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 A dark but necessary record Oct 05, 2008
I LOVE the lyrics to "In Your Name" Brilliant.. Corey delivers the brainy, heavy duty, tongue-in-cheek commentary. Cool production too.
Oh yeah! Nov 17, 2007
Vernon Reid thankfully gives up on his solo noodlings and rejoins forces with the vehicle that give his talents such a good showcasing. LC were supposedly dead to the world yet here they reconvene and on this album things seem to have turned full circle for them. In the late 80's and early 90's it was their funkiness and apartness from so much of the hard rock world that gave them a fresh voice. However in 2003 it would seem that their concentration on song and - dare I say it - normality, that makes them stand out from the ruins of the nu-metal implosion and metalcore screamo bands. LC have changed by staying the same and in many respects this album doesn't sound like it's been years since their last one. All the usual LC stylings are there, an innate funkiness driven by the rhythm section with Reids slashing and diving guitar work laid over the top. Studio trickery is utilised particularly on Coreys' voice but the whole thing is very much anchored into the hard rock world due to the underlining heft of the songs structures.
Personal favourites on this album would be opener Song Without Sin, A ? Of When and the whimsical Flying. But that's not to denigrate the social commentary tunes which LC can still fire the listeners way with aplomb and a heck of a lot more street cred than your average hard rock band. Numbers like Nightmare City and Operation: Mind Control both work their heavy way along. And the cover of AC/DC's Back In Black was both a surprise and a fun choice for cover tune. Tomorrow Never Knows I could of lived without.
The dense sounding production reminds me more of Stained than their debut and as the album moves along it becomes clear that this isn't a five star release. It is a little overlong and does lack a certain X factor spark. It is however a good quality release from a quality band and it's certain that this is an album most of their former fans will enjoy as it sticks very much to what LC were initially known for, though it does understandably lack the youthful freshness of the more open and buoyant debut.
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 It's no "Vivid..." May 09, 2007
Having been a longstanding fan of Living Colour that pulled his copy of "Vivid" out of a Hasting's shipping box, it would stand to reason that I would have snatched up "Collideoscope." However, several years passed, and doing an academic project on the band inspired me to finally purchase it. Retrospectively, I had no small amount of fear that the "comeback" CD from one of my personal favorite bands would not live up to my expectations, tinted as they were by the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. After being with this album for awhile, it seems that this apprehension was unfortunately somewhat justified.
"Collideoscope" is plagued by the nagging inconsistency of its material. This is an issue that Living Colour has dealt with on every album since the absolutely pristine "Vivid," but one that has always been tastefully dealt with within the album format. "Time's Up" and "Stain" both have some the weaker material, but these instances are carefully arranged to contrast the majority of stronger material, creating a strong overall project. For its length, I am not convinced that "Collideoscope" has enough strong material to keep it afloat. The inclusion of not one, but two cover songs begs the question as to whether or not some careful editing and a shorter running time might have improved the overall experience. In particular, the "Back in Black" cover (which borders on comic relief) would have been an interesting B-side or bonus track, but as a "feature" on Living Colour's "comeback" album it forces the listener to question the integrity of the overall project.
There are moments, however, that "Collideoscope" harkens back to the heights of Living Colour's creative legacy. Pay attention to the melancholic suicide note "Falling," which is perhaps not the "heaviest" tune on the album, but is certainly the most melodic and lyrically memorable. I also have to unequivocally state that the band is playing above and beyond their usual virtuosic standard. Vernon, Corey, Doug, and Will have all grown tremendously as musicians since "Stain." The command over their respective instruments and the way that they musically gel is staggering. They might be considered to be at the peak of their technical ability.
The Lowdown: "Collideoscope" is a sonic masterpiece: it sounds great. However, considering it was almost ten years in the making, the majority of the material on "Collideoscope" feels rushed and haphazard, with some compelling exceptions This does not mean that I think that Living Colour is "done," or "irrelevant," as a previous reviewer postulated. To realize this relevance, the band must take care to craft their next album with the same impassioned precision that bred their earlier work.
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Very disappointing (2.5 stars) Dec 31, 2006
After a very long hiatus, Living Colour returned to the music scene in 2003 with their fourth studio album, Collideoscope. During their heyday, the band was a rarity in hard rock as their first two albums, Vivid and Time's Up respectively, were very strong statements both lyrically and musically. The band could add any genre to their brand of music and make it their own. Although their third album, Stain, was a less challenging release and was hampered by a muddy production, the great songs were still intact. During the next 10 years, both the musical climate and the state of the world had changed drastically. When the band released Collideoscope in 2003, longtime fans wondered how interesting the new album would be. Well, the good news was that their social awareness was still intact. The bad news was that the great songs were gone.
The album starts out strong as "Song Without Sin" and "A ? Of When" feature menacing riffs from Vernon Reid and strong vocals from Corey Glover. Unfortunately, the next track, "Operation Mind Control" is very sluggish. The band redeem themselves on "Flying", a graphic tune dealing with the 9/11 tragedy. From here, the album is a mess. While tracks like the rock/reggae of "Nightmare City", the bluesy "Holy Roller", and the funk/rock of "Great Expectation" are decent tunes that grow on you, other songs such as "In Your Name", "Choices Mash Up", "Pocket of Tears", and "Sacred Ground" are hurt by either too many sound effects, bad production, weak lyrics, or unmemorable melodies. Sadly, the rhythm section of Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun play it pretty safe, as though they were just rushed into the studio to do their parts, rather than leave their unique stamp on them. As for the cover tunes, their version of "Tomorrow Never Knows" is okay while Glover's vocals on "Back in Black" are painfully bad, like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. All told, Collideoscope is a disappointing album that rarely shows the greatness of their previous three albums.
 The title sums up the album - its a collision course Oct 31, 2006
Realistically Collideoscope feels like seven strong tracks with a bunch of demos to pad it out and while it fits in with Living Colour's back catalogue returning listeners might be disappointed. The band feel inconsistent here, torn between coming back with a strong, traditional sounding album that would match past efforts or continuing from where Stain left off. They opt to take a mixed approach and Collidescope is the uneven result. Musically its a continuation of the style found on Stain heavy muted riffs and dark themes but Stain's bright edge is muted in favour of murkier production which accentuates the dinginess. The strongest tracks are Song Without Sin, which has a similar vibe to Go Away and displays Vernon Reid's fat guitar tone, A ? Of When, which offers thick, atonal riffs paired with a descending bassline, over Corey Glover's and desperate two line chorus and Flying, in the same vein as 'Love Rears Its Ugly Head' from Time's Up, which recounts the point of view of one of the victims who leapt from the burning World Trade Centre. Living Colour's strengths, like Faith No More, are bright pop songs juxtaposed with disturbing lyrics. This is demonstrated nowhere better than on this track, the whimsical chorus is slightly disconcerting, given the subject matter however Vernon Reid's solo is tasteful and eclectic and the rhythm section holds the song together beautifully. Other highlights are: Lost Halo, Holy Roller, Choices Mash Up, and Pocket Of Tears. Of the covers Tomorrow Never Knows is so much better than Back In Black, while the latter was done for fun, the former fits in so much better with the other tracks on the album.
With Collideoscope Living Colour show they've still got the goods so hopefully they'll nail down the vision a bit better on the next album.
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