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Living Colour-Time's Up

#22
The first time I heard “Cult of Personality” I about drove off the road. I actually yelled “HOLY SH—!” and stopped the car to hear the whole thing because I was driving over to my girlfriend’s house and didn’t want to miss any of the song.

(...which I had cranked to the edge of car stereo distortion in my tiny 3-cylinder Chevy Sprint! What a rocker...)

I bought “Vivid” right away and loved it. I bought “Time’s Up” and loved it too, not too long after. @two fingers, I think the tune that really got me on that album was “This is the Life.”

I was just thinking about this album while working the other day. I need to dig for that cassette and give it another listen.
 
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#24
I dove a little deeper and found some gems. I never realized "Love Rears Its Ugly Head" was on that album. I've actually played it in a band. I might have sang it. I was easily able to sing it word for word yesterday. But that was a long time ago so I don't recall.

But the album as a whole is still a big "meh" for me.
 
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#26
mexicanyella said:
In retrospect I don’t really dig the production on either album. Both sound kind of harsh and dated to me now. But I’m big on “performance trumps medium and production,” and I like the content enough of both enough to still enjoy them.
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If I could change one thing about Time's Up as an album, it'd be the snare sound!
 
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#27
mexicanyella said:
The first time I heard “Cult of Personality” I about drove off the road. I actually yelled “HOLY SH—!” and stopped the car to hear the whole thing because I was driving over to my girlfriend’s house and didn’t want to miss any of the song.

(...which I had cranked to the edge of car stereo distortion in my tiny 3-cylinder Chevy Sprint! What a rocker...)

I bought “Vivid” right away and loved it. I bought “Time’s Up” and loved it too, not too long after. @two fingers, I think the tune that really got me on that album was “This is the Life.”

I was just thinking about this album while working the other day. I need to dig for that cassette and give it another listen.
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Same here. "Cult" is one of a handful of songs I've heard in my life where I said "wow, what the F is that...that's amazing!!" That was around the same time I started playing bass, and I spent several months (and many private lessons) learning the bass line. I of course bought the record soon after and became a huge fan. So many good songs on Vivid.

Time's Up was definitely a departure from Vivid, but I loved it as well. I can understand some of the Vivid fans not digging the more experimental vibe of Time's Up, though. "Type" is another fave from that record.

I never saw them back in the day, but I did see them several years ago at a small club in ATL and I was underwhelmed. They played great, of course, but the show itself was a bit unrehearsed and felt more like a jam session. They also played their latest record at the time in its entirety, and since I didn't know it, I ended up leaving early.
 
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#29
Bass Jack said:
Living Colour have a huge place in my life. I met my partner 26 years ago (yikes!) partly because of a shared love of the band. I’d say Time’s Up is their masterpiece, too. It was weird, confident, brutal in places. Type’s riff always gets played as I’m warming up and I love the bass line to Under Cover of Darkness. Queen Latifah’s lines in that song are so well delivered.
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LC, TU, and Muzz are all big faves of mine, and they were a part of the history of my SO and I as well. 29 years ago (yikes indeed!) I got called to sub in a band and she was the drummer. While the band wasn't my thing and I moved on (she agreed and also left it shortly thereafter) I did manage to get "Type" and "Love Rears Up..." into the setlist, and they were far and away the most enjoyable songs we played. Fast forward to today and we're still together both as a rhythm section as well as husband and wife. And we still listen to LC often (the Muzz years - no offense to Doug) and most specifically Times Up.
 
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#31
Time's Up is a desert island album for me. By far my favorite Living Colour record. It came out in my freshman year in college, which I concede may color (colour?) my feelings for it.

Best songwriting of any of their work. We could debate all day whether Wimbish is a better bass player than Skillings (he probably is), but to my ears the quality of the songs fell off quite a bit after Muzz left, and I think he had a larger hand in that than is known. Stain was a flashier outing but Time's Up is a better piece of music.

"Solace of You" holds up. Beautiful song with a wonderful message.

"This is the Life" - even apart from the double meaning title, I love the creativity in this song.

Even the title track appeals to me; I love how they precisely just barely keep it together. Also, the way Will Calhoun pulls the first snare hit forward a sixteenth note underneath the guitar solo is brilliant.

This is one of those albums I prefer to listen to end to end and not on shuffle. Not a concept album at all but the song sequence makes sense to me.
 
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#32
I saw them at Brixton Academy in what was either their first UK headline or fairly early on. I remember Cory Glover being blown away by the atmosphere. He had a massive grin the whole way through. After the first song he looked incredulous at the audience roar and said “Are you all here for us?” May have been stagecraft but he looked like he meant it. One of the most physical gigs I ever went to. All standing and the whole crowd seemed to be jumping the whole time.
 
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#33
Yonni said:
I saw them at Brixton Academy in what was either their first UK headline or fairly early on. I remember Cory Glover being blown away by the atmosphere. He had a massive grin the whole way through. After the first song he looked incredulous at the audience roar and said “Are you all here for us?” May have been stagecraft but he looked like he meant it. One of the most physical gigs I ever went to. All standing and the whole crowd seemed to be jumping the whole time.
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Nice one, I saw them supporting somebody at Hammersmith, I was front row and had no idea who they were or what they were gonna do, then BOOM. Seemed like a fair few people around me were there to see them and not the headliners.
 
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#35
Altitude said:
Time's Up is a desert island album for me. By far my favorite Living Colour record. It came out in my freshman year in college, which I concede may color (colour?) my feelings for it.

Best songwriting of any of their work. We could debate all day whether Wimbish is a better bass player than Skillings (he probably is), but to my ears the quality of the songs fell off quite a bit after Muzz left, and I think he had a larger hand in that than is known. Stain was a flashier outing but Time's Up is a better piece of music.

"Solace of You" holds up. Beautiful song with a wonderful message.

"This is the Life" - even apart from the double meaning title, I love the creativity in this song.

Even the title track appeals to me; I love how they precisely just barely keep it together. Also, the way Will Calhoun pulls the first snare hit forward a sixteenth note underneath the guitar solo is brilliant.

This is one of those albums I prefer to listen to end to end and not on shuffle. Not a concept album at all but the song sequence makes sense to me.
Click to expand...

Wow, you’re right, I’d forgotten about that snare hit timing in that solo; that was weird and cool under that sort of middle-eastern-sounding scale. I think Will Calhoun was some kind of superhuman groove computer. I’m thinking of the tripping-over-itself feel of the “Time’s Up” verses contrasted with the steady, laid-back groove that follows them...and those extra kick hits shoved together at the beginning of “Cult of Personality” also. I am not fluent in theory talk, and was even less so at the time, but I felt those things and dug them even if I couldn’t name them.
 
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#36
You know, one thing I’ve noticed happening here and on a guitar site I hang out on: under “current world conditions,” a lot of posters are clearly casting around, looking for fun things to talk/write about. You see some weird-ass threads popping up. Some of which are fun and hilarious, and others that are just...weird.

And some, like this thread, where a
bunch of people are really on the same page and it just takes off! Kinda makes a person feel good to get hit with a big blast of common experience and enthusiasm right about now. Thanks, OP.

(And subsequent participants.)
 
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