Living Colour Album Time's Up
Time's Up is the second studio album by the band Living Colour, released on August 28, 1990, through Epic Records.
It was the follow-up to their successful 1988 album Vivid. Time's Up features a wide range of genres and also includes cameo appearances by Queen Latifah, Little Richard, Doug E. Fresh, Maceo Parker and James Earl Jones. The album reached gold status, peaking at #13 on the Billboard 200, and won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. It is the final album to feature Muzz Skillings on bass, though it was not his last release with the band (as he appeared on the Biscuits EP). In late February 2014, the album was reissued in Europe by Music On CD and is available once again.
| Time's Up | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 28, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | 1989–1990 | |||
| Studio | A&M (Hollywood) RPM (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 57:35 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Ed Stasium | |||
| Living Colour chronology | ||||
| ||||
Background
In 2015, Corey Glover explained, "Time's Up was an interesting one, because we spent part of the time making Time's Up in California - we were in LA. We did some of the basic tracks in LA. And that was really weird, because we're New York guys. Hanging out in California and being very 'California' was very strange to us. We were staying in the Valley, and it felt like we were in school, because we had to get up in the morning and I met Will at what felt like the bus stop. It was like, 'OK, we've got to go to work.' And jogging around in California and hanging around in California - and hanging out with the Fishbone guys while we were out there. Just hanging out and trying to dig this California thing, it was very, very interesting. I think it does hold up. With a few exceptions, it might falter, but 'Time's Up' and 'Pride' and the stuff we still play today, I think it still holds up and still works. The song 'Time's Up' is about the environment, and we're still talking about the environment - and the record is 20 years old!"
Music
Time's Up has been described as a hard rock, heavy metal, and funk metal album, with elements of hip hop, jazz, funk, jazz fusion, Delta blues, soul, punk rock, and art rock.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Chicago Sun-Times | |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Select | 4/5 |
| The Village Voice | A− |
In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll for the year's best albums, Time's Up finished at number five.
The album came in at #18 on the 1990 top-25 'albums of the year list' in Kerrang!.
Accolades
| Year | Winner | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Time's Up | Best Hard Rock Performance |
Track listing
All tracks are written by Vernon Reid, except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Time's Up" | Reid, Muzz Skillings, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun | 3:05 |
| 2. | "History Lesson" | 0:52 | |
| 3. | "Pride" | Calhoun | 4:55 |
| 4. | "Love Rears Its Ugly Head" | 4:19 | |
| 5. | "New Jack Theme" | 3:30 | |
| 6. | "Someone Like You" | Skillings | 3:47 |
| 7. | "Elvis Is Dead" (feat. Little Richard) | 3:50 | |
| 8. | "Type" | 6:26 | |
| 9. | "Information Overload" | 6:11 | |
| 10. | "Under Cover of Darkness" (feat. Queen Latifah) | Glover | 4:17 |
| 11. | "Ology" | Skillings | 1:07 |
| 12. | "Fight the Fight" | Calhoun, Glover, Reid, Skillings | 4:32 |
| 13. | "Tag Team Partners" (feat. Doug E. Fresh) | Glover | 0:48 |
| 14. | "Solace of You" | Glover, Reid | 3:38 |
| 15. | "This Is the Life" | 6:23 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16. | "Final Solution" (Live in Chicago 1990) | Craig Bell, Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Peter Laughner, Dave Taylor, David Thomas, Tim Wright | 5:44 |
| 17. | "Middle Man" (Live in Chicago 1990) | Glover, Reid | 3:40 |
| 18. | "Love Rears Its Ugly Head" (aka Soul Power Mix) | 4:05 |
Banded version
A special US advance promo version omitting "History Lesson", "Ology1" and "Tag Team Partners". Along with the CD, it was also pressed on transparent gold vinyl. Catalog number ESK 2171
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Time's Up" | |
| 2. | "Pride" | |
| 3. | "Love Rears Its Ugly Head" | |
| 4. | "New Jack Theme" | |
| 5. | "Someone Like You" | |
| 6. | "Elvis Is Dead" | |
| 7. | "Type" | |
| 8. | "Information Overload" | |
| 9. | "Under Cover of Darkness" | |
| 10. | "Fight the Fight" | |
| 11. | "Solace of You" | |
| 12. | "This Is the Life" |
Personnel
Living Colour
- Corey Glover – vocals, rhythm guitar on "Type"
- Vernon Reid – lead guitar
- Muzz Skillings – bass
- Will Calhoun – drums
Guest musicians
- Akbar Ali - strings
- Charles Burnham - strings
- Don Byron - clarinet, baritone saxophone
- Annette Daniels - background vocals
- D.K. Dyson - background vocals
- Eileen Folson - strings
- Doug E. Fresh - percussion, vocals
- Mick Jagger - background vocals
- Toshinobu Kubota - background vocals
- Little Richard - vocals
- Yubie Navas - background vocals
- Maceo Parker - saxophone
- Queen Latifah - vocals
- Alva Rogers - background vocals
- Rosa Russ - background vocals
- Francine Stasium - background vocals
- Reggie Workman - strings
- Derin Young - vocals, background vocals
Technical Personnel
- John Aguto - assistant engineer
- Greg Calbi - mastering
- Alan Friedman - programming
- Lolly Grodner - assistant engineer
- Paul Hamingson - engineer, assistant engineer
- Jeff Lippay - assistant engineer
- Ed Stasium - producer, engineer, mixing
- Lex Van Pieterson - photography
Charts
| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 15 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 24 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 56 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 10 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) | 13 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 11 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 20 |
| US Billboard 200 | 13 |
References
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