In an interview streamed from the Rancid website before the release of Rancid (2000), he revealed that his style was heavily influenced at an early age by John Entwistle, bassist for The Who. He is best known for his bass work with the punk rock bands Operation Ivy, Rancid and as the frontman of Devil's Brigade. Highlights for me are Tim talking about Op Ivy on 'Among The Dead' ("and Dave Mello.he was the drummer") the old-school chicka-chicka-chicka groove on 'Into Action' and the wailing harmonica on 'Lady Dementer'.Roger Matthew Freeman, also known as Matt McCall (born April 23, 1966) is an American musician. It is not as aggressive as the transplants, not as abrasive as Rancid, not as ska as Operation Ivy or Downfall, but takes aspects from all and brings them together to form a groove-infused album that is quite a lot of fun to listen to. However this may be due to the downloading aspect of tha album - some tracks came out well over 4 months ago and are ingrained by now, wheras the latest ones came out only a few days ago and are still unfamiliar.I suppose the best way to sum up 'A Poet's Life' is that it is a chilled out summing-up of Armstrong's career by the unique voice of the man himself. If I have one major critiscm of 'A Poet's Life' it is that it doesn't FEEL much like an album, more a collection of songs. This might just be me though, other might feel thealbum would get boring if it was any longer. This is not usually a problem on Armstrong-penned records - the Transplants had variety and Rancid & Op Ivy have at least 19 songs on albums - but when there are only ten tracks, all at the same pace, it feels too short. Songs often follow a rigid structure and a lot are too short, or are over too quickly. Lyrics are quite often too obvious and this sometimes takes away from the songs (though he has still got some really good lines, and 'Among the Dead' has probably the best lyrics on the album, summing up his career quite nicely). I like Tim's voice a lot and quite often his lyrics are pretty good, especially some of his one-liners, but 'A Poet's Life' misses out on this a lot of the time. There are downsides though - notably the lyrical aspect of the album. It really adds to the unique vibe created by this album. Throughout all the tracks the use of the organ really stands out for me - amplifying different aspects of the music, sounding soulful in 'Hold On' and contemplative in 'Among The Dead'. There are a few weaker tracks - 'Oh No' is the main culprit for me, and ending tune 'Cold Blooded' has a cool creepy vibe but would maybe have worked better with actual lyrics. Standout tracks here are 'Among The Dead' which recounts Tim's early life to a mourning reggae groove and a tale of Tim and his mates hitting the town in the fun 'Take This City'. If you liked 'Life Won't Wait' by Rancid (my personal favourite of their albums) then the blend here will sit well with you. Some of the tracks are really really good though, with a nice blend of ska, sampling, DJing and Tim's mumbled vocals. Yeah the lyrics aren't the standout point of 'A Poet's Life'. Lyrically Tim is often talking about different girls and how he wants to care for them blah blah. This is not helped by the fact that the next track, 'Translator', is slow and carries a Buju Banton-style dancehall influence ( especially in its lyrical stylings). It is a good song, but maybe should have headed the album instead of placing 3 tracks in, as it disrupts the vibe that is created by the first two tracks. Compared to the rest of the songs it is very quick and dancey, where the other songs have a slower, more chilled-out groove. Quite a few people will have heard Into Action by now, featuring Skye Sweetnam on backup vocals, but that song kinda sounds out of place on the album. Tim Armstrong's solo effort is by all accounts a pretty good one in my opinion, focussing more heavily on an old-school ska sound which is held together by the superbly tight Hellcat-signed Aggrolites (acting as his backing band). Hopefully this review will help people decide whether or not they should take advantage of Tim's downloading policy, or just go buy the thing (a move on the part of the distributor after the radio sucess of 'Into Action', or so i gather). This review is because all the songs for this have now been made availible in various forms over the internet by Armstrong and the scheduled release date is in about 5 days, May 22nd. Review Summary: A chilled out summing-up of Armstrong's career by the unique voice of the man himself
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