Review of Soulive by Soulive ***

Has some good parts, but too much repetition for me to give a higher rating for.

I would definitely recommend this album to a beginning, or intermediate musician.  The gulf between pop music, and the stuff that the virtuosos put out is often huge.  There isn’t a whole lot of stuff in this vein, the middle, where an musician of intermediate ability could hope to play some of it, and I can still call it jazz.  I would also recommend it for a layperson who was looking to graduate from his or her childhood pop music phase.  Many of these song are catchy.  In most instances the Hammond B3 helps Soulive.  The thing I often find annoying about this cd is that I will hear a part I like, and I’ll be like, “Cool!” but, then they keep playing that same part throughout the song.  Thus, an experienced listener won’t get much enjoyment out of it, as they will probably be looking for something that is less repetitive.  I own this cd.  I bought it after hearing it, and liking it quite a bit.  However, once it got into my player, I got bored of it really quickly.  Also, there is an occasional extended organ note that is so annoying that it practically ruins the track in its entirety.  That said, for a first listen, most of the tracks are good.  Also, many times where they aren’t playing the head, the chord progression while the band is jamming is also repetitive or just too plain simple for my taste.