Powerful Pain Relief is the second album by the American band Love Jones, released in 1995.[2][3] The band was considered part of the mid-1990s "Cocktail Nation" trend of retro cocktail lounge groups.[4]

Powerful Pain Relief
Studio album by
Released1995
GenreLounge
LabelZoo Entertainment[1]
ProducerPaul du Gré, Love Jones
Love Jones chronology
Here's to the Losers
(1993)
Powerful Pain Relief
(1995)

The first single from the album was "The Thing".[5] Love Jones supported Powerful Pain Relief by opening for the Presidents of the United States of America on a North American tour.[6]

Production

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The album was produced by Paul du Gré and Love Jones.[7] The band downplayed the sillier lyrics of their first album and concentrated more on the groove of the songs.[8] The conga player and vocalist Ben Daughtrey left the band after the completion of Powerful Pain Relief.[9]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [10]

Trouser Press thought that "better songwriting and fatter arrangements carry the ebullient opener, 'The Thing', into sly cuts like 'Vigilante' and the solipsistic 'Me'."[7] CMJ New Music Monthly wrote that the album "shows the band as determinedly campy as ever, playing the kind of richly instrumental, overly opulent '70s jazz-pop that made the Association so famous."[11] The Austin Chronicle concluded that "fans of pink elephants, shag carpeting, and swizzle sticks will sway their velvet-clad booties quite righteously to Powerful Pain Relief; everyone else will miss the point entirely."[12]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that "the tacky (not funny enough to be called kitschy) collection includes the title track, a phony-sounding, Dee-Lite-style love song; the insipid Sly Stone-ripoff, 'World of Summer'; and 'Vigilante', a laughable attempt at menacing, blaxploitation-film badness."[13] The Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph deemed the album "a wildly funky brand of lounge music that contains more soul than anything Lawrence Welk ever did."[14]

AllMusic wrote that "the band evolved their loungey sound away from a Combustible Edison bossa nova vibe to more rock but still created a smooth, cocktail mood."[10]

Track listing

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No.TitleLength
1."The Thing"3:36
2."You Don't Know Me"3:20
3."World of Summer"5:12
4."Help Wanted"3:39
5."Peepin'"2:34
6."Stars"2:33
7."Vigilante"3:08
8."Roll-On"3:53
9."Me"3:03
10."Blue"3:59
11."Powerful Pain Relief"5:00

References

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  1. ^ "How to Turn Your Home into a Space-Age Bachelor Pad". Orange County Register. September 17, 1995. p. F15.
  2. ^ Adams, Kirby. "'Tonight Show' host Jimmy Fallon swoons over Louisville's Love Jones". The Courier-Journal.
  3. ^ "Livin' Lounge – Swanky Love Jones rides 'retro' trend to success". The Cincinnati Post. September 14, 1995. p. 14A.
  4. ^ Wener, Ben (September 17, 1995). "Underground Goes Lounge". Orange County Register. p. F14.
  5. ^ Borzillo, Carrie (Sep 9, 1995). "Lounge Love". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 36. p. 21.
  6. ^ Maestri, Cathy (January 28, 1996). "Goofy combos, real, unreal". The Press-Enterprise. p. E3.
  7. ^ a b "Love Jones". Trouser Press. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  8. ^ Arnold, Gina (1 Oct 1995). "Love Jones Recycles the Hits". Datebook. San Francisco Examiner. p. 49.
  9. ^ Clark, Michael D. (February 9, 1996). "Love Jones Preaches the Gospel of Lounge Lizards". Eye. San Jose Mercury News. p. 20.
  10. ^ a b "Powerful Pain Relief". AllMusic.
  11. ^ Stewart, Allison (Oct 1995). "Reviews". CMJ New Music Monthly. No. 26. p. 38.
  12. ^ "Music Reviews". The Austin Chronicle.
  13. ^ Hampel, Paul (22 Nov 1995). "Powerful Pain Relief Love Jones". Get Out. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 9.
  14. ^ Simon, Jeremy (February 2, 1996). "Sound Advice". Go!. Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. p. 20.