Released: 1990
Tracks: Time’s Up; History Lesson; Pride; Love Rears Its Ugly Head; New Jack Theme; Someone Like You; Elvis is Dead; Type; Information Overload; Under Cover of Darkness; Ology; Fight the Fight; Tag Team Partners; Solace of You; This is the Life
Best track: Solace of You
Track to skip: Someone Like You
This is a really immense album. It’s huge. As if Vivid wasn’t enough, Time’s Up states once and for all that Living Colour was absolutely the most creative band in 1990; probably the most talented and original too. To me, when I look at this track list I just see song after song after song that makes me go, “oh man, I love that song!”. There are a few slight missteps, but on an album with 15 tracks I’m not going to complain to much. That’s what the FWD button is for. Someone Like You is the only true “skipper” as it sounds like they didn’t try too hard on it. Maybe it’s a true story, I have no idea. I just think it’s not that great of a song. In listening to the album for this review I finally figured out my beef with Information Overload. I do usually skip this track a lot and the reason I do is because of the chorus. I can’t stand the chorus. The rest of the song is pretty cool, esp. the chord progression on the bridge and that totally insane guitar stuff at the beginning. That chorus just bores me though. As for Elvis is Dead, I love the idea, because it IS ridiculous that people actually thought (think?) that Elvis was still alive in the 80’s. It’s as ridiculous that any famous person fakes their death and just lives out the rest of their life under an assumed name. It’s just people wishing their heroes were still alive. So, the song, it’s decent. Idea’s good, but the composition seems kinda scattershot…like they just threw things in there. Still, you get Maceo Parker and Little Richard in the same song, so that’s definitely worth something. Tag Team Partners? Eh, it’s harmless and less than 30 seconds or so.
And that right there is where my complaints about the album end!
Everything else on here is just absolutely perfect and totally kicks my ass. If you thought the eclecticism on Vivid was great, then Time’s Up definitely shatters all that. What else do they do here, besides the hard rock which they do so excellently? The title track sounds like thrash metal to me; there’s the weird-blues of Love Rears Its Ugly Head, the industrial-sounding New Jack Theme, the freakin brilliant Under Cover of Darkness that’s a total genre on its own (Queen Latifah’s rap is great). I have no clue what style of music Ology is. All I know is that it’s one of the coolest bass-things I’ve ever heard. I do not get tired of hearing it. It’s SO damn cool. Muzz Skillings is freakin’ phenomenal. And my favorite on the disc (my fave LC song in general), Solace of You, is absolutely kick ass afro pop. These guys are sometimes considered a metal band…and they do afro pop? DAMN RIGHT. I love this song in so many ways. Vernon Reid’s guitar playing on here is beautiful, even if he’s not ripping up the fretboard one bit.
This album is just full of fantastic songs. The first 5 are classic, and Type (right in the middle) was such a great single for this album. My favorite part of the album is definitely the last 1/3; from Under Cover of Darkness through This is the Life. These tracks aren’t as popular as stuff like Type, Pride & Love Rears Its Ugly Head, but they really define this album. Stellar sequencing, songwriting and originality that just floors me. What else can I say? I have no idea. They’re just awesome in the truest sense of the word. When I reviewed Vivid I had a different idea in mind of how good the album was. It actually jumped a few degrees for me. Time’s Up is the same way: it’s even better than I thought it was. Phenomenal album.
Rating: 97
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