Rev Run - Distortion Review

Rev Run, with his MTV show and being a Reverend and what have you, comes up with his first solo album. So how is it? Well, its short, but...read on.

01. I Used to Think I Was Run
Rev really is intense throughout this album, and the opener is certainly a demonstration of this. The song is pretty good with a nice chorus.

02. Home Sweet Home
This samples "Sweet Home Alabama" and its alright for remaking Lynrd Skynrd into rap, I guess. Not really all that.

03. Boom Ditty
And this song has a thump like you havent heard - a certified minimalistic headnodder. My shit.

04. Breaktime
A minute 42 seconds with a bunch of breaks and what I'm guessing is a 303 synth or something. It's okay, but "Boom Ditty" is better.

05. High and Mighty Joe
Headnodder again, just a fun song. The chorus is pretty funny and again the focus is on the drumming. I'd like to know who's doing the scratches and who's playing bass and what have you cause there's definitely alot of live instrumentation.

06. The Way
Song about how good he preaches, which is untrue. He's not really all that knowledgable about God. But the percussion and the guitars are nice. Actually the lyrics arent that bad either.

07. Don't Stop Y'all
He switches his flow up, and the weird synthesizers and chorus are pretty sweet.

08. Mind on the Road
Big single, big-time headnodding with the booming drums and the distortion guitars. Fuck it, I like it and deal with it.

09. Take a Tour
Another song with a laid back flow and general laid back feel,at least compared to the rest of the album. I dig the percussion andwhatever instrument that is that plays along. The Blondie sample on the hook works alright.

10. Distortion
Closes with the title track, so I'm guessing its suppossed to be super important. Rev Run has a powerful voice that feels right at home over the booming percussion (and you guessed it) distortion guitars and ocassionally distorted vocals or what have you. The guitar solo isnt all that good though.

Overall
This album reminds me of Run-D.M.C. even though it doesn't sound much like Run-D.M.C. Of course Run still is Run and there's Run-D.M.C. samples scattered througout, but the sound in general doesnt sound like that. What I mean is that its just a fun album - Rev isnt the most intelligent or the wittiest rapper ever and whoever plays guitar is no Marty Friedman, but they dont have to be. There is a certain urgency to the songs, a certain class, a certain fun to it - that's how it reminds me of Run-D.M.C.

So yeah, this album is over at 23:03, the longest song is 3:07 and there's 2 songs that dont even break the 2 minute mark. So yeah, its short. The truth is, however, I'll take 23 minutes of shit this good as oppossed to 46 minutes of shit half this good.

Like my man GZA said:
"Half as long, twice as strong"