Category:
Rock / Roots

Try if you like:
G Love And Special Sauce, Hb Surround Sound, Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tomorrow's Bad Seeds

Much like the solid athlete that makes it to the all-star game every season because of the track record of their entire career, Slightly Stoopid has seemingly found its way to a permanent average-or-better review rating.  But not because of the brillant catalogue they've built up, simply because their recordings are light, whole-hearted and never miss a beat.

  Similar to their previous LP releases, there's an expected level of rhythmic guitar, bass, drums and brass. After my third full listen through, my only quam is the lack of contrasting Punk elements (ie; "Nothing Over Me" & "Punk Rock Billy") that have become so synonymous with Slightly Stoopid records. That is until the final moments of the album, track 21"Intro To Organics". 

The title track, "Top Of The World" is by far one of the most contagious songs here, featuring a signature beat drop and guitar solo. Following it up, track two "Don't Stop" underscores just how terrific DeLa (Sax) and the rest of the band melt together, which has never been more evident than on this album.

 Other strong highlights include "Drink Professionally" and "Underneath The Pressure" and their cover of Bruce Springsteen's timeless "I'm On Fire".  Meanwhile, fantastic guest appearances help out on "Ur Love" (Barrington Levy), "Ska Diddy" (Angelo Moore) "Just Thinking"(Chali 2na) and my favorite "Hiphoppablues" featuring the naturally conducive team effort with G. Love. Other artists helping out include Angela Hunte ("Mona Lisa"), Don Carlos ("Marijuana") and Dan Papaila on the aforementioned "Intro To Organics".

Overall, Slightly Stoopid is still going strong, providing it's fan base with clean sounding but still raw and seemingly effortless albums consisting of fun and resposeful rhythms.