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Scapegoat
Wax
Swax
label:
Hollywood Records
released: 09.17.02
our score: 3.5 out of 5.0
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It's the spring
of 2001, your name is Marty James and your band Scapegoat Wax
just released their debut album Okeeblow on the Beastie
Boy's infamous Grand Royal Records. Your single "Aisle 10
(Hello Allison)" is just about to be picked up by MTV2 and
radio for rotation. Things couldn't be looking better for you,
considering you spent the last few years of your life spinning
at parties and sleeping on porches. Oh, and your record label
is about to go bankrupt and leave you with virtually no support.
And so Swax
begins, with Marty a year or two older and a whole lot bitterer.
While technically Swax may be the follow up to the acclaimed
Okeeblow, it is more like a new start for James and his
backing band, a chance to redo everything that got messed up last
time when his label went under. Of the 12 songs on this album,
three of them have already seen daylight as tracks from the debut
effort, including the former single "Aisle 10". While
Swax never quite seems to hit a stride the way Okeeblow
did, it is a fun and incredibly diverse album none-the-less.
"Do I
rap or do I sing?" James asks his audience on the opening
track "Back Alive", and throughout the rest of the album
he never seems to stick to one answer. He sings ("Space to
Share"), he raps ("Eardrum"), and he does a little
of everything else in between. From track to track James switches
from hard rock, to smooth R&B, to pure funk, to straight up
hip-hop. This eclectic mix doesn't always work (the first single
"Lost Cause" for example sounds a bit too much like
a Smashmouth or Sugar Ray song to be good), but the effort is
always sincere and never seems like a marketing ploy. While Swax
is by no means one of the hip-hop masterpieces that 2002 saw,
you could certainly do worse than giving it a listen. It's a fun,
enjoyable mix that doesn't always hit on all cylinders but for
the most part treats the listener to a little of everything.
13-Jan-2003
11:00 PM
If you
liked Swax...
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| Tracklist:
1.
Back Alive
2. Watching the Rain
3. Lost Cause
4. Crawlin'
5. Freeway
6. Bloodsweet
7. Space to Share
8. Eardrum
9. Perfect Silence
10. Aisle 10 (Hello Allison)
11. Almost Fine
12. Both My Friends
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