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Other bands were bigger, other bands were better, but no other group embodied the spirit of late-'80s hair metal as much as Warrant. They were slick and tuneful, cheerfully shallow and gussied up to look prettier than they actually are. It was the era in a nutshell -- proud to be all surface and no depth. That aesthetic is what drives their debut, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich, an album where they shake and shimmy like rock stars because that's what they desperately want to be. To achieve that, they distilled the sounds of L.A. at the time, where everybody used Van Halen and Kiss as a template, balancing the former's guitar hero antics and flamboyant sex-god frontman with the latter's big dumb riffs and pop hooks. Warrant surely weren't the first to do it -- Ratt and Poison brought it into the mainstream a few years earlier -- but the glossy package of Dirty Rotten makes it emblematic of its time. It's sleek and clean, built on processed guitars and cavernous drums, never taking more time than it needs, pushing the hooks front and center, along with a mile-wide sentimental streak best heard on the power ballads "Sometimes She Cries" and "Heaven," which sold this album to a wider, largely female audience that was also enamored with frontman Jani Lane's pretty looks. But don't be mistaken -- those are two slow moments on an album that's a party record, the time when the lights dim and the kids sway in a slow dance. The rest of this is good-time pop-metal, all professionally done but leaving little lasting impression, outside of the tremendous "Down Boys," which sounds exactly the same as the rest of the record but has an indelible chorus and is the one time when the band actually sounds powerful instead of preening. But it's hard to criticize an album for not making a lasting impression when it was designed to be in the moment, something to blast at keggers and when cruising through town. It severed its purpose in 1989, and years later, it sounds exactly like that year, both for better and worse. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Final Ol' Dirty album unveiled
Produced by RZA and featuring guest spots by several Wu-Tang members, Missy Elliott, Macy Gray, Pharrell, the Clipse, and N.O.R.E., A Son Unique hits stores November 7.
The final album of Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died of a drug overdose while recording it, is finally complete and will be in stores nearly two years to the day after his death, Damon Dash Music Group said today.
ODB's
A Son Unique
A Son Unique, produced entirely by Wu-Tang mastermind RZA, will hit stores November 7, featuring guest spots from Wu members RZA, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and Method Man, as well as Missy Elliott, Macy Gray, Pharrell, the Clipse, N.O.R.E., and Fame from M.O.P.
The album title is a take on Unique Ason, one of Dirty's plethora of self-bestowed nicknames, which also include Osirus, Joe Bananas, Dirt McGirt, Dirt Dog, and Big Baby Jesus.
The album will be released through the Damon Dash Music Group. Upon his release from prison in 2003, ODB signed with Roc-A-Fella Records, and Dash's company is the remnants of that label following his split with longtime partner Jay-Z, who now heads Def Jam.
ODB--real name Russell Jones--was working on the album at Wu-Tang's recording studio in New York when he died of a lethal combination of prescription pain medication and a large amount of cocaine, according to the New York Medical Examiner's Office. He died November 13, 2004, just two days shy of his 36th birthday.
His death ended a period of several years filled with arrests for drug- and driving-related offenses, as well as his October 2000 escape from a court-mandated stay at a drug treatment facility and a one-month stint as a fugitive. He was eventually picked up by police while signing autographs in a McDonald's parking lot in Philadelphia.
Although widely renowned for his wildly off-beat, sometimes-slurred, half-sung delivery, ODB was more well known for his hilariously bizarre behavior. Even among the nine characters in the Wu-Tang Clan, ODB easily stood out as its most colorful character.
His final solo album was originally set for release in early 2005 but was delayed for an unspecified reason.
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