  
If you mention the artist Everlast most people
instantly think of his days in House Of Pain and
their classic single from 1992 ‘Jump Around’,
yet hardcore Hip Hop fans look up to Everlast
as an icon as he has been in the music industry
since 1989 and in his time he has fronted House
Of Pain and La Coka Nostra, put out 6 solo albums
and also collaborated with a massive range of
artists within the hip-hop world.
Back in 2010 Everlast reformed House Of Pain to
play their first live shows in 10 years which
mainly included festival appearances, after the
short House Of Pain reformation Everlast went
on to release his sixth studio album ‘Songs
Of The Ungrateful Living’ in 2011 and now
2 years on from that he is putting out a 12 track
acoustic album titled ‘The Life Acoustic’.
‘The Life Acoustic’ is a very special
album and sort of acts as a greatest hits from
his musical career so far but at the sometime
instead of choosing everyone’s favourite
tracks and the songs that people would expect
to feature on an album of this nature, Everlast
has gone and picked a collection of songs that
are his favourites and one’s that people
may of overlooked the first time they were released
but don’t worry the classic solo single
‘Black Jesus’ and classic House OF
Pain anthem ‘Jump Around’ are both
featured here in stripped down acoustic format
as well as a cover of Bill Wither’s ‘Grandma’s
Hand’.
The album opens with the slow paced ‘Sad
Girl’ the song has a blues vibe running
throughout as Everlast has you in the palm of
his hands for the near 5minute duration of the
song as he strums his guitar gently and lays down
some straight up lyrics with his strong unique
sounding vocals.
‘Black Jesus’ was instantly a hit
when Everlast released his ‘Eat At Whitey’s’
album back in 2000 yet the stripped down acoustic
version of the track featured here is so much
better sounding than the original as the irritating
dance beats have been left out, the song as slightly
been speed up and Everlast goes all out to make
the song sound rawer than ever before.
There are many positive things about Everlast
creating an acoustic album such as getting to
hear his songs in a way that you have never heard
them before but for me the best part about it
is that the album is so stripped back that it
is simply Everlast with an acoustic guitar, the
odd keyboard piece and his extremely strong voice
which is free to take centre stage here with no
synths and dance beats to get in your way.
The likes of ‘Children’s Story’,
‘My Medicine’, ‘Weakness’
and ‘Broken’ all sound amazing here
but it is the album closer which happens to be
an acoustic version of ‘Jump Around’
which shines the most as it is the most famous
song Everlast has ever worked on yet it sounds
hardly anything like the original as it opens
missing all the classic beats, synths, energy
and pace from the original but as soon as Everlast’s
sleepy sounding vocals come in giving the song
a Sunday afternoon chill out vibe you start to
appreciate what Everlast has done here and also
start to feel his pure talent.
Personally I am a sucker for acoustic music and
after listening to ‘The Life Acoustic’
a couple of times over I really hope that Everlast
heads over to the UK in the near future to play
‘The Life Acoustic’ it its entirety
as it is easily the best project he has been involved
in for years.
4.5/5
Review by Trigger
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