Customer Rating:  
Summary: Same old, same old...
Comment: I salute Thievery Corporation insomuch as it is refreshing, in today's fearful, Western-political-correctness-gone-mad climate, that some people are still willing to voice their opinions and beliefs. But it's a real shame that the musical content of Radio Retaliation is not at all different to any of their previous albums.
I was looking forward to listening to this album, after I read the synopsis which claimed that this album is very different. It isn't. It's the same mixture of Indian, American dub and Latin American. Actually that's not strictly true, it IS slightly different to TC's previous albums: it's worse!
If you own TC's 'Richest Man in Babylon' album, stop there, is what I recommend. It's their best album, truly excellent, and they've never equalled it. Certainly this album comes nowhere near it. I don't even waste my time listening to it anymore.
Anyone want a free copy of it?! I can't even be bothered to sell it - I'm happy to give it away for free, it's that poor!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Like meeting an old mate...
Comment: Business as usual from the Thievery crew - and no disappointments here if you're already a fan as there are no real changes here apart from more overtly political lyrics. This is more like a companion piece to the Cosmic Game and I'd say this is a slight advance as I felt CG was let down by occasionally weak tracks whereas this is more consistent throughout. But I could see many thinking that every Thievery album sounds the same and that they are one-trick ponies whose soundscapes very soon becomes tiresome. This is to miss the point - that the Thievery are the very best at the chilled beat game and that many pretenders cannot come even close to replicating their sound.
How you like this album depends on how you feel about them. For a newcomer, this isn't a bad place to start. Agreed, this doesn't come close to either Mirror Conspiracy or The Richest Man In Babylon, both marking considerable advances in their music. But for now, this is very satisfying indeed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Average
Comment: A very average collection of stuff from one of my fav producers. It follows on from their previous offering of The Cosmic game which I also am not keen on.
The Mirror Conspiracy & The Richest man In Babylon will always stand out as their best work
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another fine effort by TC....BUT
Comment: Another top notch offering of African-Latin-Indo-middle eastern influenced downtempo grooves. Although it doesnt veer far from the TC template there is more of an Afro vibe while the lyrics are more political than before. If you're already a fan get this pronto. If you dont like their previous releases you sure wont like this either.
And now for the big BUT....the quality of the packaging. Sorry to say this but it is the worst packaged CD in music history, alright.. since the mid 80s. Its a pretty shoddy cardboard sleeve which is a bit larger than your standard plastic jewel case. The CD itself is loose and inside a folded poster with a picture on one side and credits and all sorts of bumf on the other. What's going on fer Gawd's sake? I dont think I am being petty because packaging is almost as important as the content.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Top Draw
Comment: I write this whilst listening for the 3rd time to the stream of Radio Retaliation that the kind folk at Thievery and Facebook have made available for us all to listen too. The official release date is in a couple of days on the 22nd.
What can I say about this? well as per the pre-release hype it does seem to be political if you try and listen to the lyrics, though to be honest I haven't really noticed. The music is as eclectic as ever and absolutely fabulous.
I'm not going to list out the tracks and do an appraisal on them all. If you are a Thievery fan, you'll know the drill. Lots of down and up tempo beats & rhythms, funk & soul inflections, sitars and guitars - an undercurrent of driving dub throughout with spacey vocals - overall a total auditory mindwash.
This is not to say though that it's more of the same. This album is a notch up from their last offering, with not a duff track on it
In my humble opinion this is a no brainer, buy this ASAP.
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