Epinions Recent Reviews for brotherman

Maxwell 2.0( an upgrade)

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:03:11 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - In, “BLACKsummersnight,&rdqu
o;
his 4th studio album, Maxwell scraps every single construct that has made him popular. The warm, afro coifed R&B god that could have passed for a fashion model is gone, replaced by a clean cut, moody man...

The small winner.

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:11:03 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Although Slumberland, Paul Beatty’s third novel, is set in Berlin, it has none of the aesthetics one thinks of when they talk about African American Expatriate fiction. The Protagonist, Eugene Sowell AKA DJ d-rky is a witty, sardonic cad who spins...

Praisesong of the Soul Master( My entry into the Lean and Mean W/O)

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 08:31:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - The key to A time 2 Love, Stevie Wonder’s best album in 25 years, is in its lack of emotional restraint. A praisesong to the women in his life, it is the most sorrowful work he has ever done, but that bitter sweetness has freed him from the...

The Sun Also Rises at 80: Of Hemingway and his flawed elegance.

Tue, 2 May 2006 11:11:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Over 100 years since his birth and 50 years since he was the most visible writer in America, Ernest Hemingway remains a man of many masks. A larger than life figure, Papa (his nickname), meant many different things to different people. There's Albert...

Kil de Wabbit: John Updike's finest hour.

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 17:47:55 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Out of what many American literature enthusiasts call the big 4(Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth, Norman Mailer, and John Updike), it is Updike who is the most underrated, as well as the most likeable. Granted he has his flaws: few writers as gifted has him...

What is hip? This is.

Sun, 8 Jan 2006 19:26:09 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - You know about the artists, celebrities, and cultural figureheads who like to go on VH1 flashback shows and reminisce about disco? You know, the cats with reconstructed noses, Feng Shui yuppie wardrobes, and a grotesque sense of self that almost demands...

India Arie's buppie blues

Thu, 1 Dec 2005 00:27:55 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - The most beautiful and the most frustrating aspect of India.Arie as an artist is that she sees her work as part of her personal journey, with her songs serving as travelogues. Part of the Earthseed collective, an eclectic group of soul artists from...

The funk mitosis of the century.

Thu, 1 Dec 2005 00:24:47 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - There is an unacknowledged kinship that early Funkadelic-era George Clinton has with Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett. If you listen to Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and the first albums that Clinton did with his acid rock-funk-everything Funkadelic band, you...

Dammit, Chuck.

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 22:32:33 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - To fence Charles Johnson into any politically correct convention is to do a tremendous disservice to one of the most accomplished and ambitious American writers, regardless of color. Ever since 1974, Johnson has crafted brainy and deftly written fiction...

Sly's last stand

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:24:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - 1973, Sly Stone wasn’t in his own custom made hell, but he could smell the smoke and feel the heat coming. A little more than a year earlier, he had released There’s A Riot Goin' On, his magnum opus of bruised idealism, lethal funk arrangements and...

A great introduction to the master

Sun, 5 Jun 2005 16:45:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - If there is any writer in the history of American literature who is a testament to the fallacy of category, it's Henry James. During a 50 year career in which he tackled the art of the novel, short story and essay with religious fervor, he established a...

David Ruffin's blues

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 05:57:54 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - The life of David Ruffin hasn’t grown as legendary as it has mystical in its sense of pathos. Pain, abandonment and misery ran through his art and life. A mother’s death at birth, a non-existent father, and the callous way he was sent on the...

Fear and loathing in the presence of the lord: James Baldwin's great American novel

Sun, 3 Oct 2004 18:18:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - On July 23rd the United States Postal Service unveiled a postage stamp in honor of James Baldwin, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He is the third African American writer honored, the first two being Langston Hughes and Zora Neale...

Rage of a privileged demagogue (Brotherman crashes the Excellent/Excruciating write off)

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 01:37:15 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Ishmael Reed's career has been a testament to the fact that there is a thin line between a satirist and an a$$-hole. Starting with 1967's The Free Lance Pallbearers, a crass parody of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, in which every group under the sun...

Portrait of the artist as a young woman

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 16:16:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - I call Aretha our lady of mysterious sorrows. Her eyes were incredible, luminous eyes covering inexplicable pain. Her Depressions could be as deep as the dark sea. I dont pretend to know the sources of her anguish, but anguish surrounds Aretha as...

Portrait of a soul man as christian humanist.

Sun, 30 May 2004 17:10:44 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - If one wanted to look to a singular artist as an example for how unbelievably subtle an art form soul music is, the first artist to come to mind for many would be Curtis Mayfield. Drawing his inspiration from the diverse sounds of Chicago Soul, doo-wop,...

Herzog at 40: Saul Bellow's last great book

Fri, 28 May 2004 06:44:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - In " Twentieth century fiction", Ralph Ellison speaks of the failure of the lost generation( Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc.) to view African Americans as full human beings, which in turn caused them to fail to look at themselves as full human beings as...

Eudora's Gift

Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:42:11 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - To quote one of my Culturedose colleagues, Eudora Welty is one of the reasons that you thank god you know how to read. Throughout a 40 year career, Welty gave the American story a neoclassic face, taking her knowledge of the territory of the south and...

mary's finest hour

Fri, 16 Apr 2004 10:53:55 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - The art of Mary J. Blige, queen of modern R&B, is elusive. Like many of soul’s greatest practitioners, her albums are a collection of transcendent moments. They stop and start, exhilarate and lull, frustrate you one minute, then proceed to blow your...

Teddy pendergrass: an appreciation

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 22:57:10 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - One of the more heartwarming soul music stories in the past few years has been the return of Teddy Pendergrass to a touring stage; the first time since his debilitating car accident 20 years ago. And getting past conventional PC platitudes (yes, it is...

portrait of a soul man in permanent summer.

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 23:41:43 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - There comes a time in every great soul artist’s life when they have to compete against their own myth. Myth plays a vital part in soul music because it's roots come from the folklore of slavery, pertaining to the crosscurrents of beauty and sorrow...

Why Lauryn Hill still doesn't deserve to be an R&B singer(RETOOLED WITH NEW POSTSCRIPT)

Fri, 2 Jan 2004 01:18:41 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Although it takes an air of futuristic innovation, the roots of Lauryn Hill's miserable MTV Unplugged 2.0 go as far back as the '60s. The Black Arts movement, and its special brand of literary and cultural fascism, hangs like a wretched scepter through...

Portrait of a soul queen in spring

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 23:57:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - The deepest fear that most R&B purists had about Alicia keys didn’t lie in her talent, but in the presence of Clive Davis. Many fans point to his well documented rant about the first copy of Whitney Houston’s debut CD being “too black”...

Midnight in the garden of Marvin Gaye: a second look at midnight love

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 00:12:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Next April will be the 20th anniversary of Marvin Gaye's murder, an act that stilled one of popular music's most gifted talents and ended the story of soul music's greatest tragedy. Before his death he had made a spectacular comeback off Midnight Love,...

Brotherman's greatest soul albums of all time #87

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 03:58:35 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author brotherman - Out of all the architect's of the Philly soul sound, Thom Bell was the most underrated as well as the most consistent. Almost all the avatars of the sub-genre were brilliant yet flawed in their own way. At their best, Gamble and huff's combination of off...