Duke, The: My Kung Fu Is Good

Sometimes, you just gotta wonder what goes through an artist's head when he or she adopts a stage name, titles an album and approves cover art. We may never know what possessed Stuck Mojo and Fozzy guitarist Rich Ward (who also goes by the name "The Duke," after a critic gave him that title) to slap the dirty-sounding phrase "My Kung Fu Is Good" across the front of his debut solo album, right below a less-than-flattering black-and-white photograph of him with braided ponytails and wearing a cowboy hat and shades.

But if you don't judge this CD by its cover, you'll discover an album of 10 tracks that bear practically no resemblance to Ward's other bands - especially the reggae, rap and rock fusion of Stuck Mojo. Although Ward's jagged guitar sound is evident throughout My Kung Fu Is Good, his dusty voice is equally as potent. The female vocal that dances in and out of some songs, though, distracts more than it enhances.

Ward has taken accessible, soulful and radio-ready melodies and twisted them around a few raps, a few brutal riffs and a few tolerable modern-rock clichés - emerging with a celebration of sound that (with just a few exceptions) is kung-fu good. The best songs? The startling opener "I Give To You," a piano and riff rocker called "Show You the Way" and closing track "This Moment," which erupts into a retro-rock spectacle by the time of its na-na-na-laced conclusion. This is an admirable effort that goes (way) against type and could actually gain Ward some new fans who might find Fozzy and Stuck Mojo too heavy and/or obnoxious. Nice work, dude … I mean, Duke.

Track Listing:
1) I Give To You
2) Immune
3) Used to Be
4) Summer
5) Suicide Machine
6) Running
7) Show You the Way
8) Breathe
9) Back to You
10) At This Moment

Added: June 1st 2005
Reviewer: Michael Popke
Score:
Related Link: The Duke's Official Web Site
Hits: 3531
Language: english

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