Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

There are some CDs that, for one reason or another, you try to like but just can’t. Then there are CDs that have their own charm, like a little (or a big) schoolkid, so full of mischief and humor that you just have to let them into the house, even though you know that by the time they leave you’ll probably need to count the silverware, that is , if you can still find the drawer. Philadelphia’s All Crazy certainly falls into the latter category.

All Crazy’s debut CD, Sex Drugs & Hip Rock is an accessible enigma, guitar driven rap with a wink and a nod and, believe it or not, electric violin that doesn’t sound like it is slumming but instead fits into things perfectly. Actually, everything --- the raps, the guitars, the vocals --- fits damn near perfectly. One Shot --- the last proper track before the Outro --- is what Sex Drugs & Hip Rock builds to, an anthemic call and response which incorporates manic but melodic violin lines, power chords, and a rap line lyric that is positive and forceful. There is a lot of humor to this disc, however, even as everything rocks and jumps and shouts. The band intersperse angry phone messages from girlfriends with sung and spoken word responses --- most notably no Walk Away --- and I somehow get the feeling that All Crazy has left some pretty angry and occasionally disappointed estrogen in its wake but hasn’t lost a lot of sleep over it. The liner notes, with, I suspect, some tongue in cheek, thank the studio where Sex Drugs & Hip Rock was recorded for wasting the band’s time and money; serious or not, the production is great, from Hard To Be A Man to Scarface to Wrong Time (and kudos to the interlude Duby On Women), and the sequencing --- always important on a project where there’s even a hint of hip hop --- sounds first rate.

If your little brother was crazy talented, and had a couple of black friends who were every bit as real, you’d have All Crazy. He isn’t, and he doesn’t, but that’s cool, because All Crazy, and Sex Drugs & Hip Rock is here. And there tour schedule is so crazy that if they’re not coming to your town soon, then you don’t live anywhere. Recommended.