G. Love And Special Sauce

It is a laid-back, funky blend of blues, hip-hop, and rock. G. Love's soulful vocals and harmonica playing blend perfectly with the band's infectious grooves. While the album's casual vibe might not be for everyone, it's a perfect soundtrack for a relaxed summer day.

Meh

It was alright. Definitely too long Rating: 2.7

This album just flat out and missed me., The vocalist mumbles. Sure, it’s a groove. Reminds me of a pretentious album somebody in Brooklyn would put on while sipping craft beers and wearing pork bean hats. Not a fan.

Quite good. I think it would grow on me if I kept listening. It sounded very early 90s like a chill Fun Lovin Criminals vibe.

Albumi #65, 02.10.2024 G. Love and Special Sauce on mielenkiintoinen genreyhdistelmä bluesia ja räppiä. Albumin mielenkiinto piileekin tässä epätodennäköisessä kombinaatiossa, joka on vieläpä hieman "vetelällä" otteella soitettua.

I enjoy the sound, but something about the vocal effect makes this all feel like music for a commercial to me.

This was an interesting listen. Definitely a weird amalgam of blues and hip-hop, but it really clicked with me. 4/5!

There's a track called 'Garbage Man'. A comma between the 2 words of it's title would enable it to serve as a description for the whole album.

Prima achtergrondmuziek

Didn’t listen

"G. Love and Special Sauce" is the debut album by American rock band G. Love & Special Sauce. Rock band may be a stretch but I'll go with it as their Wiki-genre description is blues and rap, probably more apt. The album was produced by Stiff John and Special Sauce. The bandmembers are G. Love (Garret Dutton- lead vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Special Sauce who are Jeffrey Clemens (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Jimi "Jazz" Prescott (string bass). Drums, bass and G. Love's vocals open the album in the Guitar Slim blues classic "The Things I Used to Do." Love has this rap and singing combo going in his vocals. Sloppy guitar slashes. They have a nice groove going though. They slow it down a bit in "Blues Music." The music is Mississippi delta blues and the rapping is straight forward. A good example of their rap-blues fusion. The guitar gets more melodic in "Baby's Got Sauce." The rhythm section is almost soulful. His baby has the special sauce. The pace picks up in "Cold Beverage." A slide guitar. Another guitar with a blues edge, an almost slopppy version of Jack White. Not bad. Simple lyrics as he needs a cold one. Piano is added to "This Ain't Living." Ohh, a more jazz-rap fusion and a De La Soul vibe. Defintely, the most serious song ( maybe only) lyrically as the topic is poverty. "Shooting Hoops" start out old school with a Robert Johnson-esque bluesy guitar intro. We're talking about basketball. MJ, Magic, Dominique and Dr. J are mentioned....the song is dating itself. This album is loose, laid back, slow and chill. I found the rap-rock-blues fusion fairly unique. The lyrics and themes are mostly simplistic- beer, garbage and basketball. The rap style is loose but fits with the music. There are some guitar jams but it's mostly playing along with the rhythm section. I really liked the added piano and jazzy songs; they could have done more of that. It's another CD-era album and could have been trimmed. Overall, it's a decent listen; their rap-blues fusion worked for me.

The G is for grating. 2 stars

Just don’t like this at all

Samey Samey Weak Weak.

I enjoyed this more than I did back in the 90's

Not a single song I felt like going back to and it's staying that way

There are some okay songs on this. Nothing that is an ear worm that will stick with me forever…or even just a few minutes. It’s more musical than Public Enemy. This obviously has many influences. It’s okay, just not my cup of tea.

Interesting, but I was not really excited about hearing the next song. Just okay with everything in it.

Didn't think this was as bad as others are saying! Kind of dated but the lyrics are quite cute and it's inoffensive to have on in the background. Their name is awful though.

Started off all right, jazzy, funky, laid-back tunes, so laid-back they were almost horizontal. But more of the same and more of the same just got wearing after a while and I was glad to get to the end. Just kidding, I didn't get to the end.

This is a mid Beck album.

genuinely one of the most obnoxious albums i've ever heard. this brand of blues-rap gen x whatever the hell this is, is such a pain to listen to. the only saving grace here is the musicianship, which is pretty alright, but yeesh man. this sounds like if the mediocre-at-best busker in the subway station got a record deal. it sounds like an alley cat getting its tail run over by a bicycle. it feels like it has to be ironic but i do think it is quite genuine. pretty awful.

Time machine

I hated those singles in the 90s. I hate them today. This album sounds like high school kids just learning their instruments and started a band. Then played at a party, someone recorded to and released it. A joke A mistake Just plain awful We should be able to do zero stars

I really like this album! It's like bluesy hip-hop. The guitar is excellent

Very 90s, very white - easy listen in the main but I did cringe inside

Probably ahead of its time and not bad but I was bored by the end.

Loved this album! I'm not sure i ever listened to the whole thing...but wow...it was great!

Stick it in the fridge.

I rather enjoyed the flow and feel of this. I think some of his later work is better, but this was enjoyable.

Blech

This was fun for a while, but an hour dragged.

a soothing, sometime interesting, sometimes boring record. the mix of blues and hip-hop was quite cool, but nothing too groundbreaking. it feels like a filler album, and probably not one that will stick with me for long.

At first I was annoyed this was the album I had for the day my twins were born because it was something I had never heard of and sampling it for a bit made it sound like something I would hate. But then I actually found two seconds out of my first week with the babies and relax to this album. It was actually really weird in the best way. Weird as in unique. I actually appreciated the weird inflections of some of the words being sung (said? Rapped?). I ended up enjoying every song on this album.

Slacker blend of blues and hiphop. Nice drum sounds but annoying vocals.

Nothing special sauce about this album to me, a lot of the songs were just too same-y

Very interesting, I dig it.

Low

Bass line in the first song was dope. Seems like an enjoyable album so far. Don't love the vocals in all the songs, kind of a lazy rap.

My brother really liked this at the time and it didn’t do much for me. Still didn’t.

Hätten nicht 2 oder 3 Titel gereicht? Warum immer gleich ein Album?

3/5. This is a good album to nod your head to and the vocal cadences are fun, switching between blues, soul, spoken word, and rap. It is mostly blues instrumentation with simple drums, bass, and guitar. The vocals are the unique part here, with a slow and flowing rhythm, never staccato. I enjoyed the first half of the album, but then the second half sounded exactly the same, like it was alternate takes of the same songs. I wanted to like this more than I did but I did enjoy it for the most part. Just a little too long I think. Best Song: The Things That I Used To Do, Garbage Man, Baby's Got Sauce

not for me...

не понял зачем это здесь

No conocía ni el disco ni la banda. Empieza con un estilo Fun Lovin' criminals o Beastie Boys. Me guardo: Blues Music, Baby's got sauce y This ain't living.

Sounds both quite disheveled and also quite precise. This album has dirtbag line cook energy. I did not hate it but i did not need that great a quantity of it, either. 2.5

That was.... a lot. If you played almost any of these songs I'd be like "that's pretty good" but I don't know that I'd have a huge appetite for more. As an album, it's a lot of kind of the same thing. Is he recording all of his vocals through a megaphone, or does his voice just sound like that? Extra star because you can tell they said "this is a little light can you put down a couple more tracks" and the result was a song about cold drinks and a song about basketball

This was a really cool blend of a couple styles, and was pretty different to any album I've heard before. I probably wouldn't choose to listen to this again, but I enjoyed it while it was on.

this made time move slowly, in a bad way

I found nothing to like about this

Another one that shouldn't be on this list.

Not awful, but wasn't a fan. Annoying 90s tripe.

I don't think this breaks the mould in any way. At times it gets a decent groove on, but on the whole this doesn't get past pretty good.

3.5/5

This was formative album for me. It stands on its own but I also appreciate it since it got me curious about other blues and New Orleans influenced music. What a generational icon for the Philly area too

I know this album is probably not objectively great, but it has a very soft spot in my heart because I listen to G. Love and Special Sauce obsessively when I was a teenager.

catchy! 4s? Reminds me a lot of jack johnson.

I like it, some Beasty Boys vibes, rythm section is amazing and grooves like crazy. Nice blend of blues and rap.

The live instrumentation for the beats was pretty cool and it was a nice and relaxed listen but the rapping was uninspired and the few comprehensible lyrics were not great. So many better rap albums that are missing from here

Actually kinda dope

I don't know what to say other than ugh. It's somehow not 1 star bad in my opinion but I was so happy when it ended.

wow that snare tone is CAVERENOUS on the Opening track.

Maybe it’s because I’m not from the west, but I’ve never heard of G. Love before, and so have not been inundated with his work as it seems others have been. It does kind of sound the same after a while. It’s serviceable. I kinda like the last song. The voice became annoying after a while. If I were to listen to one song, it would be fine, but at the better part of an hour I was waiting for it to be over.

Like a bland, boring, linear, unimaginative version of the weird wonders Soul Coughing was offering around that time period. The most distinctive track as seen from 2024 is "Blues Music", and it's basically a rip-off of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth". Being nice performers doesn't make you a "1001 Albums You Must Listen To Before You Die" fodder. Some people in Robert Dimery's team were definitely out of their depth (hopefully not Mr. Dimery himself). There were at least 60 albums released in 1994 (admittedly a stellar year for music at large) that were far better than this one. Here's the list: Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album) Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Portishead - Dummy Nas - Illmatic Blur - Parklife Shellac - At Action Park Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York Hole - Live Through This Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Let Love In Beastie Boys - Ill Communication NOFX - Punk In Drublic Jeff Buckley - Grace Vangelis - Blade Runner Green Day - Dookie Tori Amos - Under The Pink Massive Attack - Protection Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set, Thrash And No Star Beck - Mellow Gold Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep Liz Phair - Whip-Smart Sebadoh - Bakesale Frank Black - Teenager Of The Year Low - I Could Live In Hope* Lisa Germano - Geek The Girl Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works vol 2 Superchunk - Foolish Method Man - Tical The Magnetic Fields - Holiday Beck - One Foot In The Grave Lisa Germano - Happiness REM - Monster Oasis - Definitely Maybe Helmet - Betty Neil Young - Sleep With Angels Kristin Hersh - Hips And Makers Soundgarden - Superunknown L7 - Hungry For Stink The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime Kyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley The Divine Comedy - Promenade Korn - Korn Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible 2PAC - Me Against The World dEUS - Worst Case Scenario Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand Girls Against Boys - Cruise Yourself Pulp - His'n'Hers Joni Mitchell - Turbulent Indigo Rancid - Let's Go Warsaw - Warsaw *Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom* Tortoise - Tortoise Dinosaur Jr - Without A Sound Body Count - Born Dead TLC - CrazySexyCool Pearl Jam - Vitalogy The Offspring - Smash Suede - Dog Man Star Now, Mr. Dimery... Can I be part of your team? Where should I send my resumé? 1/5 for the purposes of this list of "essential" albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5+1) Number of albums left to review: 92 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 391 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 228 Albums from the list I certainly won't include in mine: 289 (including this one)

It’s like Twiglets. It’s awful but I just can’t seem to stop.

is the special sauce a load of old wank

Meh. Blues rip off.

Meh

Straight ahead blues with a bit of 90s in there

If you like this style (sparse instrumentation, drums mixed high, semi-rap/hiphop) listen to Soul Coughing, they are much better at it.

This is fine; it sounds like so many other bands I heard at bars and fraternity parties in 1994. The Special Sauce is better than G. Love’s vocals and lyrics. Maybe I’m just not that big a fan of Philly… There are better options from the early-mid-90s in this college rock meets jazz/funk genre that I would pick for this list - Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, Cake, Govt Mule, and Rusted Root all come to mind. 3⭐️

It was ok. Basically Bob Dylan does hip-hop.

Slacker blues and perfectly listenable. Not really that compelling.

Great album. Very creative in its songs.

everyone knew a guy in college who “could freestyle” and it sounded like this

I think their special sauce is just ketchup with extra sugar mixed in. 2.1 stars

Eh

Hey I like Beck! Let’s do a shittier version

This was a funky one, in a good way. Reminded me of Sublime in some ways. Great to get the variety but it wasn't super memorable.

Pretty cool album! It's got that semi-tropical white boy tinge like some Sublime or Sugar Ray or something, and it mostly works really well. Quite a few hits on here that I'll keep, while the rest of it kind of faded into the background for me. But it's a nice not-quite-rock album (not sure what genre they'd call this), feels like summer. Favorite tracks: The Things That I Used to Do, Blues Music, Baby's Got Sauce, Cold Beverage, This Ain't Living. Album art: Very unassuming, just a shot of some guys at a diner it looks like. But it's got the summer scumbag feel, is this what Chet Hanks means by white boy summer? 3.5/5

I don't see what's so special about this sauce. Half baked raps over mediocre blues. It's really not good at all, nobody needs to hear this. What's worse is the other acts this likely influenced. What in the Uncle Kraker was this? 2 stars

A lot of dudes with soul patches have played air bass to this. Some of it was alright though.

Not my thing but some good musicians

The Beckstie Boys.

Idk there's a couple decent tracks here. Love the Philly rep, but it's pretty corny ngl

"Genre: Blues / Rap" What the fuck is this. Oh, it's just the Gorillaz after a vasectomy. Not horrible, just really samey and way too long. The fact that it sounds like a random recording of some homeless guys jamming on the street is sort of charming in a weird way.

A cool one! Just a really cool vibe with the straight funk mixed with rap aesthetics. Wouldn't mind coming back to it tbh. 7/10

Pure vibes

they brought a lot of the mild sauce but a bit of the xtra spicy hot & tangy chunky pepper blend new formula is mixed in

Goodness that was tedious.

Doesn't hold up as well as I hoped, but still an easy 3.

I feel this has a specific time and place, so I’ll respect its placement on the list except… G. Love and Special Sauce is the actual name… not like a one-off mock project, but the actual name he chose…

I can understand why this album appeals to some people but it was NOT for me.

Nope this is poor, sounds like the worst of 90’s music.

What trying too hard to be cool sounded like in the 90’s

Awful, couldin't finish the album. Real drab rubbish

这种blues rap真容易睡

Surprising choice. Nice album but never really got fully into it. I do like the laidback sound and the 2-sequence Fatman - This Ain't Living is great.

I just totally love this, it's so musical. Saw G. Love perform the whole album last year, still accompanied by the Special Sauce. It was amazing.

I hated this when it came out and it's aged to be worse. Dumbed down lyrics and repetitive guitar tracks. Nah.

His baby’s got sauce. His band has some kind of secret special sauce. Does G. Love have sauce of his own? He may, but it is the sauce that messes up the whole dish. There are some interesting things the band is trying with their fusion of styles and sauces, but G. Love’s vocals and songwriting are the weak link.

I mean, it's pretty silly. At least it is unique? The 90s were a weird time man.

I’ve always referred to them as Glove and Special sauce. Why? G. Love frankly sounds stupid. G. Love or Glove…it doesn’t matter. This laid back rap blues fusion is too laid back for me.

Not a good or really meaningful album, but more of a symptom of the time. In the early to mid 90s pressing a cd was cheap. The break even point was so low that record labels were willing to gamble. There was just as much quality music in this period as any other period in modern history, but it was awash in a sea of crap. This album is part of the larger sea. This reminds me of the band you got to play your kegger in exchange for free beer and felt you overpayed.

Fun - chill bluesy music

Great stupid summer fun - delighted to discover that I still know 80% of the words to "Cold Beverage" . This isn't consistent enough to play through as an album but there are some good playlist tracks in here for an easy breezy vibe.

Man, I’m on a bad run. This album was just kind of annoying and repetitive.

Parte instrumental é bem boa, clima de blues envolvente. Mas o vocal fica irritante.

Not special and not even that saucy. The inflection he puts on his voice makes it seem like he's trying really hard to be cool

Emphatically casual. This would be a very attractive style if the overall musical quality were higher. As it is, most of the songs sound like they've been thrown together by a college band.

This is like blues-jazz-alternative-rap fusion, right? Honestly I’m impressed someone can mix four genres and not be good at any of them. Oh and add in a bad blaccent? The cherry on top. Hard pass.

I’d heard of them but never listened to them. I really enjoyed it. Although it’s dated and might be considered appropriate now, it’s funky and fun, much like the Fun Lovin Criminals, who I love.

An ok album, nothing that really blew me away, G. Love & Special Sauce missing some of that "Special Sauce" in my opinion. This album would fit perfectly in a jazz café of the 90s, mid-afternoon sipping on coffee wearing your beret that you purchased on your gap year France, perhaps also with a lit cigarette between your fingers. Best: Baby's Got Sauce Worst: Fatman

better than i expected kinda chill, not creative. id rather listen to sublime

Nope

Not bad, but woefully lacking in variety and dynamism. Every track is just a repeating blues riff with the same lackadaisical not-quite-rapping vocals, to the point that you might not even realise the song has changed. I liked the rhythm section and found the sound very nostalgic and 90s. Made me want to whip out my SEGA Dreamcast.

G. Love and Special Sauce is the debut album by G. Love & Special Sauce, originally released in 1994. A lot of people are probably wondering why this record is included on this list. I'm a Philly native and these guys are huge here. I wasn't alive in the 90s but my parents played this record constantly. It was/still is all over the radio too. G. Love really kinda made his own sound. Huge slacker vibes with a bit of dub influence? Sometimes blues, sometimes jazz, sometimes indie. I really love how eclectic his style is. Reminds me a bit of Beck but not as weird. I don't know too much about his fanbase but I feel like a lot of the stoner/jam band Phish heads would love this band. Super fun album.

Not my jam. Quite samey, quite quickly. If music were a wraith, it would be G. Love and the Special Sauce. As the songs played I felt my life-force being drained. None of the tracks made it into my playlist.

Another great find through this project. I have never heard of this group but the record was just so good! Thanks for showing it to me.

Pleasant and chill, but nothing note worthy

Felt like a bit of a copy of Fun Loving criminals, fairly unmemorable though

Chill 🔥slaps mellow throughout

Pure rubbish. The list never ceases to amaze me with bad selections

If it was instrumental it would get 4 stars, with vocals 2.5

Groovy but couldn't get past the vocals (personal preference)

So 90s but in the best way. This album does "sloppy" better than nearly anyone. It doesn't feel lazy, it feels incredibly intentional. So many slacker anthems here.

Grossly immature and quite stupid. I was a bit taken at first, but really, 58 minutes of this is far too much to bear. G does not love.

Groovy with a bit of a Sublime/311-esque vocal flow. Love the instrumentals. 4.5

Correcto

The music is groovy, funky, jazzy and smooth. The double bass is awesome, but the vocals doing some 90's hiphop swag thing kind of ruin it.

It’s ok

This sauces won't change your life but it would be nice on some fries.

Nice instrumentals, not a fan of the vocals

Not my thing.

I didn’t listen to the entire album because it was not only bad but boring as well.

I always lumped these guys into the jam band scene, thanks to a coworker who was all about that vibe and constantly raved about G. Love & Special Sauce. So, I wasn’t exactly eager to dive into this album. But from the very beginning, I realized I had totally misjudged it, and it was way better than I expected. What really hooked me about this album was its funky, raw energy. It’s laid-back and groovy, with a strong jazz and blues feel. The production is stripped down and unpolished, giving it a vibe that feels almost like a live performance, which I loved. However, there were some aspects I didn’t vibe with. The rapping and lyrics felt sleazy, simplistic, and fell flat for me. Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed the album more if they had dropped the rapping altogether. All in all, I’d say it’s worth a listen. Even though there was one element that didn’t resonate with me, I can’t ignore the other parts that were genuinely enjoyable.

no

First listen Saved 3/14 Top track: The Things That I Used To Do

This is best poetry from the 90s. Baby Got Sauce is catchy but the rest is pretty meh, borderline cringey.

I don't know what I should make of this. The music's ok, but the vocals range from boring to annoying.

It just kept going

I appreciate its unique and refreshing brand of '90s music. Kinda reminds me of mag.lo and Cheekface. I didn't feel it as much as the mentioned artists tho.

Cannot stand this guy's affected vocals, and every song was the same

This is pretty terrible. Baby's Got Sauce is particularly egregious. Couldn't finish - toughed it out till half way through. Gave me a migraine, though that may have been coincidence.

No idea how this obscure artist with a crappy album makes it on a list like this.

Not what I expected after 30 years of knowing the name but not taking steps to listen to GL&SS. A nice low-key vibe that is more stripped down than Fun Lovin' Criminals. I'll now dive deeper into this, kind of the point of this whole project.

enjoyed this way more than I thought I would

Nothing to hate here, but nothing mind-blowing either.

I like the sloppy, kind of jazzy hip hop feel of the band. The vocal delivery is pretty unique, like someone free styling while coming out of anesthesia, very laid back but kinda mumbled and somewhat hard to understand.

I bought this album from a neighbour's garage sale. Probably should have listened to it a bit more than I did. It is quite fun and I can see this special sauce flavouring a bunch of music that followed.

I only know G from a couple of songs he recorded with Jack Johnson, and now I can hear where Jack got a lot of his influence, especially those echoey old snare drums. Anyway this was cool.

A quirky little piss-take band. An unusual set up of guitar, drums and double bass. Watching some of their videos on Youtube, they have an oddball charm that’s missing from the album.

Not really my music style

Ok wow wtf was this. I won’t give it one star because I can totally see how G. Love has legs at a music festival—this is exactly the kind of wanna-be bluesy music that a bunch of white folks who have considered dreadlocks would groove to. It begs for a sack to be hackeyed, and I hated almost every minute of it.

Really enjoyed the funk and blues feel here. Fun album

No.

not at all what I was expecting, but rather enjoyed it.

Unreal this album is 57 minutes.

OK.

disjointed at times, not smooth like I'd expected of blues.

Not at all what I was expecting based on the album cover but the “sloppy” sound was not the special sauce for me and makes this album the third in a row that was just kind of irritating. Has like 40 seconds worth of fun moments on it.

Never heard of them. Talking to music is NOT MUSIC. Just like rap crap. The talking ruins all the songs.

More terrible 90’s music

I did not like this at first, but along a lazy afternoon it kind of grew on me as a lazy afternoon kind of album.

I was not familiar with this album, but it is my kind of jam.

I've never heard of G. Love and Special Sauce. This was entertaining enough. I'm not sure though about their controversial take on Cold Beverages.

I recognized the group name when this appeared and much to my surprise found this album already in my music collection along with three other albums from G. Love and Special Sauce. This came from the early 2000s when I ripped my and my boyfriend’s music collection in the move to digital. Once I was listening to this I did recognize a lot of it. I never really got into this group but I do appreciate the sound.

Random but quite good

I thought this kind of thing was brilliant in the 90s. Not so much now.

Fun.

I would be shocked if this wasn’t objectively the worst album on this list.

More nostalgic than good.

Wok star. Wok star. Wok star. Wok star. Wok star.

Had never heard of these guys. Drums okay. Guitar has its moments. Dislike the vocals. Found it a tad irritating, on the whole. On and on it went. Not really a special sauce - just an average sauce in a jazzy bottle. An average sauce in one of those squeezy, tomato-shaped ketchup dispensers. Actually, those dispensers are cooler than this album. In fact, I kind of want one now! 🍅 But I don't want to listen to this again.

Cool music, sounds very live, but for me let down by the vocals & songs. Interesting mix of styles and genres though, which is probably why it made the list.

It’s Sunday afternoon, it’s sunny, and you’re walking down the street in sliders. You also probably have sunglasses on. These guys would get along with Jack Johnson probably. Favourite tracks: Garbage Man,

Cool, laid-back album. Consistently decent but nothing that blew me away. I liked the blues/hip hop influence and the drums and bass lines were nice. Dragged a bit towards the end - could’ve done with the last 4/5 songs being cut. Favourite track: This Ain’t Living

This album sounds a lot like if you told some fairly talented guys to improv an entire project in the studio that day. I like their style a lot, I think the mix of blues, jazz, and hip-hop are really cool, but they keep resting on the same couple of musical ideas. It's chill- but almost too chill- like they couldn't be bothered to stop jamming out to come up with any sort of variety or compelling lyrics. It's a good listen, but after nearly an hour of it you can start to zero in on its flaws pretty quickly.

Garbage Man // Eyes Have Miles //

This sounds like some dude named Greg's attempt to do spoken word in-between basement bong rips and hackie sack sessions.

This smells like hackysack.

I can't tell what this album is aiming at but it lacks focus and maturity. Not Beck and not interesting at times it shows fleeting musically interesting moments but then something feels off or wrong and it all falls apart.

Chill enough, I guess, but essential? Not to my ears. It sounds like if some dude showed up at your campfire with a guitar and asked if you'd ever heard a white man rap. The lyrics sound like the deep thoughts a surfer would jot down between bong tokes. If I'd found this album at age 19, I'd probably love it. All in all, the sloppy flow gets a little samey, and also just goes on far too long -- removing 20 mins from this album would go a long way.

Very funky, down and dirty in Philly. Not an artist I had heard of before, but one I certainly enjoyed. A clear influence, in my mind at least, on Fun Lovin Criminals and Cage the Elephant, and a few others who fused rock, funk and rap-sung vocals. A cracker

just okay, reminded me of sublime a little bit.

3.5

Below mediocre, above terrible...

I’d give this a 5+. Awesome album. Loved the rhythm and the bass all the way through.

I thought this was quite enjoyable!

I would have liked this more if it was all Special Sauce and left the G Love in the car. His voice and style were grating but the music was great that was behind it. And for that... ***

A little too pretentious for me

Pretty incredible stuff. I'm uncertain how this passed me by in the 90's; I must have been too wrapped up in the Seattle sound. Very reminiscent of Beck, but in a less organized, more "dirty" way.

Bluesy hip-hop; on paper something I'd would like. But I just didn't get into this. Just seemed a bit lazily underwhelming to me.

G. Love! One of the coolest sounds ever made.

Somehow manages to mix beck and beastie boys and be a total bore.

Blir uppriktigt sagt förbannad när sådana här album dyker upp när man vet grupper och artister som inte är med på listan. En skiva att torka sig i röven med.

The singer's voice is really annoying.

Ugh that mush mouth semi rap. Spare us.

Bit like a laid back Fun Lovin Crims. Gets a bit tiresome after a while.

Great, hip-hop one of the music styles that for some reason rub me the wrong way (together with punk and jazz). Some of the music is actually OK but as soon as the "singing" starts it is immediately ruined.

Discount Beastie Boys.

Liked it

Nothing special on the sauce

2.5

What kind of genre is this? Blues-rap?

Super chill, bit repetitive

Blues + hiphop/rap is an amazing combination which comes out perfect on this album. Never heard of them or any of the songs but I enjoyed every song. It’s not perfect so I would say 4.8/5 but since that’s not possible I’ll give it 5 stars. Favourite songs: - Blues music - Baby’s got sauce - Shooting hoops

Reminded me of a british sublime

I was surprised to see this one listed, but it is a unique sound from a unique band. I’ve never been able to get into G. Love despite liking many of their contemporaries and associated artists. Their debut is okay - it’s not great musically but there is a vibe on several songs that is appealing in the right setting. Baby’s Got Sauce is fun abound probably my favorite track. It’s feel good music made for beach festivals and opening for Dave Matthews Band - and if that’s wrong I don’t want to be right. That said, I’m rarely going to listen to this in my day to day, and I tried listening while working and it’s definitely not the right music for that. I haven’t seen them live, but my guess is they’re a band that is best experienced in person than on record.

This was a hard album for me to rate. At times, I thought this is not too bad but other times I felt they were trying too hard to get to a sound not really natural for them. I did like Cold Beverage and Shooting Hoops and nothing was outright terrible, it just felt "off" and too many times the songs seemed to run together. This is nothing I'm going to revisit but it was OK to listen to a couple times. Sometimes you think you're getting special sauce and it turns out to just be Thousand Island dressing. I think that's from Arnold when he worked at All-American burger in Fast Times. Oh, I did think these dude's sounded a little bit like the guys that sing Scooby Snacks. 2.5

2.5 Never heard of G. Love, but I can tell you that I don’t want none of his special sauce. Jokes aside, this was fine, but I have no idea why it made a list of the 1001 best albums of all-time. It’s one of the most 90s things I have ever heard, to the point where I imagine the guys were probably sipping on Crystal Pepsi, feeding their Tamagotchis, and watching Beavis and Butthead between takes. No idea why this album is still applicable as an important listen today unless mediocre, douchey whiteboy alternative hip hop is your thing. There’s nothing remarkable going on anywhere here except for Baby’s Got Sauce, which is about the catchiest abomination I’ve ever heard. One of the more forgettable albums for me thus far, though apparently this guy is playing a show near me in a week. Honestly, I’m considering buying a ticket just for the meme.

Pretty interesting, especially for 1994! Doing White Stripes stuff like a decade before the White Stripes is respectable business

Some decent instrumentals and musical ideas. But man, this guy has some of my least favorite vocal inflections of all-time. 2/5

G. Love and Special Sauce is the debut album by the American rock band of the same name G. Love & Special Sauce. This alternative hip hop album has been certified gold in the US. One song "Cold Beverage" was a staple on college radio, and another "Baby's Got Sauce" has received high praise. I thought this was a great debut album as it introduced me to their style and left me wanting more. Give it a chance and maybe you'll love it.

This album left me confused. I liked the instrumentals. Their vocals were okay, different. Fitting for the genre. But I couldn’t make myself like them as a whole.

This is nice.

I’d rather listen to Kevin G

Not very memorable 90s imho

Ooooohhhhh BABY!!!! Some real funky shit right here! Loved it!

Very funky, cool and sparse. The grooves are very nice. The double bass is really good. Don't like the style of the vocalist -- sounds really fake and immature, like a little white boy trying to sound cool by putting on a really stupid "urban" way of speaking. Four stars for the music, one star for the vocals, two stars overall.

What the hell was that? 1/5

1994 appeared to be prime time for G. Love to deliver his Special Sauce. The alchemy of rap, alternative and jazz prove to be an effective combo that would appear kind of weird and somewhat off-putting to those looking on the outside yet for those looking in, there's plenty to discover and become enchanted by. White rappers at that time had a bad rap (hehe) but G. Love makes up for it by staying in his lane and not attempt to demonstrate anything cheesy or damning. It helps that Special Sauce are on top form throughout. It may encapsulate what the early 90s were about but this could do with a little more current day reevaluating. Favorites: The Things I Used to Do, Garbage Man, Baby's Got Sauce, Rhyme for the Summertime, Cold Beverage, Fatman, This Ain't Living, Walk to Slide.

Great unplugged-indie sound. Did not know the band and it is definitely a great discovery and addition to my playlist.

I listened, I forgot

5 stars, funky and fresh.

Very same-y and irritating for the most part. This ain’t living was ok

In isolation, individual songs are quite catchy. As a whole album though, it just feels like one long blur. Pleasant enough, and not without merit, but without anything really standing out to grab your attention.

It’s not that it’s bad. It’s more that it’s not good. When I see 1994 American rock band and I get anything that isn’t grunge I’m at least somewhat pleased though.

Goofy

Not my jam.

Interesting.

I never heard of these guys but I actually really liked the album. Drummer was great and unique guitar almost like a mix between black keys, cake, and cage the elephant plus toned down rap/talking vocals.

Like the rhythm ...but they all started to sound very similar

Ágætur hljóðheimur og stundum grípandi stef, en þessi G.ást er ekkert agalega sjarmerandi. Byrjar á betri endanum en síðustu þrjú lögin eru svakalega döll. Var að hugsa um tæpan þrist en ég enda í rúmum tvisti.

I just hate this vibe and I’ve got nothing else I want to say.

Serious musicians jamming with the record button on and then putting it out as done. Sloppy may be their trademark but enjoyable it ain't. The click track at the end of the penultimate track drove me nuts. All over the place.

Like it's not bad, the production is okay, the singing is okay, but its so so boring I couldn't finish the album 1.5/5

The music itself is good. Good bluesy sound mixed with a blend of blues and hip-hoppy vocals. A lot of the songs sounded the same, however, which made it feel repetitive at some points. Overall good album, though.

I'm a big fan of both hip hop and blues, so I thought I would like this more. I did enjoy the first few songs a lot, but the songs all started the sound the same after a while. Cold Beverage is a slapper. They seem sort of like a one trick pony. Loved the style though, cool combination fo genres.

this is like if "guy who brings guitar to a party" was an entire band

Das Album war nicht wirklich meins. Bin ich nicht mit warm geworden.

This album was weird. Not what I had expected from the album art at all. Indie minimal rap folk something. The guy’s voice is not that good. Rough and tumble I guess. Not my thing, but it did get better in the middle. Standouts: Baby’s Got Sauce, Fatman, and This Ain’t Living.

Typical rich kid wants to be a hip hop artist. Found nothing to like here

Started out promising…then it didn’t. Is this an album of 12 tracks of the same song and maybe 2 others that are different? Disappointed.

When it first started I was a bit intrigued. Vocals got old pretty fast and kind of wished it was an instrumental after a while

This is the perfect definition of average. Super laid back and chill, vocals that anybody can do, big college radio or open mic vibes. I guess that makes it perfectly listenable, but also very bland.

Liked this a lot. Chill out jammy rock sounds, hip hop style lyrics. Very understated.

Reminds me of a more meandering Sublime that mixes in more blues than rap. I also understand why you can always find an album of theirs in a thrift store or $1 dollar bin at your local record shop (2.5/5)

This was very long. What it did was fine, but could've been cut in half.

Need a nice Cold Beverage for when I listen to this one while I’m driving from Town to Town.

This singer is annoying and the music isn’t that good, either. How ‘Baby’s Got Sauce’ was called the song of the year for 1994, a year with great output from much better bands, is beyond me, considering that I don’t remember a second of it. I don’t remember most of it, because it wasn’t notable enough for me to pay attention to it during my morning activities. I do remember the last song, though. It, like the rest of this album, is bad. This is one of my less bitter 1 star reviews, but it’s not like I have a higher opinion of it.

favourite song: babys got sauce very 3/5 album. neat.

Not for me. 1/5

I dunno dude, why and how is this top 1001 albums worthy? I like the poeticism of the lyrics, I guess I do. Dude came up with ideas, practiced, recorded, that's inspired effort, worth 2 stars hehe.

So mid.

Rough one. Best song is the shortest song: Cold Beverage, which reminded me of Red Hot Chili Peppers, but not to G. Love's advantage. Which is saying something. A big no thank you to the whole album. Did send Spotify off on a nice track for the day, though, so there's that.

Just ok. Some fun sounding stuff. Not bad but not up there as top albums for me personally

what for?

3.7 - At my high school, there were a few distinct stoner groups, floating casually outside of my geeky, theater/debate team orbit. One stoner group fixated on Phish and other jam bands, another was comprised of recent Russian emigrés, and there was also the jock stoners. Within that mix, a sub-group of more goonish stoners overlapped with the jocks and jam band enthusiasts. These goons were fun-loving dudes. They were usually accompanied by a few groupie chicks and made appearances at all the house parties, as far as I can tell. But these dudes went a little harder, mixing their kind bud with whippets and Malibu and cough syrup. Most had had some run-ins with police, but managed to keep a clean record before they all spread out to their various New England liberal arts colleges. These are the dudes I associate most with G. Love. They were good-humored guys so I'm glad they were listening to cool music. I've always liked the few cuts I've heard off this joint, especially "Cold Beverage." "My Baby's Got Sauce" is more of a novelty but a winning one that gets the ladies smiling. Other standout: "This Ain't Living."

Rooty, low-fi Americana-Blues/Rap with an exceptional attitude towards success: I believe here truely is an artist working not giving 1 fuck about getting famous.

Boring, samey, uninteresting, full of copied riffs and baselines from other people music... I just don't get why this album is here for review. I'll give it 2 for effort. Other than that it's instantly forgettable.

the "rapping" was.. too painful... i didn't finish.

Surprisingly enjoyable. His voice wasn't the best, but the music was great.

It’s ok

Loved this album, never heard of them before

This was definitely unique. I'm not sure that it was good, but it was unique. It's got this like bluesy, hip hop, rock combination thing going on. It's very slow and loose musically, it's mostly just vibing throughout. A number of times while listening to this I thought to myself that I would like it more if the singer wasn't singing, I liked the music part better than him. There are a handful of songs on here that are pretty catchy ("Baby's Got Sauce" was pretty solid), but a lot of it was just a bit grating to me. It's pretty long too at 58 minutes, so it keeps going on for awhile. Favorite song: Baby's Got Sauce Other: Blues Music, Garbage Man, Cold Beverage, This Ain't Living, I Love You 3/14/24

Very much and album of its time. The Slacker blues-jazz meets hip hop sloppy sound seems to have hit an epoch in '94 with similar sounding Beck and Bran Van 3000 popping up independently at the same time. I forgot how much I loved this post grunge break from seriousness

Dreadful. I tried to treat it as Captain Beefheart, to which it has a superficial resemblance, but I really hated it.

Nothing special

Fun, funky album.

Seems like every song sounds like the other. Boring

3.75

There’s definitely a place for bar band music in the world. But, is there really enough space on a limited list of absolutely essential albums for it? I don’t feel like I have a better understanding of the world after having listened to this, I don’t feel like I understand any musical trend, better understand where any specific artist got any ideas. I just feel like having a drink, ignoring the band and just talking with friends. It’s fine, it might be worth throwing on at a party, but it’s definitely not worthy of a spot on this list

Started off as a real banger but it started to wear on me about 20 minutes in. Won't trash it, but won't return.

Wow.. how did this ever get released. Sounds like some guys jamming and fooling around in the rehearsal room. Probably they had good fun, but why should the rest of us be bothered?

Embarrassingly bad.

Not bad 3.5/5

Absolutely fucking awful.

This is a VIBE. 3.49 stars.

Primus wannabes

Not bad. Reminds me of Beck or Grandson if they had more blues. 3.17

Still a banger

Every song seemed to just miss the target.

Similar to acts like Sublime or even at times the White Stripes, this album is an inoffensive take an a niche sub-genre of blues rock that feels more trip-hop than blues, with repetitive beats and a rap-like flow to the singing to ensure even the least interested listener is bobbing their head. However, this album here leaves a lot to be desired in an already aged genre, as the CD era strikes again and takes this decent twenty minute concept of an album and stretches it to nearly an hour, with no variation to warrant the time spent. You won't hate your time here, but you'll most likely not gain anything either.

Enjoyed the first half hour but it got repetitive and dragged through the second half. Nice flow and sound tho.

Yeah this was alright, an interesting concept mixing rap and bluesy music.

A bit ridiculous but enjoyable.

Music that you want to punch in the face. If it was just one song of this style of music I could cop it and maybe even enjoy it in the background, but a whole album of samey douche slacker rap was a heinous assault on my ear holes. Even for people who enjoyed this album, surely they'd agree it shouldn't be on this list, what does it bring to music?

Fucking hated this album. I can imagine everyone that loves this band to be completely insufferable. So, so lame, boring, lazy (not in a good slacker way). Awful college douche music. Can't believe it got on this list. Even the name. Fuck this album. My new worst of the project! Half a star. Fave track: This Ain't Living

This is what happens when you let annoying people go without bullying. Awful. Just awful.

Hard not to like it.

ekki slæmt. skemmtileg lög inn á milli. held þetta hafi samt verið uppspretta ýmislegs ills.

It’s different but I didn’t love it. Not bad but probably wouldn’t go back to it

Take either the voice or melody away and you have crap. Perfect combination.

What fresh hell is this? White boy rapping over swinging beats? No fucking thanks

Decent fusion

Represents an interesting time in the 90s. Liked it more after listening to it for a bit definitely grew on me.

Like a shit early Beck

This is too jammy for me, and sounds like several afterparties I went to as a kid. I dont remember one single melody after hearing through, and I am probably even more bored than what the musicians performing on the record sounds.