The Bliss Album…? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence)

The Bliss Album...? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence)
Studio album by P.M. Dawn
Released March 23, 1993
Genre Pop, hip hop, pop-rap
Length 60:12
Label Gee Street, Island
Producer P.M. Dawn
P.M. Dawn chronology
Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience
(1991)		 The Bliss Album...?
(1993)		 Jesus Wept
(1995)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Chicago Tribune[2]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
Q[5]
Rolling Stone[6]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[7]
The Village VoiceA[8]

The Bliss Album...? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence) is the second studio album by American hip hop duo P.M. Dawn. It was released on March 23, 1993, by Gee Street and Island Records.[9] Although some critics considered it less successful than the duo's first record,[10] The Bliss Album...? received positive reviews and produced two hit singles—"I'd Die Without You" and "Looking Through Patient Eyes".[11] It was voted the 12th best album of 1993 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.[12]

Music

According to music critic David Browne, The Bliss Album...? continues and expands on the mentally stimulating hip hop of the duo's debut album.[3] Entertainment Weekly said the duo "perfected" the style of pop-rap with their second album,[13] while Spin magazine's J. Matthew Hanna called the music "hip hop pop".[14] The magazine's Craig Marks described the record as "pop nirvana".[15] AllMusic's Steve Huey wrote that it emphasized its predecessor's urban soul sounds, favored melodies rather than raps, and featured both pop and aggressive rap songs.[1] In the opinion of Tom Breihan from Stereogum, "the album serves as an absolute rejection of rap-music values that was, at the time, coming from a group that existed, more or less, within the context of the rap music establishment. It was one big soft, gushy negation".[16]

Singles

Before releasing The Bliss Album...?, P.M. Dawn contributed the single "I'd Die Without You" to the 1992 Eddie Murphy comedy Boomerang and its soundtrack. The top 5 hit was also included on The Bliss Album...?, as was the Billboard Top 10 single "Looking Through Patient Eyes" (featuring backing vocals by Cathy Dennis and sampling George Michael's hit "Father Figure"), the Boy George duet "More Than Likely" and a cover of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)."

Sampling lawsuit

The album also included "So On and So On," which led to a 1999 sampling lawsuit. In the lawsuit Batiste v. Island Records, Inc., Paul and Michael Batiste claimed that P.M. Dawn's song "So On and So On" used unauthorized samples from David Batiste & The Gladiators' "Funky Soul." The fifth Circuit Federal Appellate Court found that the Batistes point to no evidence in the record demonstrating that consumers were confused or deceived by either the use of a digital sample of "Funky Soul" in "So On and So On" or the attribution to David Batiste as a co-author of the track. The Batistes' claim that Paul and Michael Batiste were improperly excluded from the liner notes accompanying the album also failed to suggest that consumers were confused, especially because the liner notes do credit the name of the band in which both Paul and Michael Batiste performed.[17]

Track listing

  1. "Intro" :49
  2. "When Midnight Sighs" – 3:55
  3. "So On and So On" – 4:04
  4. "Plastic" – 3:48
  5. "The Ways of the Wind" – 4:32
  6. "To Love Me More" – 4:44
  7. "About Nothing (For the Love of Destiny)" – 4:15
  8. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" – 3:13
  9. "Beyond Infinite Affections" – 4:11
  10. "Looking Through Patient Eyes" – 4:09
  11. "Filthy Rich (I Don't Wanna Be)" – 4:07
  12. "More Than Likely" – 4:18
  13. "The Nocturnal Is in the House" – 4:20
  14. "When It's Raining Cats and Dogs" – 5:36
  15. "I'd Die Without You" – 4:11

References

  1. 1 2 Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Kot, Greg (April 29, 1993). "P.M. Dawn The Bliss Album...? (Gee Street...". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Browne, David (April 2, 1993). "The Bliss Album...? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence) Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Connie (March 21, 1993). "Spring Album Roundup: From Naughty and Nice Rap to Willie Country". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Review: The Bliss Album...?". Q: 80. April 1993. ...[P.M. Dawn] continue their romantic quest for happiness and the meaning of life in their own cerebral psychedelic style of seductive, melodic hip hop...those who found [their first album's] yearning images, appealing melodies and psychedelic touches so emotive will not be disappointed...
  6. ↑ "Review: The Bliss Album...?". Rolling Stone: 60–61. April 15, 1993. ...Prince Be and DJ Minutemix weave singular tunes out of everything that turns them on or bums them out....the esoteric turns downright earthy in the supple hands of P.M. Dawn...
  7. ↑ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "P.M. Dawn". Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  8. ↑ Christgau, Robert (April 6, 1993). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  9. ↑ Morris, Chris (March 6, 1993). "New Mode Marching In; AD Unplugs; Duo Debuts". Billboard: 14. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  10. ↑ Bynoe, Yvonne (2006). Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-hop Culture. Greenwood Press. p. 311. ISBN 0313330581.
  11. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "P.M. Dawn". Allmusic. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Pazz & Jop". The Village Voice. New York. March 1, 1994. p. 5.
  13. ↑ "The Best & Worst Records of 1993". Entertainment Weekly: 115. December 31, 1993. ...Hammer gave the concept of pop rap a bad name, but this duo takes the idea and does more than run with it--they've perfected it...
  14. ↑ "Staff Selections". Spin: 22. May 1993. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  15. ↑ 20 Best Albums of the Year
  16. ↑ The Bliss Album…? Turns 20
  17. ↑ "United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. - 179 F.3d 217". Retrieved 1999-06-21. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
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