Sole – Live From Rome anticon. ABR 0048 CD (2005)
Righteous indignation.
This is a much more overtly political album than Sole’s previous — and probably best — album Selling Live Water. It isn’t nearly as successful. Though there are good intentions everywhere on this disc, the music/beats aren’t always compelling. I saw Sole live touring on this album, and he had a live band with him. Frankly, many of the songs sounded better with the live band (the title “Live From Rome” alludes to the fall of the Roman Empire as a parallel to or hope for the fall of the American Empire; this is not a live recording). The thundering “Dumb This Down” is probably the best here, but “Cheap Entertainment” is sort of subtly infectious. Almost everything here is decent, but newcomers should start elsewhere.