MC 900 Ft Jesus - Welcome to My Dream (1991)

I used to work for a regional chain record store around 2001. Business was bad and stores were closing. I got moved store to store to handle the closures and eventually had nowhere else to go. At that last store I bought a lot of CDs for 5¢ each. I also bought the huge CD book that all of the DVD porn for the store used to be kept in (that was the first stuff to sell). I had not gone through the CDs in a long time - years. Awhile back I ordered a Sony CD Player/AM/FM/Dual-Cassette player like I had in the 90s. They just worked well and had a decent enough sound. I was tired of little laptop speakers. Anyway, to get to the point: I found a CD in the bunch that had a song from this album on it. The BEST song on the album and a true gem: "The City Sleeps".

"The City Sleeps" is a really cool track that blends a kind of hip-hop/spoken-word thing over jazz and R&B influenced backing music. It tells the story of an arsonist lighting fires at night in the city. It has a groove and a mellow electric piano/rhodes vibe. It works SO WELL.

The rest of the album is ok. It does mostly the same thing as "The City Sleeps"... its just that none of the rest of the tracks work quite as well. Some are funny or have a silly vibe, some are serious, but all kind of just do their thing for a bit and then end without much fanfare. It isnt bad, but it just didnt live up to my hopes given how good "The City Sleeps" was. That isnt to say that it isnt worth a listen - it is interesting and there are moments where you'll find yourself tapping a foot or bobbing your head along with it.

It will make those that were into a lot of the odd music going around in the think of Soul Coughing (who came a bit later), but with a different kind of style. I think Soul Coughing succeeds more in their thing than MC 900 Ft Jesus does on this album. However, I like that there is this chill vibe running through a lot of 'Welcome to My Dream' that isnt present in the works of Soul Coughing as much. Their work always had an edge to it (in a way that wasnt always enjoyable) and MC 900 Ft Jesus seems to pull a lot more from Hip Hop than from the 90s "alternative" scene.

Definitely give the track I mentioned a listen, and maybe skim some of the rest to see if you dig it.

Standout track(s):

The City Sleeps

Links:

This came out in 1991 so there is no bandcamp or anything. I'm sure you'll be able to find it if you look around a bit.