TIMBUK 3 : A HUNDRED LOVERS

1. Sunshine Is Dangerous
2. A Hundred Lovers
3. Just Wanna Funk With Your Mind
4. Legalize Our Love
5. Cynical
6. Not Yet Gone
7. Prey
8. Shotgun Wedding
9. Kitchen Fire
10. Inside Out

Label : High Street Records

Release Date : 1995

Length : 41:05

Review (AllMusic) : A Hundred Lovers continues Timbuk 3's evolution from punk folkies to funk populists. The harmonies are still raw and haunting, but they are now supported by scratchy, repetitive guitar lines and James Brown-style funky drumming. The group's folkie origins leak in around the edges in the form of MacDonald's harmonica and an almost constant acoustic guitar presence, but most of this stuff is downright danceable; "Not Yet Gone" generates a tensile reggae-derived groove that sounds a lot like Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives," while "Just Wanna Funk with Your Mind" - which suffers from an uncharacteristic lyrical obviousness - manages to sound simultaneously like King Crimson and a low-budget Robert Palmer (that's a compliment). Lyrically, their worldview is as grim as ever and their delivery is still pretty acerbic; when MacDonald sings "I can't get cynical about you," you've got to understand that that's her version of sweet nothings. Their astringent wordplay can be highly effective at cutting through layers of rhetorical crap, but it can also devolve into simple-minded nastiness, as on a by-the-numbers antireligion screed called "Prey" ("Every time you say a prayer/You prey on me"). But overall, this is a mighty fine album, one which adds nicely to an already impressive catalog.