Tribe After Tribe: Pearls Before Swine (1997)

Without a doubt, one of the best albums of 1997 or possibly just one of the best albums ever. Tribe After Tribe formed in 1991 and released two albums before this. This album brings them to an all time great. Mixing once again, Robbi Robb's amazing and passionate voice with African tribal sounds provided by Jeff Ament (of Pearl Jam), Doug Pinnick (from Kings X) among other special guests. The band starts out on a high with the powerful song "Boy" which is one of the heaviest tracks on the album and features amazing percussion throughout. Next up is "Lazareth" which is an old negro folk song that Robbi was taught while living in South Africa...the music on this is nothing too epic but the way its performed will give you chills. If the track "Senor" doesn't give you chills, you need to have your head checked...the mexican guitar performed by Robb gives this a very Spanish feel and the lyrics are very deep- "did they teach you how to fight, teach you wrong from right, how to kill a man in the heat of the night". "Murder On The Lee Shore" is very eclectic sounding and has an almost driving guitar sound going throughout it. "Ballad Of Winnie" takes us back to the haunting and features Doug Pinnick doing guest vocals along with Robb here- the lyrics here were written for Nelson Mandela's wife Winnie. "I Am Your Heart" for some reason gives me a Pink Floyd-ish kind of feel to it...its very intense and perhaps the only non-tribal sounding song on here (until the middle section that is). "Uh-Oh" closes out the album and does so in a very traditional African-folk-song way. Very bass heavy throughout and very strange sounding. The other songs on the disc are "Fire Dancers", "Bury Me", "Pat On The Back" and "Hopeless The Clown"...those four songs are not bad in the least, just not my favorites. This CD can only be bought as an import but it is worth every penny you pay. Trust me!