The Richest Man in Babylon (album)

This article is about the album by Thievery Corporation. For the book by George Samuel Clason, see The Richest Man in Babylon (book).
The Richest Man in Babylon
Studio album by Thievery Corporation
Released September 30, 2002
Recorded December 2000 – August 2002
Genre
Length 56:58
Label Eighteenth Street Lounge Music
Producer Rob Garza and Eric Hilton
Thievery Corporation chronology
The Mirror Conspiracy
(2000)		 The Richest Man in Babylon
(2002)		 The Cosmic Game
(2004)

The Richest Man in Babylon is the third studio album by Thievery Corporation, it was released in 2002 on their Eighteenth Street Lounge label. Like Thievery Corporation's previous albums, The Richest Man in Babylon is electronic music with a downtempo aesthetic.

The album combines influences such as dub, jazz, dance music, rap, reggae, and Indian music. The songs are sung in English, French ("Une Simple Histoire"), Portuguese ("Meu Destino"), Spanish ("Exilio") and Persian ("Omid"). The title track, as well as "State of the Union", incorporate protest music into the group's sound, with both songs making political statements.

The album features singers from Iceland, Jamaica and France, including Emiliana Torrini, LouLou, Pam Bricker, Latin singers and several Jamaican rappers including Notch. The album features both electronic and live instrumentation.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
Rolling Stone
Pitchforkmedia3.8/10 [3]

The critical reception was mixed. BBC's Collective magazine said that "This, their third 'proper' album, is certainly their most complete work to date, and arguably the first to be presented as one complete, cohesive whole. … this ranks as Thievery Corporation's finest yet."[4] Allmusic's John Bush said that the album "doesn't have the hooks or the production finesse to compete with The Mirror Conspiracy" but that "a few tracks on the backside do plow new ground, thanks in part to new guests..."[2] Among fans the album is popular, peaking at number 9 on Billboard's Independent Albums list on October 19, 2002[5] and number 2 on the Dance/Electronic Albums list on October 26, 2002.[5]

Track listing

No.TitleFeaturingLength
1."Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes"  Emilíana Torrini (vocals)4:10
2."Facing East"  Pam Bricker (vocals)3:43
3."The Outernationalist"  Ras Pidow (vocals)3:30
4."Interlude"   1:21
5."Omid (Hope)"  LouLou Ghelichkhani (vocals)3:48
6."All That We Perceive"  Pam Bricker (vocals)3:46
7."Un Simple Histoire (A Simple Story)"  LouLou Ghelichkhani (vocals)3:45
8."Meu Destino (My Destiny)"  Patrick dos Santos (vocals)3:29
9."Exilio (Exile)"  Verny Varela (vocals & flute)3:03
10."From Creation"   4:19
11."The Richest Man in Babylon"  Notch3:50
12."Liberation Front"   5:04
13."The State of the Union"  Sleepy Wonder and Shinehead (vocals)4:28
14."Until the Morning"  Emilíana Torrini (vocals)3:56
15."Resolution"   4:46

Release History

Region Region
Belgium September 30, 2002
United States October 1, 2002
Australia 2002
France 2002
Russia 2002

References

  1. ↑ The Richest Man In Babylon. Amazon.com. 2002. Last accessed 14 Dec 2011.
  2. 1 2 The Richest Man in Babylon:Thievery Corporation. Allmusic. 2002. Last accessed 14 Dec 2011.
  3. ↑ Thievery Corporation: The Richest Man in Babylon: Eighteenth Street Lounge; 2002. Pitchfork.com. 10 Oct 2002. Last accessed 14 Dec 2011.
  4. ↑ thievery corporation - the richest man in babylon. Collective (BBC). 10 April 2003. Last accessed 14 Dec 2011.
  5. 1 2 The Richest Man in Babylon - Thievery...: 2002. Billboard. 2002. Last accessed 14 Dec 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.