Review Summary: Acoustic tracks that define Everlast's solo career. If you didn't like the original tracks before, be sure to bring a pillow.
Once part of the short lived hip-hop group, House of Pain, Everlast went on to pursue a solo career, that would take what he did in House of Pain, but put a blues rock spin to it, which would spread from his sophomore LP, "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" all the way to his most recent studio album, "Songs for the Ungrateful Living." Taking a few key tracks that define his success, Everlast comes with nothing but an acoustic guitar and his thick and aging voice this time around.
We all know Everlast for that one super big hit in the late 90's, "What it's like." Disappointment is here if you were expecting that track be present. Quite a few songs you'd think Everlast would believe would be great to put on an acoustic compilation are absent. Other songs like, "White Trash Beautiful", "I Get By", "7 Years", "Praise the Lord", and "Ends", are not put into this album. Now you may be thinking, "well those are his radio hits, he's got more meaningful and catchy songs scattered throughout his albums." A Problem that Everlast has had, is that there are always a couple tracks each album you just really like, then the rest of the album is pain-painstakingly average. That's sadly just the way it is, like most modern pop stars setting out albums, they only have a couple good singles, (if those were even good in the first place!) and then the rest is atrocious or boring.
Luckily a couple tracks he did put in here like "Black Jesus", "Stay", and "Lonely Road", shouldn't put you to sleep or want to skip to the next song. A fan favorite, "Black Jesus", is probably the best acoustic song on this album, which is great he put it in the album, but as said, it's still a shame that his singles were some of the only songs that you could pay attention to. On the bridge following the second chorus, you can hear Everlast's actually putting some sincere emotion into his voice, even if it is short lived, because although it is his style, Everlast's voice has always had sort of a husky and cocky attitude, which doesn't necessarily play out well every single time, on every single track on an album in previous years. "Stay" and "Lonely Road" serve their purpose, and are definitely above average tracks that I can see anyone familiar with those songs to enjoy them here.
Of course there is a new track, "Stone in My Hand", which is actually not that bad a track, the chords are played fast and uptight, with Everlast's gritty voice at the forefront, such a audibly powerful track, unfortunately it feels like it doesn't progress or go anywhere or takes any risks. A lot of tracks that were otherwise okay have become grade A bedtime lullabies for men, and it's easy to forget what you just listened to. "Today", "Broken", and "Children's Story" were all otherwise decent before, but have undergone the process of which I have said above, but of course that is just my opinion.
You know that one track that House of Pain was famous for? Oh yeah, "Jump Around", yep, that's this album's closing song. Erm, I'm not sure how I feel about a song like this one, a fast and energetic song, being entirely slowed down with no blazing bagpipes making love with my eardrums. This last track is certainly a change of pace, but you aren't that surprised that this song would be easy to remember. Well Everlast's voice has definitely slowed down which I'm not sure I like, I know what he's trying to go for, but I think he comes off as obnoxious more often than not on this track. The instrumental is quite mellow and works well as the closer, just not sure this was a good song choice to turn acoustic. Even if this version does sound good, there's one thing you won't be doing listening to this song, and that is jumping around.
While this effort's musicianship is pretty good, Everlast doesn't do a very good job of keeping the listener hooked, and he probably should have thrown in something else to go along with the acoustic tracks, atleast some guest vocalists or provide more softer acoustic lushes to specific songs, instead of each song getting a thick and beefy acoustic vibe for all to share. At the very least, he should have put in more of his more remember-able hits that would have transformed into an acoustic track more smoothly.