Devil Without A Cause [PA] - Kid Rock > Reviews > Devil without a cause

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
Value for Money

Advantages:	entertaining and a good mixture of styles
Disadvantages:	too much bragging .  so so production

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Although this feels like a debut, this is actually his 4th (but this time sucessful) attempt at success. As he says in the title track 'devil without a cause - i'm going platinum!'.

This is an enjoyable album to listen to, mixing the currently fashionable rap metal with other elements.
The main focus points on the album are opener badwitdaba, which has a very edgy sound, good to start off the album. Cowboy follows, and was a succesful song, starting off with a folk tinged hip hop sound and ending with a more abbrasive metal sound.
Towards the album, comes a big shock, a power ballad! I wondered at first if he was taking the piss, but 'only god knows why' is quite an emotional number where he ponders whether his quality of life has improved through fame. But it surprises me why he uses a vocoder on the song! He's not trying to do a Cher?!

Many of the songs have a rather similar feel to them, with metal riffs overlapping a mixture of old skool drum machines and live drums. However this combination sometimes sounds a little underproduced, and as someone who plays I sometimes question the choice of sounds on the album.

The lyrical style may annoy too, often being sexual, but also turning the album into a bit of a brag fest, using the original idea of shouting he's the illest, and a pimp all over the record!

To some up the best point of the album, i would congratulate it for not being too heavy that it gets boring. He is willing to take from old style rap and rock and fuse it all together, making it more funky than manic depressive metal like slipknot cradle of filth or amen!