G. Love And Special Sauce

Sometimes I wonder how it's possible that I've never heard an album that's on this list because I'm so blown away. Sometimes I wonder why an album on this list even exists. This is the latter. Feels like it was put on this list just to check a box. Shit box? I don't know.

I didn't enjoy this, very 90s and far too long. Temu Beck. Heard it before? ❌ Listen again? ❌ Rating out of ten? 2️⃣

Not really sure what genre this is or who it appeals to but the music wasn’t very interesting and the vocals felt messy.

I saw him open for Jack Johnson this year and I thought he was pretty decent. It was just him with an acoustic guitar so a much different sound. 2.5

My biggest compliment is that the drums in almost every track sound very very good. Other than that, it’s a bit too long and a lot of filler

The Good: We get some G. Love! The Bad: The waiter ignoring our "hold the special sauce" bit... The Ugly: Album and Artist share the same name... When the album popped up, something in the back of my head said "you're in for a fun time"... then I started listening to the album, and I had to crawl into my head, make my way to the back, and question the something which previously had kept my hopes up high... Not that the album is bad. However, in order to really enjoy this album there are several factors that come into play: 1) you need to have attended college in the '90s 2) you need to have spend too much time in a coffee shop 3) you need to have a really open mind Now, I check all the boxes above, yet still find listening to the entire album start to finish a chore. It's a little too much of this, a little too little of that... guess the special sauce was missing? 3* because, well, there are far worse albums I have had to listen to on this list...;

My 800th album in this journey is a Blues-Hip-Hop-Soul album. Well, I wish I could have invited you all to my saucy celebration. It was just another album that belongs in the Medium Place. Favorite Track: "Blues Music".

Does it thing well

This one is a no from me

No.

Adam Sandler SNL song days. Dumb lyrics worse sound. Waste of time.

Tolkuttoman tylsä ja mitäänsanomaton lätty. Levy kestää vajaan tunnin eikä yhtyeellä ole mitään mielenkiintoista tarjottavaa. G. Love & Special Sauce on kuin c-luokan Beck.

I didn't like the album all that much. Didn't hate it, but certainly wouldn't come back even to have it on again. 2.25-2.5 territory?

Enjoyed, edgy

no me gustó en general

5: I will happily play this album anytime 4: I may occasionally play this album of my own free will 3: I will happily listen to this if someone plays it in the background 2: I will tolerate this if it is playing in the background 1: I will leave the room if someone plays this in the background

Dude heard Beck & played it to college jocks

I thought this was fun when it started. Nice beats. Interesting guitar. Kinda unpolished. But it kind of dragged and didn’t get more interesting. And I’m not sure how I feel about him singing about a song called cold beverage. In which he names beverages that can be cold…and the hook is simply “I like cold beverages”. Shooting Hoops had a similar vibe. Let me describe everything around me in a very literal way. 2.5 but enough for me to round up.

It's ok, but not something that I'd say you have to hear before you die

McDonald's Special Sauce is much better!

It’s alright

I rather enjoyed this. Totally unexpected and not something I’d heard of at all. But pretty laid back and cool actually. Rather long, but there are a lot worse albums than this

Decent blues rock, just not for me. Much too long, there's quite a few filler tracks. I like cold beverage.

If there were no vocals maybe this would be a 2.

G. Love & Special Sauce's eponymous debut album is the closest approximate answer to an age-old question. Of course, that question is what if Soul Coughing made an album with Flavor Flav?

i could hear the solid sonic underpinnings of this album - the fusion of hip hop and blues lands soooo well in most of the tracks... but the album lingered a little too long on the more grating parts for me to have uncomplicated fondness for it. pretty solid in the sense that i see what they were doing and i endorse it, but the outcome isn't really my thing!! highlights - the things i used to do, blues music, garbage man, cold beverage, walk to slide, shooting hoops

Why is this trash in this list

It's fine, very 90s

I'd not heard of this artist before and had no expectations going in. Really liked it, fun sound, very enjoyable to listen to. Definitely coming back for more.

Heard before?:❌️ Will listen again?:✔️ Unlike anything I've heard before but also very familiar(?) Can't really explain it. Gives me the vibe of a band I would absolutely enjoy at an underground venue when it's already later in the night and I'm absolutely drunk out of my mind

Didn't love this... didn't hate it. The instrumentalists are pretty good -- would that be the special sauce? The vocals are not great. I'm thinking the special sauce would be better with another front man.

I’m so glad they don’t leave up to interpretation what they are doing when they are shooting hoops, I would have been completely lost. I don’t use TikTok but I feel like that chorus would turn into some sort of trend faster than you could blink if it came out today. Oh yeah, the rest of the record? I felt like this one was just alright all in all. It starts off as a fun, bluesy exploration with plenty of funk but eventually becomes a bit of a bore as it slips into a foggy stupor. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: This Ain’t Living, Cold Beverage, Baby’s Got Sauce

I recognize the band name and I thought fondly but this album did not help me remember why. DNF

If you told me an album sounded like a live trio covering early Beck songs I would have expected to love it, but this takes that formula and just makes it trash. I can see why you should have to listen to it though, because it will challenge a lot of preconceptions about music, for instance I used to think Hip Hop would be better if everything wasn't sampled and rigid to the grid, this completely disproves that

Jazzy and fun, simple in a good way.

Hey the thieings that I eused to dooouh I’m neva neva gonna dooouh no moruh **harmonica solo**

hard to pin down, liked some of songs

It is not good. I knew when I was fifteen the cold beverages song was trash and now I am very proud of that teenager. He knew what he was talking about! You will take your 3/10 and like it. Can you believe they are still making music???? Top song... They all sound the same so I am going to just pick one at random... Fatman

Brutal. From trying to be Beck to trying to reinvent hip hop. Awful. Cold Beverage is a particular low point. Worst song on the list?

*Very cool and funky beat to it, even if its slow at times. *Baby's got Sauce and Blues Music were my highlights.

Funky and fun. There's so much directly blues inspired music on this list, it's tough to stand out. This record also brings to mind a certain kind of breezy chilled out pop that you sometimes here. The vibe and execution here is really nice though. The feel and solidity of the rhythm section seems really good. It's funky as well as laid back. It's nice

This album has some nice ideas, when they come out. But it is a very monotonous record. So soulless and insipid at many times, so tasteless too. It feels very reiterative and unoriginal. The sound of the songs, between trying to be a spoken kind of blues driven, hip-hop infused one... oh, so many bad combinations of elements that end up making very plain and uninteresting music. It is not enjoyable, not interesting, and not musically thrilling. It is just plain. For an hour long, I would have expected something else. I have found zero nice songs, and so many bad songs I cannot call something worse because they are also very complacent and warm. So many bad combinations and decisions surround this record, to be honest.

Mediocre riffs, bad rhymes, basic inability to say anything of value, advanced Nineties Overlong Album Disease, general ennui - this is the best don't-do-drugs ad since Rachael Leigh Cook with the frying pan. (Speaking of: *Josie and the Pussycats* is on Criterion Channel right now. Forgot how clever and fun that movie is. So not like this album, basically.) Actually, let me change gears slightly: this is if Seth Green's character from *Can't Hardly Wait* were an album. Occasionally there's a riff worth writing home about (like the one on "Rhyme for the Summertime") but they rarely survive contact with G. Love opening his mouth. I suppose there's value in this as a source of samples. Maybe.

Aged like milk, or I guess in this case aged like special sauce, of which I’m not entirely sure isn’t a reference to jizz

I kinda like the slackiness of it all? Nice and easy-going.

Meh…

Better than Coldplay

So bad it’s bad

Not enjoyable

Unusual but not my kind of thing

Fun enough, in a Butthole Surfers kinda way. Though it seems like it fits that mid-90s-flash-in-the-pan weird-MTV-music-video afternoon-slot-in-the-festival-tour 'better-live' milieu that similarly relegated many bands of similar ilk. Give that upright(?) bass player a raise though, they carry the band. The vocalist reminds me of Beck or Cage the Elephant, too, though doesn't quite reach the same cool-lazy heights. Also the album is a bit too long in the tooth considering it's pretty samey, but it's a good sound so I can't complain too much. Fav tracks: The Things That I Used To Do, This Ain't Living

This is the worst album I’ve encountered on this list so far. There is nothing special or interesting about it. Whatever the special sauce is, I think it’s gone bad.

how did this one end up on the 1001 albums list? it had a middling critical reception, i'd never heard of it before doing this, and it sold well but not well enough to justify it being here on popularity alone. either way, it's the worst albums i've heard in recent memory! it's in the uncanny valley between being unnoticeably coherent and charmingly incoherent. i will never complain about the Red Hot Chili Peppers again for the next like. week or so. it's bad blues, the rapping is horrible, and like. all of that could be somewhat forgiven if this album actually leaned into its roughness and did something new and interesting instead of being stereotypically 90s monogenre sludge. deserves to be one of the 1001? nopeeeee

I don’t like this album and I’m not interested in his Special Sauce!

Jag vette fan. Det är både rätt najs och värdelöst. Gillar soundet, men vissa låter är usla. Jag friar den gör gången.

Pour the special spice all over this an set it on fire

I wish I knew why this record is part of the book.

Favorite track(s): Whenever I mentioned playing bass at parties in college, people would tell me "Oh, my friend here plays guitar!" and I would then have the misfortune of getting introduced to a guy like G. Love.

Who likes this ? It is not inventive, it is lazy, it is long and terrible. The special sauce my man can keep, the vibe is so sleazy it reeks.

I know it’s easy to say just typing on my phone while listening to this but I genuinely think this is the least talented band we’ve had so far I think in a vacuum there’s ok parts here; I’ve heard worse vocals, have seen sloppier instrumentation, and I’ve definitely seen more boring works. Variety’s ok too I guess This one’s a huge mess though; I couldn’t help but feel like this is about the quality of some random band you’d find playing in a bar in the Midwest. The vocals are really weird, they do not sound genuine and actively hurt this one. I just don’t think they’re very good at the whole playing their instruments thing, and I don’t really see a good reason for that considering the genres they’re ripping off. There’s some really bad songs on here, and lyrically I think they’re just weird. I don’t think this one’s worth a listen even in the slightest; they’re supposedly fusing two of my favorite genres together and made something worse than the sum of its parts and just executed awfully. If this was on the shorter side I think I could stomach it a bit more but a full hour of this sealed the deal for me. Definitely worse albums out there but it’s close to a bottom tier for sure, low 2

the fake accent is wigging me out. and also its that blues hip-hop fusion where it does both genres worse. i don't know what to do with this at all

Quite laid back. Like the blues guitar with that rhythm.

получается достаточно полушать несколько композиций с альбома чтобы понять что это такое - смесь хипхопа и блюза Энергия у этого всего есть, инструменталы прикольные, читка средняя, тексты простенькие в целом фоном можно послушать, но являться фанатом такой музыки быть непросто, да и как едва доходит до тройки только из-за того что ничего не отталкивает в этой работе 3.0

this was groovy and cool af! not at all what I expected (granted i wasn't really sure what to expect), but a pleasant surprise nonetheless

Cool album - really enjoyed the mix of stripped back double bass blues and the relaxed, hip-hoppy vocals. It feels intentionally sloppy, and the vibe works although maybe wears a bit by the last few tracks. 7/10

Lotta haters on this one. Def not great but isn’t terrible imo. Pretty middle of the road shit.

Boots cheeks

Unique and interesting combo of delta blues and hip-hop. Gave me Jack White vibes. Easy to see why it made the list. That said, 57 minutes is just too long for this kind of thing. 3.5/5.0: Very Good

musically pretty enjoyable, the vocals werent great

OK , might need mullitple listens to really appreciate it

I've heard the name of this band, but don't believe I've ever heard any songs by them. I dig the whole vibe of this. I ended up liking 8 songs on Spotify - first 7 songs and the 9th song which are: "The Things That I Used to Do", "Blues Music", "Garbage Man", "Eyes Have Miles", "Baby's Got Sauce", "Rhyme For The Summertime", "Cold Beverage", "This Ain't Living" Fun discovering a bunch of "new to me" songs from a band I never listened to. Was also interesting to read that they "discovered" Jack Johnson but he ended up becoming more famous and produced them, and cool that they tour together. Need to go see them with Jack Johnson one of these days. Liked songs on Spotify: 8/14 Rating: 3/5

Hip-Hop alternativo con sonidos añejos, funkies, y de todo tipo, que suena a lo que a veces sonó Beck. NO incluye mi tema favorito : Lay down the law del posterior Yeah, It's That Easy, pero sí Baby's Got Sauce o Cold Beverage que fueron bastante conocidas entonces. un soplo de aire fresco en los 90´s.

Reminds me of beck, enjoyed it quite a bit.

1994.

Kinda raggae/hip hop ish?

This is fine. I'm getting Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest from it, though not near as good. It also runs on a bit and doesn't really justify its length by the end. A decent enough album though Highlights: This Ain't Living, Cold Beverage

First time hearing this artist. The singing style isn't my favorite but it fits the vibe nicely. Wouldn't actively return to this, but it was fine. 2.9/5.

Play that funky music white boy, or rather, don’t.

Fun rap like

Fun bluesy hip-hop

All sauce no kisses

What if Dominic Fike was from the 90s and also sucked? Lyrical spiritual miracle

did not care for this

I enjoyed some of the musical genre mashing here, and there was some nice bass grooves. Mostly it just felt like a less successful Sublime ripoff at times and a fairly poor to average ‘hip-hop’ album the rest. 2/5

Been off the map vacationing but we're back to business with a bit of a backlog to get through. That's a problem for another day; today's album is goofy groovy. I struggle to see how someone wouldn't find this pleasant and easy to listen to. Messy and maybe a little too long but it just sounds like talented friends having a jam sesh.

I never thought that an album could make me wish I was listening to Beck instead

Boring, uninspiring and not something anyone must listen to before they die

14 songs that all sound the same. And folks, that sound? It ain't good.

Not for me

A Philadelphia trio making a sound that nobody else was quite making in 1994 — blues, hip-hop, and lo-fi folk colliding with a naturalness that felt genuinely original rather than calculated. Garrett Dutton's slack, mumbled vocal delivery sits over acoustic guitar, upright bass, and drums in a combination that absorbed the blues tradition completely and then ran it through a hip-hop sensibility without losing what made either thing work. The lo-fi production is exactly right — this sounds like a band playing in a room, which is what it is, and the warmth and immediacy that creates is something overproduced records of the era couldn't manufacture regardless of budget. "Cold Beverages" is the signature, a lazy summer groove that establishes the record's temperature immediately and delivers on every promise the formula makes. The blues DNA throughout is real and direct, Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt filtered through a Philadelphia kid who understood the tradition without being reverent about it. A lot of fun — which is its own category of achievement and the honest reason this lands at a comfortable four. Groove doing real work, blues roots genuine rather than decorative, and a record that delivers exactly what it promises without pretending to be more than it is. Sometimes that's exactly enough.

This was kind of fun, liked a few songs quite well. Kind of reminds me of Sublime in certain ways. Super laid back kind of lazy (not necessarily in a bad way) kind of sound.

I don’t even dislike G Love, in fact I’ve seen them live (kind of on accident), but why the fuck is this album on this list? This is a truly baffling inclusion. Like, did we just run out of shit? The story of music can absolutely be sufficiently told without a single mention of G. Love and Special Sauce. You simply cannot convince me this album was important whatsoever, this was just some shit that was on in the background when your college roommate’s friend rolled some terrible joint.

A very white mix of folk, blues, funk and rap. Like a Beck and Cake second division derivative. Unremarkable.

rly didnt like

Very much fun music!!!

I didn't like this. I've heard of this band before because they play them on The Current. This is not for me.

Better than I remembered, but the blaccent is pretty off-putting... You're a white boy from Philly, for fuck's sake...

These guys play Glastonbury all the time, and if I'd been watching with a beer/cider in the sun and sitting down in front of West Holts, I think I'd really have liked this. Instead I listened stuck in traffic on the M25 and it became the first album I'd skipped a song on in like... 200. Life wasn't worth it. Ordinarily, vague hip hop with real instruments and bluesiness I'd love. But not the same thing ever song. The one song with a harmonica at least livened things up.

this is like mac miller meets someone else that i couldn’t put my finger on for the entire 57 minutes. overall, quite enjoyable, even if i spent most 57 minutes trying to figure out who the other artist is that i’m hearing in this. when i was 11 my friend and i once spent two weeks irritated because we couldn’t think of the name of that elijah wood apocalypse movie until we finally remembered it was deep impact. i can sense this is gonna be the same.

This is a weird one. I put it on and immediately thought of god. There's an hour of this. It was so lackadaisical. Like they were making it as an afterthought. But then a few songs in the whole feeling of it just hit me, I dunno if it's because I wasn't listening intently, but it all fell into place, it has a really fun lazy groove throughout and the vocals match this emotion and it just works really nicely. It reminded me a bit of a tarantino film, maybe because it reminds me of the fun loving criminals and scooby snacks. It's definitely in that world. I carried on enjoying it until I had to take a break, I went back to finish it off this morning and I was straight back to the feelings I had at first. So either the beginning and end of the album just suck, or it relies really heavily on you being in the right place for it and I'm leaning towards the latter. I enjoyed so much of it I'm gonna give it a confused 4.