1, 2, To the Bass

is without doubt a phenomenally talented bassist but has not done much to showcase this ability on his own recordings since the late '70s. You can chalk that up mostly to 's propensity for trite, -oriented material that does little to illuminate his great technical command of the instrument or to engage the listener either melodically or lyrically. is a step in the right direction with a more -oriented feel and some interesting guest appearances. Rapper gets things off to a nice start on the title track which reimagines '90s as " " . is reminiscent of 's more -style originals with flutist on a nice melodic hook. There is also an inspired reworking of the classic featuring and . Later on, if sounds a little too much like 's 's reading of seems a bit out of place on an album that includes a song titled there's at least the -styled - of And don't forget the monstrous "freak" cover of that almost redeems everything guitarist has ever done. Perhaps not the exhilarating breakthrough one would hope, is nonetheless a very exciting return to form. ~ Matt Collar