The Hard Road vs. The Hard Road Restung

Well, no prizes go to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Australian hip-hop who has hazarded a guess as to what this review is about. To everyone else (i.e. the majority of the human race) this review is comparing and contrasting the two famous Hilltop Hoods albums The Hard Road and their later release, The Hard Road Restrung. Now, the second album is (in theory) the first album with backing by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. But the second album does a bit more than that, enough that I feel justified to add the content of that album to the first.

Anyway, here goes:

Recapturing The Vibe vs Recapturing The Vibe Restrung
Recapturing The Vibe: With a well placed piano, this song actually ends up sounding somewhat creepy initially. This eases a lot when the verses begin, but there is a fair amount of instrumental imput (odd, considering this is the original, not the restrung version). As with the other Hilltop Hoods albums I have heard, this song is basically the most rudimentary way of telling people exactly what they are going to hear. Normally not the best song on the album, it also rarely the worst. Like the songs normally in the first position on a HH album, it has almost no "narrative" (surely you know what I mean by that). Rather it is just a series of rhymes which get little message accross. Nothing wrong with that, but it rarely constitutes the best Hilltop Hoods music. The instrumentals are, once again, well done. Also, without the burden of a theme, the lyrics are well done too.

Recapturing The Vibe Restrung
This song is moved to 13th place on the Restrung album, probably because it doesn't do the same thing as on the previous album. This album wants to both push hip-hop and instrumentals. This song is best for only the hip-hop, even though it already had good instrumental accompaniment So, what's different? Now, I'm terrible at identifying instruments, especially something other than guitar, keyboard or piano. So, take my instrument names with a grain of salt. So, in Restrung, this song is accompanied by a group of brass instruments and perhaps a violin, which makes the song much more powerful and uplifting than on the previous album. The lyrics and core instruments and tune remain the same, but that little addition of more instruments is very noticeable on this track, unlike several others. Overall, the Restrung version is better by a large amount, despite remaining essentially the same in many areas.

Clown Prince vs. Clown Prince Restrung
Clown Prince: This song has never quite appealed to me. It seems a rather obnoxious song, containing rather average backing and lyrics that, as before, mean almost nothing. People who are not fans of hip-hop (who will probably not be reading this) may sneer at me trying to find deeper meaning in Hilltop Hoods lyrics, but I must say that these gentlemen are behind the most powerful and fantastic song I have ever heard, Fifty In Five and I'm unwilling to believe a group that can do that will also make a song about paying for a round of drinks. Perhaps not. Anyway, this song relies almost entirely on rapping and although the Hilltop Hoods are fantastic, this is far from their greatest work.

Clown Prince Restrung: Demoted to position 11 on Restrung (from 2), this is once again exactly the same song given the instrumental treatment. Unlike the first song, the treatment is nowhere near as effective. While not making the song worse, it doesn't make it much better. The aim of the song is still to make people hear the rapping and frankly, giving this song and backing is a waste of time in my opinion. There are 16 songs on The Hard Road. There are 14 on Restrung, including a new song. Why not redo another song? Anyway, Restrung wins again, but it's hardly worth listening to either in my opinion.

The Hard Road vs. The Hard Road Restrung
The Hard Road: Well, it's about time we had a song with some semblance of depth. Here it is. Akin to Left Foot, Right Foot and Chase That Feeling, this is basically the chief song of the entire album. The lyrics describe the youth of Suffa & Pressure, basically saying how they got their lives on track and how screwed up they were before. I may say the subject lightly despite it being a serious tale, but the tone of the song is a bit too upbeat for the subject matter. When reading the lyrics, a song as grim as Left Foot, Right Foot in tone comes to mind, but instead this song gives us a good beat and a slightly irritating sample. Perhaps the whole message is "at least it's over", but it seems too much like they made heartfelt lyrics, put it to an appropriate beat and either realized on their own time or were told that the beat wouldn't sell. I hope not, but it's far from a distant possibility.

The Hard Road Restrung: This track actually opens the Restrung album, which I don't know if I approve of or not. Being the namesake of the album, it is (theoretically) the best song. Now, does it make sense to put your "best" song as your first? If nothing else, it at least puts across "Well, this is the best we can do. Impressed? Well, come listen to everything else!" I don't know. Anyway, the actual song. The instrumental treatment is much more effective than on the second song, This much more matches the tone I feel the lyrics deserve. One thing I feel could have been dropped however is the sample, which says "Going down a long road, don't know where I been" and "My love". Fine. It fits. However, it cheapens the song . Samples can be used very effectively, such as in the song Audience With The Devil, which I'll get to in due course. The Restrung version is what I feel this song should have been from the start. Why do otherwise?

Stopping All Stations vs. Stopping All Stations Restrung
Stopping All Stations: Three parties enter a train. Firstly, an elderly man, former war veteran, widower and confused by the modern world. Secondly, a stripper, drunk and drugged up, with a son to take care of. Thirdly, a gang of rough youth, one of which is wielding a knife. Okay, that is the setup for the song Stopping All Stations. This song is fascinating in the manner it handles both setting up a situation and occurrence from three different angles, all during a fantastic song. From the situation I have described, the youth approaches the old man and puts the knife at his throat, explaining "money or blood is the price of our barter" (or "Give me your cash or I knife you" in somewhat simpler terms. The woman attempts to assist the old man but is beaten down by a youth. The old man tries to help her, but by leaping up he impales himself on the knife the youth is wielding. As the old man dies, the youth steals his wallet and runs, as he has never actually killed anyone before. In a final irony, the wallet contains no more than two dollars and the old man's pension card, making the old man's death truly pointless. I could talk about this song for any amount of time. How it is so very Australian, carries such a colourful narrative through verse or even just how symbolic it is, but  my goal here is to review, not babble (however much the two activities seem to overlap). The samples are once again a touch on the unnecessary side, but I could hardly say they get in the way of enjoying the song. For god's sake, stop reading my babble and listen to the goddamn thing!

Stopping All Station Restrung: When I first heard Restrung, I had very high expectations for this song, and they easily surpassed them. The organizers of the album saw this too, as this song was bumped up to second position. The instrumental backing makes the whole experience much more dramatic and they even take some of the samples out, which I do like. Anyway, the reason I like this version of the song so much is that they actually re-write the final verse, changing the outcome of the song.As the old man is being mugged, the stripper gets up to try and help him, only to be knocked unconscious by the youth. In this version, the old man becomes enraged and grabs the boy, smashing him into the railing. As the youth lays crying, the old man delivers a speech, explaining how real men never hit women, and that the boy might as well kill him because this is not the world he would like to live in. This is just a fantastic change on what I was expecting. The description was restrung and I had no idea they would actually change the lyrics of a song, especially a song with such a fantastic narrative. Just fantastic, this song raises a shiver on my spine every time I hear it, which is not a simple task, considering how often I listen to it. I honestly think that in regards to which is the better song, it is a tie. The first version is a dark bleak lok at the world, and the music reflects that. The second version is the same, but with the insinuation that the world is not irrevocably evil and something can be done, and I feel that the music reflects this too. To truly enjoy this song, you need to listen to both versions.

Sorry, but that song was just too incredible to follow up tonight. I'll be back soon with Conversations From A Speakeasy.

Yeah, about that....
I'm putting this review on the backburner for a little while because it's a bit too much effort. Really, my normal review is:
1. Listen to CD
2. Review CD whilst listening to it.
Done. This review however:
1. Listen to one song.
2. Review song.
3. Swap CD's
4. Listen to almost identical song
5. Try to find something else to say about same song.
6. Rinse and repeat.
It may not sound like much more effort, but its really annoying after a while. So, taking a hit to both my ego and work ethic (which I have never been accused of having) and officially (with authority I've never been accused of having) place this particular review on the "To Do" pile.