE albums? Really? I can't say that I've ever been extremely into 311, but I would groove along when a single came on the radio. I appreciate the reggae beats and funky slap bass. Even the hip-hop stylings. I'm not intimately familiar with their discography in it's entirety, but it just seems like they keep pumping out the same songs over and over again...for NINE albums, their newest being Uplifter, their first in four years.

This album is good in the way that all the other albums were good. Radio singles, laid-back reggae beats, harmonious vocals, an excuse for radio junkies to go get stoned in the parking lot at the show.

It's another one of those albums that has a few gems hidden in it, though, like, "I Like the Way" minus the awkward emo/rapping part. I didn't even know that existed. "Can we rock steady"? No. You can't. The music on this track is funky in a Sublime, sexy, SoCal sort of way, though. Then there's "Too Much Too Fast", a sort of throw back to the rat pack with peppy drums and crooning vocals. I can envision the pompadours and big white, shiny drum sets when I hear this song. "It's Alright" has a funky, NOFX bassline, which is cool, but that's pretty much all it has going for it. The vocals are weak, the guitar is almost non-existent, and the drums are mediocre at best.

There's a lot of slower tracks on this album like, "Golden Sunlight", "Daisy Cutter", "Two Drops In the Ocean", and "My Heart Sings" that I just can't get into. They do not do love songs well, apparently. There's also "Jackpot", a terrible, nu-metal-ish, sloppy mess of a track. I don't even know what the hell went on with that one.

This album gets a meh. Maybe if you're super into 311, you'll like it, but it just doesn't make my turkey perky. D

311's Site