Review: Living Colour Return With Bluesy Take on Righteous Rage
Veteran art-metal crew Living Colour stretch across time and genre for another serving of righteous rage. But for sixth album Shade, they fold blues music into their singular crunch: Tracks like “Freedom of Expression (F.O.X.)” and “Who’s That” (with trombone by ex-Dirty Dozen Brass Bander Big Sam Williams) sound like an alternate 1967 where Otis Redding sang for Cream. The record’s covers span the nearly 60 years between from Robert Johnson’s “Preachin’ Blues” to Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues” to the Notorious B.I.G.’s Brooklyn street-dread blues of “Who Shot Ya.” And while a few tracks do sound like retreads of their familiar monolithic grooves, songs like “Come On” are intensely contemporary, tweaking LC’s sound with the inhuman ADD sound-warping of modern dubstep.