>>I've been really excited about this album, but my expectations dropped after hearing the samples. If anybody is judging it simply by those, DON'T. Its alot better. The interludes, commentary and spoken word bits will be coming off the MP3 player. Cool to listen to a couple times, but they do get old after awhile. Alot of stuff going on and this is not a cd you play once and put up. You gotta play it it several times to pick up the subtle things going on. I like it more and more with each listen. Easily in my top 2 albums this year. Hopefully a tour actually happens[/quote]

Rhastus, I've been waiting to hear your opinion. I am a bit surprised that you put the first album as better than this one. I love the first one like all of us did back in 1985...but compared to what he did even on his 2nd album, the first one was very one dimensional although I will blast "Can you help me' and 'I want my girl' anytime and anywhere:)

BMNS is just unbelievable. I still love and play that album very often. I just don't compare that one with this one. This one is amazing and repeate listens do make it better. However, I too am thinking the interludes don't require repeate listens except for 'slave 2 the freedom'.

Jesse is just on fire this time around but I have been saying that about BMNS for 13 years!

Rhastus, you said this was in your top 2 this year, what's the other one?

JoeyCococo said:

Rhastus, I've been waiting to hear your opinion. I am a bit surprised that you put the first album as better than this one. I love the first one like all of us did back in 1985...but compared to what he did even on his 2nd album, the first one was very one dimensional although I will blast "Can you help me' and 'I want my girl' anytime and anywhere:)

BMNS is just unbelievable. I still love and play that album very often. I just don't compare that one with this one. This one is amazing and repeate listens do make it better. However, I too am thinking the interludes don't require repeate listens except for 'slave 2 the freedom'.

Jesse is just on fire this time around but I have been saying that about BMNS for 13 years!

Rhastus, you said this was in your top 2 this year, what's the other one?[/quote]


Well obviously Jesse has advanced both lyrically and as a musician since his first album. Hell there isn't even much guitar on it and what little there is is back in the mix. Its more of a keyboard dominated mid 80's sound. In many ways it sounds dated, but the 4 singles off that album still get plenty of play by me. That's why I gave it the maybe better, but with every play of VP, I'm digging it more and more.

Bare my naked soul on the other hand is what I always wanted Jesse to do. A full out balls to the wall rock album. That was his power trio Hendrix album and its one of my favorite albums of all time.

Verbal penetration is his Curtis Mayfield album which is great, but I prefer Hendrix to Mayfield. That's not to say its not a great album because it is. Who knew Jesse could play Jazz? After seeing him in person I knew he could play anything he wanted, but thinking and knowing are two different things, Especially since we have mostly seen him play funk and blues based rock. Dropping a little Eddie Hazel in there didn't hurt either


My other favorite album for this year is Living Colour's The Chair in the doorway. Right now I give it the edge over Jesse, but they are very close

Agreed, the HENDRIX (BMNS) and MAYFIELD (VP) comparisons r spot on.

I also hear FUNKADELIC (on "100 Funky Watts")

and some MARVIN on various slow jams.

I was listening 2

"MEDITATION 01: ASTROLOGY" on the drive home 2nite - ferocious gutiar work and yes... PLUTO is still a PLANET DAMMIT!!!...

Love the album.

I see the interludes as verbal and musical liners notes. For the ones who download, this is perfect. Has any other artist done this before? Jesse may be on to something!!
Cut em Jesse!!
[Edited 11/4/09 9:30am]

OK.

My two-day Jesse Johnson review is over. End to end Jesse Johnson purple funk endurance compare-and-contrast trial, stopping off for TaMara, Da Krash and Cheryl Lynne. A labour of love.

I still say this is his best. Not just the arrangements, not just the musicianship, not just the ambition, but the fact that it's a genuinely interesting development.

The talky interludes are really annoying, but I have an iPod so I don't need to listen to them. Ho ho. He put them on there knowing full well that people have MP3s.

I don't understand the comments suggesting Jesse's album is trying to sound like modern day R&B...???

VERBAL PENETRATION is head and shoulders above and better than any of the plastic R (& no) B on the radio - Beyonce, Kanye, Rihanna etc... are yelping and yelling about... well, about nothing really.

JESSE's is the real deal - pure funk and soul with a message, good music that makes u feel good, not a throwback 2 80s MPLS funk, but further back to the 70s with influences like Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, Marvin Gaye and others.

He's done the 3 funky MPLS albums - if that's what I wanna hear, then that's what I play.

He's done the all out ferocious ROCK album - if I wanna hear that, I put on BMNS.

He's now grown and moved on 2 other things, like a true artist should.

So far, I think, the positives outweigh the negative reviews on "V.P."

Gonna put it on again now...
[Edited 11/4/09 19:07pm]

RONNYRON said:

Well put.

tricky2 said:

I don't know but I thought it was cool.

>>>

He's done the 3 funky MPLS albums - if that's what I wanna hear, then that's what I play.

He's done the all out ferocious ROCK album - if I wanna hear that, I put on BMNS.

He's now grown and moved on 2 other things, like a true artist should.

So far, I think, the positives outweigh the negative reviews on "V.P."

Gonna put it on again now...
[Edited 11/4/09 19:07pm]
[/quote]


completely agree. BNMS can not compare to Verbal b/c it's TOTALLY diff. It stand on it's own. Actually, I just hope he does another one like BMNS. Having VP now for a week, I can say that the interludes are interesting but dno't need repeate listens except for slave.

The tracks are just amazing though.

RONNYRON said:

Yes, I hear Mayfield too and a direct tribute to Gil Scott Heron too. That's brilliant !

Just got my copy today. It's Jesse baby... Killin it. The opening to the cd is tremendous. I'm luvin this cd. Jesse and Prince are some nasty brothas. The whole Minneapolis scene hold down their reputation well. One wish? A Jesse/Prince collaboration. Just the two of them having fun. Verbal Penentration/Lotus Flow3r....= A very satisfied listener

RONNYRON said:

I got mine yesterday and I'm loving it. Wicked guitar, and enough diversity and solid musicianship to hold my interest.

I dug the hell outta that meditation on astrology too...and Pluto will always be a planet!

My only complaint is that I don't give a crap about who designed Jesse's outfit...I want liner notes!

BlaqueKnight said:

INDEED!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!

I don't know abour Rhastus, but my 2 FAVORITE R&B CD's that I CAN'T STOP playing are:

1)Jesse Johnson- Verbal Penetration
2)Raphael Saadiq- The Way I See It

And I agree 200% w/RONNYRON- It's some "Grown Man Music" w/a PURPOSE AND MESSAGE- something that's SORELY MISSING IN 90% OF TODAY'S R&B/SOUL MUSIC
this ain't the "cocaine-laced 80's" or the "booty-shakin'/booty bustin 70's" no more!!!!!
LISTEN 2 THE MESSAGE AND THE MUSIC!!!!!

I really like this album. Jesse's signature fat guitar tones are always great to hear. My beef with the album is the drum machine sound - its not good at all. Very cheap sounding and it brings down many of the otherwise very worthy tracks. I'd love to hear these songs with a live band or with real drums or the Linndrum circa-1999.

But, again, its good stuff. Frankly, I prefer it to anything Prince has released lately. "Merciful" definitely tips its cap to "Maggot Brain". Love it.
You don't hear too many black artists making music like this anymore. That's a damn shame.
[Edited 11/6/09 19:36pm]

This CD is a classic example of A Tale of Two Halves.

Vol. 1 is fucking [/b]INCREDIBLE!!![/b] It's a kick in the teeth from start to finish!!!

It's like he combined the sounds of His 80's stuff with Bare My Naked Soul!!!

I could jam out to this shit playing air guitar 24/7!!!

It definitely had me saying "Welcome Back Jesse"!!!


HOWEVER, Vol. 2 just brought the entire experience down, IMO. It almost put me to sleep.

The music is too slow, and it has WAYYYY too many skits and interludes!!!

Even though the message on some of them are great and need to be heard.

People talk about Prince's ego, but Prince has NEVER put a full length interview of himself on any of his albums!!!

He also never had some woman giving out his Credits and Thank Yous on his album that should have been on his liner notes. Which BTW, the album didn't have.

I think he should have spaced out the songs. He shouldn't have had the entire 1st Volume full of Rock/Funk oriented stuff. Just like he shouldn't have had his 2nd Volume with so much Neo-Soul oriented stuff and interludes.

It's dissapointing, because I was so high off the 1st volume and the 2nd Volume didn't live up to it at all.

I'm still recommending it, because Vol. 1 is so awesome and there is some good stuff on Vol. 2. Plus, it's Jesse, and dude doesn't put out albums out on the regular.

So pick it up, and listen to Vol. 1 24/7 like I'll be doing. Maybe pull out Vol. 2 once in a while.

That's exactly why I didn't buy it simply hearing those drum machines in the samples I heard. My favorite part of most songs is the drums and bassline which gives the songs rhythm and power. Without good sounding drums in a song, it doesn't matter how good the guitar playing, the singing, the lyrics, or anything else in the song is, the presence of those drum machines alone ruins it for me.
.
.
.
[Edited 11/8/09 12:08pm]

woogiebear said:

Exactly. I think for the most part everyone's on board with this
cd. A few people must have thought Jesse was gonna put out Free World
part 2 in 2009. Maybe they'll get it if they wait til 2022.
Volume 1 is excellent. It has funk,classic soul,blues.etc
Volume 2 is probably where Jesse wanted to express the album's concept
but i'll even admit there is probably a one too many interludes that can be
done without but shit i ain't bout to complain. This album has been a blast
for me so far. Haven't been excited about any album this year with the punch
this one has.

Paris9748430 said:

The credit thing was GREAT. He's smart enough to understand that MOST of the music is downloaded these days. The best way to get the credits across was to do them the way he did.
There's no written rule that says the credits HAVE to be printed. That's just the traditional way that its been done. In the new age of downloading, the credits will most likely stay with the rest of the mp3s in their album folder. CDs are at an all-time low in sales and jewel cases get lost and broken all of the time.
As to his ego - I wouldn't call talking about his guitars, pickups and so on as well as giving people a little insight to who he is and where his state of mind is an egotistical thing. When he was giving a rundown of his gear, he was talking to the MUSICIANS that listen to him and those are the FIRST questions that a lot of musicians will ask. Influences, gear, etc. - that's what a lot of musicians want to know.
Prince has had his "friends" interview him (Scary Spice, that model chick that was hanging around his camp in the 90s, etc. - none of whom are actual journalists) and even having Mayte answer questions for him. I don't think there's a comparison when it comes to egos.
[Edited 11/8/09 22:49pm]

BlaqueKnight said:

OK, that may have been a little knee-jerk because I had just got done listening to the album.

I still think it wasn't necessary, and went on too long.

He could have put that on his website. Which isn't up yet. But stuff like that takes time if you wanna do it right.

I'm sorry, but I just didn't like the giving credits on the actual recording of the record.

Of all the stuff I talked about. All the love I gave Vol. 1, and you pick these things to argue with me about?

I'm saying that Vol. 1 is AMAZING!!!

I love Jesse, I just didn't love those parts.

I was so high off of Vol. 1, and that just brought me down.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to argue with you. I just thought the credit thing was cool.
I didn't think the interview came off as egotistical but rather from a place of fun like most skits on CDs.

I liked that line:

Q:What are your feelings about the music business?

"I have no feelings about the music business"

Q: Why the long hiatus between albums?

"I have no feelings about the music business"

BlaqueKnight said:

yeah, I always laugh at that bit, and

"WILL U B DOING B-SIDES?"

"Ahhh... there r no b-sides"

100 Watts of Funky is the best Prince song not done by Prince.

I really like this cd. It's funky and soulful. The guitar playing is impeccable. Jesse has really grown as a guitarist and overall musician. He has attacked some styles he has before and some new. The styles he has attempted before have been successfully executed before,but he has taken it all to a much higher level. This man is seriously underrated.

I really like this cd. It's funky and soulful. The guitar playing is impeccable. Jesse has really grown as a guitarist and overall musician. He has attacked some styles he has before and some new. The styles he has attempted before have been successfully executed before,but he has taken it all to a much higher level. This man is seriously underrated.

Genesia said:

I got that and the title track on constant repeat...

Who knew Jesse played horns? He's credited with horns all over the new album. His web site is up.

JoeyCococo said:

Yeah! I also noticed EDDIE M on one track and of course SUE ANN CARWELL doing most of the vocal icing on most tracks, including 2 leads.

The album is definately a labor of love.

JoeyCococo said:

Those "horns" that Jesse's playing are keyboard samples, not real horns. I like the sound of them nonetheless. They're just more authentic-sounding than the old school faux horns (keyboard) that the MPLS sound carried. Yeah, Eddie Minnefield's on there -- sounds great. But the horn sections on most songs are keyboard samples.

pzlyprk said:

Yeah, I figured that they were MPLSound hornz i.e. keys = hornz, but it's all good.

I guess if he wanted 2, he could've just used EDDIE M on all the tracks.

www.jessejohnson.com