Lucky For Some: A More Protein Compilation

This compilation from Boy George's label, More Protein's 11-year history is a seamless collection of dance music that comes across at times winningly catchy and elsewhere a bit too derivative. Things start confidently with "Aquarius" by Freddy & Herman with a hypnotic melody interwoven with beautiful vocals, but ends a bit weakly with "Freedom" by the Armchair Resistance and Amanda Ghost, though the song contains the creative addition of lyrics from the classic "Motherless Child." In between there's "Doors to Manuel" by RAG (most of the band names are various guises for Boy George with various artists), featuring a great Dragnet-type melody, and "See Through" by CD:UK, a highly remixed version of the 1999 Culture Club song "See Thru" which highlights Boy George's warm blue-eyed soul vocals coming through in a distorted fashion with a perfect diva-esque groove. There's also the rocking dance track "Liberation" by Lippy Lou, where she insists, "Come out of the closet boy," and "A Kind of Loving" by FrostyBoy featuring Eve Gallagher with staccato beats and dramatic layered vocals completing this dancefloor mover. "Let Love Come Down" ("Tomislav Remix") by Colein features universal lyrics, a driving melody, and vocals that seem to float. On the classic "Generations of Love" ("Timewriter Remix") by Jesus Loves You, the mix is not the most innovative but is definitely high energy. Originally quite a controversial song, "Everything Starts With an E" ("Shuffle Remix") by Ezee Possee, has not aged well, though it is considered a classic to many. The rest of this collection also contains some great moments, but there are also a few songs, such as "Zing" by Yo2Go, that are a bit too dance cliched. The first 10,000 copies of Lucky for Some came with a bonus CD of a cappella tracks for those feeling the need to make their own mixes of some of the featured songs as well as a couple of others. The CD booklet also includes Boy George's story of his foray into label land and is infused with his usual wit and humor. This collection for the most part contains classic grooves and is a great introduction to the More Protein label. ~ Simon Cantlon|