Friday, September 18, 2009

The Ziontones - Hope Ahead

A few things I like about The Ziontones:

  • Enthusiasm!
  • Clear funk influence. I mean clear as in "check out the Cissy Strut riff jacking on "Working for Jesus".
  • A little bit of everything: This hits funk gospel, foot-stompers, shouted sermon and even a little bit of a soulful heart jerker.
  • Despite its existence being pretty recognized, its lack of backstory details are as well, meaning I don't have to feel bad about my knowing nothing as usual
  • There's a lot of them! Look at it!

Most mentions will say that this is a great album. I think it's definitely a good album, but about 3/4 on the way to great. They've got the energy and they've got some fun bass playing, but the songs are always just shy of having the form and hooks that make a real monster. In fact, I think the most memorable track on here is the much more subdued closer "Somebody's Missing"

But I'll let you judge for yourself



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any idea where these guys were from? I'm trying to see whether they're a Mississippi group...

Unknown said...

they're from Hollywood Florida my dad was a member of the group