Music

living colour frontman corey glover breaks some new ground on his 2nd solo record #soundcheck

November 28, 2012

As the old model for the music industry continues to die an undignified death, all eyes are on crowdsourcing as the “new model.” While successes like Amanda Palmer’s million-dollar-kickstarter will never be the norm (and really shouldn’t be if were going to be honest about sustainability here…), Corey Glover’s latest solo record ‘The Pledge is a perfect example of why we should be optimistic about a future of crowdsource funded records.

Click HERE to preview all the tracks.

The legendary Living Colour frontman released his last solo record, ‘Hymn’ in 1998. He’s clearly taken his time on this one, collecting songs that fit with neither Living Colour nor Galactic. Ranging from indie to soul to straight-ahead rock, the songs on The Pledge all have the feeling of things Glover wanted, and needed to get out. By working entirely outside the traditional industry (the album is currently only available through pledgemusic.com) Corey Glover has been afforded the luxury of creating a personal and sincere record.
Standout tracks like “Little White Little Black Lies” show Glover expanding into new terrain. Boasting a slinky brass section that’s about as far from Vernon Reid’s bombastic guitar as it’s possible to get (well maybe if he’d done a trip-hop record…actually, that could be rad…) Glover takes every opportunity to make it clear he’s not just trying to do Living Colour lite. Although the best songs on the record—”Clear” and “Alone Again”—are also the loudest, even those are loud in a way that Living Colour rarely is. (Maybe Glover’s voice just sounds awesome against a distorted guitar. It could be that simple…)
The record is currently only available via pledgemusic.com. If you dig it, support this movement of mainstream artists working outside the system. It just might be the future of music…

– Words by Nathan Leigh

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