Welcome To The Cruel World - Ben Harper

Ben Harper's music gets atacked for being a little too political at times. However, he is a tremendous musician in his own right a backed an awsome band to boot. Dreamy slide guitar, acoustic overdose and some tight percussion on this superbly produced album. The content does'nt just stick to the acoustic vein as there are also some more upbeat numbers too, but this album simply oozes groove. There is a fair balance between his more opinionated songs and other songs of pure ballad. Harpers silky tones accompliment the music second to none, with a strong soul/reggae influence. If you can imagine Curtis Mayfield crossed with Gil Scott Heron you are on ...  Read the complete review

This is Ben Harper's first Cd, and most modest cd. Of course, with every first cd, you go with what sells, like love songs. There are a few songs about love, of course. But there's some Great songs added to that. There's a song called "And I Will Rise" Poetry to be from Maya Angelou. That is a great song. Another song, "Like A King" realizes the parallels from the 60's and early 90's. The Segregation parallels. Another song about Segregation, called "Attitude To Your Grave" is great because it kept closely with the people living in the ghetto. There's a song about Lesbainism. A great song about Lesbianism. ...  Read the complete review