Various Artists, “The Family Values Tour 2006”
NU-METAL|Firm Music, released Dec. 26
Although its sound and approach have since gone beyond parody, it’s undeniable that when Korn first appeared on the scene in the mid-
1990s, it was one of the few bands at the time bold enough to align with metal. Additionally, its sound and approach were copied repeatedly by other acts (you know it well by now – detuned/rubbery riffs, talked verses/screamed choruses, etc.)
So when it was time to make the jump to arenas, Korn patterned its own multiband tour after Lollapalooza and Ozzfest, dubbing it the Family Values tour. But after Stone Temple Pilots/Staind co-headlined a version of the tour in 2001, no further Family Values tours were organized – leading fans to believe that it may have gone the way of the dodo.
Come 2006, Korn decided to resuscitate the traveling road show once more, inviting a variety of bands (including the Deftones, Flyleaf, Stone Sour, plus others) to join them. Later the same year, the 16-track Family Values Tour 2006 sampler was issued, and while not all of the bands from the tour were featured, all of the best-known ones were. Quite a few expected tracks are featured (Deftones’ “My Own Summer,” Korn’s “Blind”), as well as a few surprises, such as Richard Patrick joining Flyleaf for a cover of U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love),” plus a pair of tracks which see Korn joined by guest vocalists – Chino Moreno on “Shoots and Ladders/Wicked” and Corey Taylor on “Freak on a Leash.”
While the disc should appeal to 2006 Family Values attendees, all the nonstop riffs, fury and roaring vocals eventually begin to blend into one big, colorless, angst-filled blob. |Greg Parto, All Music Guide
Trick Daddy, “Back by Thug Demand”
HIP-HOP|Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic, released Dec. 19
In the two years since his last CD, the booming, rough party music that Trick Daddy has made the sound of 21st-century South Florida has gone mainstream. The Liberty City rapper is back to claim his title of king of these streets (not that any of his followers, from Pitbull to Rick Ross to Pretty Ricky, have tried to usurp his throne).
Trick has taken Tupac’s thug stance and run with it, using the word in six out of his seven album titles. However, he drops the revolutionary, social commentary that made Shakur a visionary in favor of the usual Miami tropes, which are getting rather tired: sex, drugs, clubs, guns and Chevys.
Trick is a talented rapper who too easily drags his skills through the gutter. Songs like “Booty Doo” and “So High” do not exactly advance the race, let alone the genre. “10-20-Life” and “Born a Thug” are slices of Miami life, ghetto-legend-style.
There are no insights on the wave of violence that has claimed the lives of so many of the kids Trick loves; then again, anyone who has been listening to the man born Maurice Young these past nine years knows thug life has a high body count.|Evelyn McDonnel, Miami Herald
Other releases today:
Carly Simon, “Into White” (Sony) A mixed-genre disc of soft songs from this longtime singer/songwriter icon asserts Simon’s ability (and proclivity) to do whatever she pleases with their records.
Elvis Presley, “The Essential Elvis Presley” (BMG) Two discs of remastered Presley classics – from “Heartbreak Hotel” to “Viva Las Vegas” – find the late King sounding better than ever.
