Best Of The Acid Jazz Years, The - Brand New Heavies (The)

Advantages: Musical Excellence
Disadvantages: Couple of weaker tracks

...Acid jazz is one of the minorities in terms of quantity of genre in my collection. But let’s not take anything away from it – this is only because I’m a relative newcomer to the scene, and after all, there’s much less acid jazz out there than other types of music. This Brand New Heavies album is a kind of ‘originals’ album, containing all the original verisons of many of their best hits, including the title track ‘Dream Come True’, ‘Stay This Way’ and ‘People Get Ready’. Tight guitar work and drums prevail throughout, with the occasional welcome addition of that wonderful sax sound we’ve all come to love. And the use of wah-wah and filtering on the guitar is just out of this world. This is all shown to good effect in the many instrumental tracks that litter the album – ‘BNH’, the wonderfully freeform ‘Shake Down’, ‘Sphynx... Read review

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Advantages: Well arranged music
Disadvantages: None

...The acid jazz overtones of the Brand New Heavies make them quite unlike any other band I have the fortune to have in my collection. You might never have heard of them, but it’s likely you know a couple of songs off this album, as they’re pretty well known. The two infinitely poppie tracks – ‘Dream On Dreamer’ and ‘Midnight At The Oasis’ rose fairly high in the charts in the mid-90s, and while they are great tracks, there’s some much better tracks on the album. The instrumental tracks (‘Ten Ton Take’ and ‘Snake Hips’) are perfect examples, as they are both excellent tracks without the need for vocals, such is the musical skill of the rest of the band. N’dea Davenport’s smooth vocals make all the difference however, and her vocal power transforms some tracks from something brilliant into something altogether more exciting. Personal... Read review

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Advantages: Funk is also popular in the 90ies, thats what they show us
Disadvantages: ??

...First I need to say that I love Funk. Unfortunately Funk had its best time in the 70ies but the Brand new Heavies always show that Funk is popular today as well. With their Smash Hits like "Midnight at the Oasis" , "You are the Universe" or "Never stop" they top the standard chartbreaker bands and show the actuality of Funk nowadays. The melodies are fantastic and after 2 or 3 times of listenig to their songs you can already sing it. In my opinion the "Brand New Heavies" are one of the greatest Funk Bands in the 90ies and it is very important that bands like theirs are supported by all teh funk fans!... Read review

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