RICHIE KOTZEN - CANNIBALS (2015)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Richie Kotzen used a nice sleight of hand trick in getting this album on the market earlier this year. I heard nothing about it until it was out, and I somehow slipped up on that information.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with Richie, his first big break was a brief appearance in Poison.  He also spent an album's worth of time in Mr. Big.  He has been very prolific when it comes to solo albums, releasing 15 albums since 1989.  Of course, he's also a third of the supergroup The Winery Dogs. But this is about his latest solo release.

The packaging for Cannibals is sparse.  It's a digipak but it does have a trey to fasten the cd into. There is no booklet, but all of the credits are printed on the inner sleeve of the digipak and it is noted that you can find the lyrics to the songs on Richie's website (www.richiekotzen.com).  All of the songs were written, arranged, produced, performed and recorded by Richie.  The lone exception (other than a couple of guest appearances and some backing vocals) is the piano on the track "You".  The music was written and performed by Richie's daughter August Eve Kotzen.

The album opens with the funky title track "Cannibals".  I love the bass on this track and it kicks the album off to a pretty good start.  "In An Instant" follows and the funkiness and soulfulness continues (watch the video below).  I really feel like he's channeling Hall & Oates on this song. Richie throws a bit of a curve next by venturing into "country music" territory on "The Enemy" (see video below).  I truly think that if he tried he could have a cross-over hit on the Billboard Country chart.  He doesn't stay there long as "Shake It Off" brings the funk right back to you.  This song features prominent keys and I get a serious 70's retro soul vibe from it.  I also like his lead guitar work on this track.

So I'm really enjoying it through the first four tracks, but then the album takes a southward turn. "Come On Free" is straight-up R&B while "I'm All In" just plods along.  Dug Pinnick makes one of those guest appearances here with some co-lead vocals.  It's funky, but just not that interesting. Then you get "Stand Tall" and another guest appearance, this time by Billy Sheehan.  I do like his "low" vocal sung with Richie, but again it just plods along.  "Up (You Turn Me)" keeps the R&B flowing and again Richie seems to be channeling Daryl Hall, especially in falsetto.  But the song just closes out a span of four tracks that do very little to move me.  

Luckily, the last two tracks are the highlight of the second half of the album.  The aforementioned "You" features some lovely piano playing by Richie's daughter.  His vocal isn't perfect, but it fits this sparsely accompanied tune very well.  And the album closes with another ballad.  The acoustic guitar work that is heard underneath the vocal track is just killer.  I'd love to hear more of that, not less.  

And just like that, forty-one minutes later, the album is over.  I can't say I love this album.  It's certainly different than what I would have expected, but I'm guessing Richie is just writing and recording what comes naturally to him.  I'd say six of the album's ten tunes are pretty cool, but that middle run just takes the air out of it.  

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

[TageRyche]

I had pretty much missed out or forgotten the pre-release hype for this album. I've got a couple of his previous solo releases and like them, so I might check this out.

[Scott]

Nice read boss!  This is a cool direction to go with your AOTW - just a thought though!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Not sure I follow you, unless you are suggesting a change in format to more of a review.  

[Scott]

kind of a hybrid approach...  just food for thought

[RJhog (Admin)]

I thought about it in the past, but it can get to be time consuming on a weekly basis.  Most of the time, especially here lately, I just haven't had the desire to spend a whole bunch of time prepping AOTW.  But I do pledge to increase my new album reviews for the rest of the year.

[TageRyche]

Good because it is always interesting to see what others think of albums. And there's no way for me to do enough reviews to sustain this part of the forum on my own.