Brassy - Gettin' Wise

Brassy don't wanna take it easy, they wanna hit you hard. Well, that's what they said - I'm not making it up. They plan to make some kinder-funk DJ whacko blammo squeezy music. Laser Atari soundtrack. I can't do any better than onomateopia, because Brassy's music is so infectious, happy, and balls-out that you can have fun, full stop, to it. You groove ("Good to the B / B to the Y / Y to the E / Bye-bye" - "So Long Baby") , you wanna ride around carrying your attitude on your shoulder, because that's not hard to do with Brassy since they're so full of 'tude ("We make it sound so mmm / found it in the kitchen / followin' my nose / Where did you get that funk?" - "Where Did You Get That Funk?"). They still steal the show with their spunky mix of Beastie-esque rock sound blended with hard DJ bass and sampling (Check out "1-0-0" and "Dus'"). Brassy is the shiznit, and Gettin' Wise only cements that opinion. Only problem: Remember everything I said about Brassy in my review of Work It Out? Still stands. Because the band didn't really grow or expand on their previous sounds, their previous beats, or Muffin Spencer's previous lyrics. Sure, the new album's just as fun to listen to as Work It Out, and the vocals are produced a little bit more slick-ly, but the sound is the same without expanding. See, think on my wavelength: "Root Down" compared to "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" compared to "Remote Control" (Beastie Boys). Can you see the obvious growth spectrum between songs/albums? But the band maintained its signature sound and style but expanded upon it. Brassy hasn't done that. It's not sophomore slump; Brassy's still creative and sounds just as great as they did before, but the difference between albums isn't big enough for me. There's also too much spelling going on - Let's try a new lyrical approach. And cut down on call-and-response - We can see from the "Play Some D" on the bonus disc ("Play Some D" originally appeared on Work It Out) to the title track "Gettin' Wise" that there's some leap, but not much. The bonus disc, by they way, contains more funked-out, Stevie-Wonder-ish remixes by Tron Styler. They're pretty good, jazzy and cool. Maybe if they'd been the originals, I'd be happier. Anyway, Brassy made another album and it's pretty cool. It just sounds like Brassy. [www.brassy.com]