What The Critics Say
A belated American issue of the Brand New Heavies' 2004 album, All About the Funk was already fundamentally outdated by the time it hit U.S. shores. This is the sole Brand New Heavies album to feature singer Nicole Russo (the great N'Dea Davenport came back to the fold for 2006's Get Used To It), and likely due to Russo's comparatively lightweight voice, this is easily the fluffiest and most pop-oriented album of the band's career. Russo looks like Keira Knightley (a good thing) but sounds like Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas (a considerably less-good thing), and as if to compensate for Russo's vocal shortcomings, stalwart producers Simon Bartholomew, Andrew Love Levy and Jan Kincaid went equally flaccid on the beats and hooks. The results are limp lite-R&B singles like the vaguely Latin-sounding "Surrender" and '70s disco throwbacks like "Boogie," along with a distressing amount of soundalike filler. Only glimmers of the Brand New Heavies' trademark dancefloor suss peek through soulless, overproduced pop songs like "Need Some More," and the weak-tea ballad cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers To Cross" was simply a bad idea. American labels had the right idea in the first place. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The most surprising thing about Get Used to It is that the Brand New Heavies sound very much like an honest-to-gosh band instead of the instrumental unit with a hired frontwoman they always have been. Out of the BNH crew for a decade, vocalist N'Dea Davenport returns and it's both familiar and just like starting over. Young upstart hunger drips out of the opening "We've Got," a slinky slice of funk that introduces what's going to be a mature album with more punch than ever. There are the usual horns and "music turns me on" type lyrics plus Davenport's just perfect voice, but Get Used to It resists wandering into the musical theatrics this skillful group could be accused of overindulging in the past. While the glorious "Music" flirts with electronic dance music and the cool "Don't Know Why (I Love You)" lays some unneeded strings onto its soulful groove, the majority of the album is stripped-down and wonderfully tight. The songwriting is right there, too, with Davenport delivering a handful of empowering or poignant songs that temper drummer and other main lyricist Jan Kincaid's cool acid jazz anthems. As the organic and easy rolling "I've Been Touched" delicately comes apart and fades, it's hard to recall a time this band have delivered an album so well constructed start to finish. They've traded fireworks for fire here, and no one who loves gutsy, vintage grooves should be caught without a copy. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
By the time the Brand New Heavies released Shelter in 1997, urban R&B was shifting toward the more organic grooves that they helped pioneer in the early '90s. Although the Heavies were into acid jazz as well, they smoothed over many of the experimental elements of their music in the mid-'90s, leaving behind a seductive, earthy, and jazzy variation of urban soul. That provided the foundation for Shelter, their first album featuring Siedah Garrett as lead singer. Garrett's smooth voice helps push the band toward more conventional territory, yet their songwriting is stronger than most of the contemporaries, and their sound is funkier and more convincing. While there are no standout singles on Shelter, it's a uniformly engaging listen, illustrating that the Brand New Heavies are one of the great underrated urban R&B bands of the '90s. ~ Leo Stanley, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
This album finds the BNH heading back to the groove-driven, horn-splashed, hand-clapping funk of their debut album, with N'Dea Davenport stepping back into her role as diva/lead vocalist. Following the string of distinguished rappers who made BNH's sophomore album a brave if not wholly successful attempt to infuse rap with the energy of live instruments, Davenport delivers the consistency that was missing from that effort. Repeated listens show this album to be catchier than it initially seems (as long as one avoids "Fake," tone of the most irritating songs in a long time), and when the BNH really lock into a groove, as they do on "Keep Together," the title track, and the instrumental "Snake Hips," they surely do put the funk back in it. ~ Peter Stepek, All Music Guide
'Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1'
What The Critics Say
"Brand New Heavies play the sh*t that/People used to listen to in '70s Chevys." With that succinct and flawless couplet from the awesome opening track, "Bonafide Funk," Large Professor helped to explain why there was a certain herd of influential rappers who were enthralled by the Brand New Heavies' sleek (some would say slick) and urbanely stylish Anglo take on classic American funk and soul after the quartet released its eponymous debut in 1991: They were pulling the very same vintage-groove LPs from their crates for inspiration. When the Heavies made their first trip to American shores, both Q-Tip and 3rd Bass' MC Serch were quick to show their respect by hopping on-stage with the band (likely the event that planted the seed for Heavy Rhyme Experience), and the latter rapper even predicted that The Brand New Heavies would be the source material for a decade's worth of loops and samples for rap producers. Serch's enthusiastic forecast never quite materialized, but it is hard to argue with his logic after you hear this landmark collaborative experiment. A live hip-hop band wasn't a complete novelty at the time -- proto-rapper Gil Scott-Heron utilized jazz backing, Tackhead was the house band for Sugarhill Records all the way back in the late '70s, and the self-proclaimed "world's one and only hip-hop band," Stetsasonic had been fully live for several years by that point -- but never before had rap taken such an on-the-fly, jam-like approach. Spontaneous combustion resulted. Never before (and perhaps never since) had the Heavies managed to sound this deliciously in-the-pocket and playful, and the MCs beautifully follow their lead. Guru sounds looser and more whimsical on "It's Gettin Hectic" than on any Gang Starr track. Simon Bartholomew's teasing guitar lines poke holes in Grand Puba's swollen-tongued bluster on "Who Makes the Loot?" Kool G. Rap is given the blaxploitation backing he had always deserved. And Ed. O.G. and Pharcyde do verbal gymnastics that must be heard. But every vocalist here blooms from the pairing. The only regret is that N'Dea Davenport was not included in some capacity, considering how much she added to the Heavies. Too bad, as well, that there was never a volume two. One wonders what sort of magic Posdnuos and Trugoy of De La Soul, the Leaders of the New School trio, Rakim, or Chuck D. could have conjured had they been tapped as collaborators, or from the West Coast Ice Cube and Del tha Funkee Homosapien. Still, Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1 is a match made in heaven. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
