Album: Give the Drummer Some
Label: Interscope/LaSalle
Rating: 3/5
It would pay to know Travis Barker, because if you did you more than likely would have appeared on his debut album Give the Drummer Some. Everyone else he knows surely did. The LP contains more guests than a 24 hour telethon.
Though it is populated by such acquaintances as Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, Ludacris, Cypress Hill, RZA and The Transplants, the true driving force behind the album is the unorthodox, but nonetheless enticing playing style of Barker as he masterfully pounds away at his set.
Barker’s drumming has always been highly identifiable, and through his time with numerous bands like Blink 182, Box Car Racer, The Transplants, and +44 (to name just a few), he has continued to personalize it.
Give the Drummer Some largely concerns itself with elements of rap rock, and since Barker has been infusing components of traditional rock with previously released hip hop songs for years, it seems sensible to release a full-length album of him officially doing it.
Most of the tracks found on the album are bouncy and spirited trips (“If U Want To” is a standout) that are enunciated, at times, by witty lyricisms and striking guitars performed by guests Tom Morello and Slash on “Carry It” and “Saturday Night”, respectively.
However, as much as the album prides itself on its sonic excesses, the album does seem to suffer from a sense of that ‘been there, done that’ syndrome. As entertaining and diverse as it strives to be, the album does slip into a pattern of redundancy after awhile and eventually becomes reliant on clichéd lyrics that one has come to associate with the hip hop genre.
Though it’s not instantly forgettable, Give the Drummer Some is hardly groundbreaking
