Phenomenal Sophomore Album

Review Score: (10/10)
I'll start this review off by saying I was never a House of Pain fan. I'd only heard "Jump Around" and thought it was good, but nothing great. But when I heard about their most drunken, craziest member going into the studio to record a semi-blues album I bursted out in laughter. I thought this was either going to be one of those albums that is so bad it's never released, or it's going to be one of the worst albums ever made. I've never been so wrong.

After hearing What It's Like I realised I couldn't have been more wrong. I ended up buying the album the day it came out and have listened to almost every day for the past 4 years. How many CD's can you say that about? I know a lot people don't like the disc because the majority of it is a hip hop album, and they bought it thinking most of it would be like What It's Like. It must be said that you have to have some kind of appreciation for hip hop. However, you don't have to be a fan of hip hop to like this album because of the different spin that Everlast puts on his rapping. Not only does he have one of the best voices in hip hop, but his subject matter is excellent. He's not going to rap about killing people, selling drugs everyday on the corner, and being the baddest man on the planet. Simply put, this is one of the realest pieces of music ever. Ends, What It's Like, and Today are excellent songs with an acoustic guitar flavor, Get Down is a hip hop song that has a simple guitar melody mixed with a hip hop beat, Hot To Death has a blistering electric guitar backdrop, and the rest is mostly hip hop. On Tired, Everlast rips apart a simple, old school beat for one of the best hip hop performances on the album. Painkillers is my favoite rap song on the album because of the amount of imagery and introspective that is used. It really puts you inside the mind of Erik Schrody, and it takes multiple listens to really understand all the things that is going through his head at one time.

If you bought this album and stopped listening to it because the hip hop scared you away, go back and give it a second chance. It is by far my favorite album in my 200-some CD collection. You don't have to be fan of blues, rock, or rap to appreciate this one. Only a fan of music.

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