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Music CD - Ben Harper: Diamonds on the Inside
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Music CD: Diamonds on the Inside
Artist: Ben Harper
List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $7.96
Your Save: $ 10.02 ( 56% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Virgin Records Us
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Tracks:
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1. With My Own Two Hands
2. When It's Good
3. Diamonds On The Inside
4. Touch From Your Lust
5. When She Believes
6. Brown Eyed Blues
7. Bring The Funk
8. Everything
9. Amen Omen
10. Temporary Remedy
11. So High So Low
12. Blessed To Be A Witness
13. Picture Of Jesus
14. She's Only Happy In The Sun
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0724358064025
Format: Enhanced
Label: Virgin Records Us
Manufacturer: Virgin Records Us
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Virgin Records Us
Release Date: 2003-03-11
Studio: Virgin Records Us
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: By Far His Best Ever!
Comment: Don't listen to the negative reviews of this cd it is one of the best and liveliest albums i've ever heard save for one or two songs. People just don't enjoy it because they're probably just Ben's typical NEO-HIPPIE poncho wearin posers who are big fans of his early more simple music. The quality of Diamonds sounds like a pop album and it's great. I love all his stuff especially his newest cd Lifeline but this one is my favorite.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a perfect album
Comment: if you enjoy high quality music, Diamonds is a great place to start, period. This album was my intoduction to Ben Harper
Customer Rating:
Summary: Legend Incarnate?
Comment: Ben Harper was only a name to me as he is to most people until faily recently. I saw him live and on the Henry Rollins show both this year and and picked-up his new double album and am now scampering to get ALL his material and soak it up. Bottom Line: Ben is out of era...in the Motown years he would have had a home but today no one (including his label) really knows how to market him. He is far too mature musically for the modern day R&B radio and out of the mold for alternative music so he fits into that void that many have had GREAT success in such as Jack Johnson, Tracy Chapman and others but he is his own (as are the aforementioned). He is old school R&B and his openess to experiementation and variation not too mention his talent and sound sometimes make me think he is the incarnate of the late, great Marvin Gaye, funny since I do not believe in reincarnation.
I can ealisy reccommend ANYTHING by Ben if you love Marvin and Motown. He also has hints of Marleyesque struggle in his musical lyrics as well as a heavy gospel influence at times. What an amazing talent! This album is one of his best overall and a good showcase of his music. A good place to start but you can't go wrong with anything he has done.
*side note regarding review below that is overall positive (not trying to dis the reviewer, but if you want to play critic get it right). IN the second paragraph this person claims that in "Picture of Jesus" Ben rips-offs Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Sole of her Shoes" (Graceland is a favorite of mine by the way) so I had to take a listen myself to see if there is any truth to this. The only reason I address this is b/c he or she accusses Ben of being 'classless' for not giving Paul credit! While the review was pretty good compared to most this was one of the funniest things I have ever read from a layman's review...first of all the only similarity between the two songs is that they both use a South African (Soweto) group to harmonize in the song, that is it! Ben's melody and musical song structure is completely different and rather Paul had any influence on Ben is highly questionable (and even if he/she is right does it matter, music is all about influence). Soweto has been around forever, long before the great Paul Simon brought it into the mainstream not to mention Grammy fame...so to say that it is classless to not thank Paul Simon (a WHITE amerikan songwriter) for Ben's (a Black amerikan) use of Soweto harmony in one of his songs is both hilarious and completely irrelevant.
Customer Rating:
Summary: All good
Comment: This is great album, I like how pretty much every song is different, and not just songwise, but it spans many different genres. Ben Harper is always good. There's a lot of good reviews for this album, so I won't go much further than that.
Two quick points:
1) I had no trouble playing the music on my computer and converting it into MP3 form. Don't know if it's just some CDs that have the protection or what.
2) Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been around forever and have sounded the same before and after Paul Simon's Graceland album. I don't think it's fair to say that Ben Harper copied anything. They're a beautiful sounding group and they always have that sound. I'm sure everyone remembers the Lifesavers commercials...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Blah!
Comment: Tried listening to this album, failed. Ben Harper apparently has an awful voice, and the song writing is difficult to listen to. The lyrics are so lame. So so lame.
One star.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Ben Harper makes elegant leaps from reggae to rock to folk to funk and back in his fifth studio album. The rootsy singer-songwriter with the silken tenor isn't merely genuflecting at the altar of his musical heroes, as here he shows more quirky imagination and inventive musicianship than on any of his earlier efforts. That said, "Diamonds on the Inside" is painted with the same brush that Bob Dylan used on "I Shall Be Released," but Harper adds his own Biblical aphorisms to make the song his own. Most of the songs display Harper's growth as a poet, as he ponders the dualities of life and love in tunes like the disturbing "Touch from Your Lust" and the disquietingly lyrical "Amen Omen." Harper is compelled to sing what is in his heart and to do what he can to make the world a better place. Witness the Marley-like "With My Own Two Hands." The only misstep on the whole disc is the overly humid orchestration of "When She Believes." --Jaan Uhelszki
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