Soul Junk is a band that has gone through quite a lot of changes and musical transformations over the years. In their earliest incarnation it was raw, punked out, jazz-laced, trippy tuneage. In more recent years the band has moved into a more hip-hoppy direction. With 1957, Glenn Galaxy and SloRo are the main collaborators, with a nice fusion of the old and new. The hip-hop is still up front with some of the older raw tuneage coming back into play. And it sounds like more of this is on the way as they plan to release up to three more albums by the end of the year!
Soul Junk is still firmly grounded in the DIY school of music making, and, as always, it's the lyrics and vocal wordplay that make this band so groovy. Who else can drop names, like "John Candelaria" (former Pirates pitcher for the baseball deficient), and then throw together a song with a rhyme scheme using the words "symphonic," "teutonic," "bubonic," "mnemonic," and "chronic?" What's not to love about that?
Several songs, such as "Horse Posing as Unicorn" and "Ruby Doomsday," even sound like they would fit perfectly on early discs like 1951 and 1952. Other standout tunes on this disc include "Non-Linear," "UngstFuncSlagCollision," "Innerspaceman," and "Droptop Floride."
On the whole, this disc is an improvement over the last several Soul Junk outings, but is still not quite up to par with those great early efforts.
3.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #98Reviewed by Chris RoseIn a world where every band is represented by a person in a large crowded party, Soul-Junk is the friend who is crazy, loud and obnoxious — but definitely a fresh breath of entertainment. 1957, like all previous years/albums, is a chaotic mess of scratching, laid back hip-hop, intriguing samples and anything else randomly floating around the members' minds. In a way, Soul-Junk is very similar to…Opus 2002Reviewed by Jason MoreheadI consider Soul-Junk's 1956 a watershed album of sorts, a delirious hip-hop masterpiece that wedded outright Christian ideology with a mad scientist's mixture of jungle, drum n' bass, pop, and a couple genres that may not even have names. Every listen to it was like a breath of fresh air, and was enough to make this skinny white boy to bob his head, pump his fist in the air, and rhyme along.…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Alex KlagesIn one of Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock's short stories, a man jumps on his horse and rides off in all directions. This is somewhat the impression which I got on my first listen to this, Soul Junk's latest full length effort. Where 1955 seemed to indicate a band with varying interests, 1956 was a fairly coherent rock-tinged, hip-hop laced effort, and was eminently listenable. 1957 seems to be…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Jason MoreheadI consider Soul-Junk's 1956 a watershed album of sorts, a delirious hip-hop masterpiece that wedded outright Christian ideology with a mad scientist's mixture of jungle, drum n' bass, pop, and a couple genres that may not even have names. Every listen to it was like a breath of fresh air, and was enough to make this skinny white boy to bob his head, pump his fist in the air, and rhyme along.…Similar sounding releases
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