Multi-Cultural Competency

Richest Man in Babylon is an excellent effort by Thievery Corporation. It's simply one of the best cd's I've heard in the last 3 years. From start to finish, the cd takes the listener to exotic places ranging from India (Facing East) to the Middle East with stops in Jamaica, Morocco, and South America. This CD goes beyond boring repetitive beats and forgettable vocals that you find on most chillout or lounge albums. The tracks are very dynamic, tightly produced, offer lush melodies, and explore various layers of instrumentation. I appreciate that Thievery Corporation really took time to do justice to the different cultural influences on the track. You won't find random uses of a sitar or a misplaced tabla here. Somehow, everything flows and oozes like honey. Whenever I play this cd at parties, people have a great time, start relaxing, and panties come off...enjoy!

snake oil trip-hop

....my first negative review in amazon...not because i'm a hipper-than-thou type, or because i enjoy trashing things, but because the world is too full of trivial bull*&*& and too full of lies. this is yet another album of fake music by fake musicians...talented fake musicians who get over because they have great studio technique and get over with their pseudo one-world posturing. who made these guys rastafarians, anyway? or said it's ok for them to buy rastafarians (and brazilians and french girls and anybody else) to sing on their albums just because they can afford to? electronic/rave music started out as a brave, exciting adventure - only to sadly be co-opted by the marketplace and poseurs like this who are savvy enough to work the system. what kind of a world of world is it where 'thievery corporation' rakes in the dough, while countless sincere experimental artists languish in obscurity?('m not even talking about avant-guardists...i like pop music...but even people as main-stream as 4hero can't even get their last album released in the states.) if you love music, and the world, do yourself a favor and stay away from this crap.

Solid album

Thievery Coporation's The Richest Man In Babylon is a solid trip-hop lounge album that should be in the collection of every fan of the genre. This album is different from TC's other albums. The hop side is in the background while the trip side being pushed forward and it was a good decision.