3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
fishbone when we thought they were just a ska band, Sep 4 1998
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Your Face (Audio CD)
this is a great record from the early days of fishbone, before they broadened out to the undefinable band they are now. lots of bouncing ska, high energy beats, funny to sad lyrics.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Something for everyone, Aug 19 2005
By Angelo - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Your Face (Audio CD)
I love Fishbone's first LP. The purposely-misleading gangsta inlay design (before there was any such thing as gangsta rap), sums up Fishbone well: What you see is NOT what you get. In Your Face is filled with gorgeous and soulful songs ("In the Air" and "Give it Up"), as well as a few that are a bit raunchy lyrically ("Cholly" and "Knock It"). And as expected, there's lots of silly Fishbone-style humor (like "Selection", which says that no matter what day-to-day choices you make, it's all the same in the end). But no matter what the songs are about, they maintain an excellent sense of melody. Like I said, don't expect the music on this record to be how the "stereotypically-black" cover would suggest it is.
This is music that everyone can enjoy.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, Dec 1 2010
By Bill Your 'Free Form FM Print DJ "bill nicholas" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Your Face (Audio CD)
Before Nirvana brought rock and roll back into rock and roll, Living Color and Fishbone were two of the few bands out there making music that resembled what rock fans knew as the real deal. It may be hard to conceive now, but in a world ruled by Micheal, Madonna and hair metal bands, Fishbone were one of the few true tickets. It may have been Ska, but this music had real guitars, sounded like modern blues, boasted attitude that came from real guys, not metal monsters who's hair could not fit through a doorway. I didn't know them until I got to college-that is where you had to be to hear a band like this in non-internet 1988.
If you can get past a little dated production, this is a terrific album. Lots of slamming ska, thumping bass and fantastic writing. This is long before Sublime, and long before a form like ska was acceptable in the vomit-shrink wrapped world of MTV rock.
You may not have had an opportunity to hear Fishbone if you are one of those who was in pampers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But a non-white band playing hard rock-with or without the ska tinge-was even an alien concept on this Reagan youth planet. The world was this small a place
And Fishbone holds up today: the playing and singing are so good. Even the 1980s production works, adding a unique flavor to music that we would not even consider different in our sphere of Ipods and limitless options
If my history lesson means little to you--I lived through Thriller and am scarred for life, forgive me-this music will. Check it out, litte babies.