All Aboard contains Code Red's musical statement as well as a few new looks at familiar material. The standout is the classic "Brother Louie" with a new spin. "To make things worse, she was five months and showin'," the rappers add to Louie's legend, and the performance best exemplifies their strength -- keeping the melodies flowing while rapping over popular sounds.
Ian Lloyd's original take on
Hot Chocolate's masterpiece had his distinctive voice to bring
Janis Ian's "Society's Child" theme a step further into the future. Code Red attempt the same here, but without the radio play that helped make those two aforementioned classics so important, it might be the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it. The
All Aboard album by this crew, not to be confused with jazz and R&B groups sharing the same name, is accessible, though it does fall into some ruts. "Atomic" hits a brick wall, the CD flowing better with full music to follow the beat. "Pimp It Out" has the same dilemma, violent overtones with some world influences that can't quite get over the bar. The foursome take
Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" to a nice place on "All Aboard," the opening and title track, and there are some sparks of imagination and creativity spread throughout the disc -- just not enough to give this CD, and these players, the momentum that their slogan of "not confined, not defined" calls for. [Universal Records released a 15-track version of
All Aboard in 2006.] ~ Joe Viglione