The bad news is that, with a few exceptions, it's an absolutely typical song score album -- mostly a collection of banal, dull, boring, routine tracks that follow dull, boring, routine, patterns. There are some good moments -- Flavor Flav's "I Can't Do Nothing for You, Man!" is a mess as far as the sound quality is concerned, sounding remarkably as though it was recorded on a cassette unit. However, this house mix-propelled call-and-response rap possesses a considerable energy and dynamic that overcomes the sonic disadvantages, and gives the piece an edge. Kid 'N Play, the rap duo who stars in House Party, is here with two tracks, and they're both good stuff -- rough, often raw, loping powerhouse raps with big, big beats behind them, and a Roadrunner sensibility and bozo energy that makes mincemeat of the fact that they tend to be strut raps. It's always nice to see rappers with a sense of humor. The rest of the album is filler, mostly nice enough. The big problem here is that several of the tracks start off promising a lot, and then, 30 seconds later, are limping along in an unconvinced and routine fashion -- limp dweeb ballads, dancefloor numbers that lack energy completely. Full Force Family (Full Force and lots of friends) almost get it right with "House Party," which sounds like the result one might expect from a meeting of the minds and music of Parliament/Funkadelic and Art of Noise. As with almost everything else on the album, it proceeds to dwindle down to a bland groove and stay there. Major points for Kid 'N Play and Flavor Flav. As for the rest -- snore. [The 2001 reissue takes "Surely" and "I Ain't Going Out Like That" and switches their order in the track sequence] ~ Steven McDonald