Disco de The B-52's: “Good Stuff”

The short staffed B52s took big chances here and won me over. However, most of their fans did not consider this Good Stuff.

This album is rather uncharacteristic with very little of their simpler, bouncy music (i.e. "Rock Lobster".) The rhythms are more subdued but still danceable. The music is much more expansive, but I still find myself singing along. I think they retained the party atmosphere for most of the album. I guess it's a party with wine and cheese instead of pizza and beer.

Track by track:

1. Tell It Like It T-I-is: Sets the tone nicely like I mentioned above.

2. Hot Pants Explosion: Naughty fun!

3. Good Stuff: The vocal play comes out for both Fred Scneider and Kate Pierson.

4. Revolution Earth: More etheral, more Kate; if you can get past the obvious overdubbing, it's really nice.

5. Dreamland: My favorite B-52s song - probably because I am a Yes fan; very unlike anything they've done before, but Kate and Fred take their vocals to a whole new level (for Kate, that's going above the stratosphere;) absolutely beautiful!

6. Is That You Mo-Dean: Back to simpler fun about an alien abduction.

7. The World's Green Laughter: An instrumental... sort of; Kate injects the "laughter" with the vocal play that she does so wonderfully - it makes rainforests sound romantic.

8. Vision of a Kiss: To quote History of the World Pt.1, "Nice, nice, not thrilling, but nice."

9. Breezin': Again, a smooth nice feel, but nothing spectacular.

10. Bad Influence: One of those occasional political songs they do; in this case, about people being outcast just for being different.

So if you're expecting a great B-52s album, you may be disappointed. But if you're open-minded that these are very talented musicians willing to step out of their comfort zone, you'll probably love this one.

Maybe this album not quite the same as "Cosmic Thing" or "Wild Planet" or any of the other B-52's albums but, if you really listen to them each of their albums are rather differant to the other. The production here is, I feel, much better than that on "Cosmic Thing" and the album does really grows on you after repeated listenings. I bought it when it first came out and I was far from disappointed. For me Kate Pierson has always been my favorite member of the group and, with the temporary departure of Cindy Wilson from this album, Kate is given her chance to really shine. Her vocals on "Revolution Earth" are, excuse the pun, out of this world! She brings the song to life in all it's psychadelic glory. It could easily pass for a companion piece to 1989's "Roam" (both songs had the same writers). Kate is also given the chance to show just what she can do on "Vision Of A Kiss". She is not "flat" or "sugary sweet" as other reviewers have stated - she really lets loose and that is pretty much what the B-52's are all about - just let loose and have a great time (and this album will definately help you do it!)

While not as solid from start to finish as its immediate predecessor, "Cosmic Thing", "Good Stuff" is just that -- good stuff, at times even great stuff.

The best songs on here are the first three -- the album just explodes out of the gates (much like Smarty Jones did at the Belmont Stakes, only to fade at the very end). The first three songs are "Tell it Like it T-I-Is", "Hot Pants Explosion" (super fun and very catchy), and "Good Stuff".

The other two songs on here that are very fun are "Is that You Mo-Dean?" and "Bad Influence" (the last song on here and the one that arrests the slide quality-wise of the last half of the album).

I give this album 4 stars because these five songs are 5-star quality, while the remainder of the album is 3-star quality. Therefore, for a casual B-52s fan, this honestly is not a must-own. You could get a couple of the best songs from here on the B-52s Anthology along with some other classics. If you love the B-52s, though, you really ought to get this album to get all five very catchy songs I mentioned above.

It's too bad that Cindy Wilson was not along for the fun ride on this album. However, the B-52's once again proved resilient and able to produce a great album. They don't miss a beat on "Good Stuff."

To tell you the truth, "Good Stuff" isn't even the best song on here (not that it's a bad song, mind you). I loved the first track, "Tell it like it T-I-is" as well as their tribute song to that article of clothing that we just don't see enough of anymore, Hot Pants.

I was so enchanted by the first three songs that it carried me through the rest of the album, which all in all was quite entertaining.

I'm guessing it's because of Cindy's absence, but Fred seems to team up with Kate a lot more than usual with much of the vocals. I don't mind that one bit; he adds a quirky element that the B-52's could not do without.

It was difficult to follow up "Cosmic Thing." The B-52's could have taken a break on this album and blamed it on a lack of Cindy, but they didn't. They stuck to the program, and produced another fine disk. Bravo!

Simply amazing, wonderful crafted, lot of great songs, terrific interpretations, surprising harmonies, melodies & rhythms, echoing balcanic music, indian mantras, arabic singing, in funky sauce Talking Heads rememberings', and Kate Pierson with his wonderful voice & shimmering way of singing.