Kid Rock “Devil Without a Cause” (1998)
These days it can be easy to just think of Kid Rock as the grinning
grease-stain in ‘stars and stripes’ pants playing golf with Donald Trump
and forget that he used to be a musician.
Rock’s association with Trump seems appropriate as his lyrics dwell in
misogyny, greed and lashing out at those who he felt had not helped him
or had held him back. On the title track he classily invites his
detractors to “shut up or put his balls in their mouths”.
Rock’s lyrics reflect his reinvention from straight hip-hop to his
‘cowboy pimp rockstar’ persona. Revelling in his sleaze and trashiness
as he goes on about ‘bitches’ and ‘hoes’ and a ‘hose’ (a garden hose
made of solid gold, don’tcha know).
Lyrics aside though, I do find it hard to fault the album musically. From the opening chant and stonking riffs of single “Bawitdaba” into the mix of styles on the twangy country “Cowboy”
which almost feels like it could be a Beck song. There’s the Rage
Against the Machine-esque but ridiculously titled “Fist of Rage”. All
in all, the music is an interesting mix of hiphop, metal, country and
even a touch of funk.
The main issue then (aside from the lyrics) is that the runtime is in
excess of 70 minutes (ditto with a few of the albums in this part of the
list). It’s hard to maintain interest for that length of runtime unless
it’s a release from one of your absolute favourite artists.
