Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: Arrested Development

In “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down,” world-renowned expert Chase Martyn blogs important facts about things that are good or bad. In this installment, he covers Arrested Development’s Among The Trees.

Arrested Development have been around the proverbial block a few proverbial times. I remember back when I was trying to become more culturally literate, I bought one of those cheap, shitty compilations at K-Mart of early 90s hip-hop, and their song “Tennessee” was on it. I didn’t know anything about the band, but that song was easily my favorite on the disc. Before the Black Eyed Peas had blown up, and before I had been exposed to other “upbeat” or “positive” hip-hop acts like Treologic, there was Arrested Development, and I liked them.

Their greatest hits album is really worth a listen, because there was more where “Tennessee” came from. Not all of it is as catchy and emotional as that song (which is remarkable considering how little the song says), but it’s universally good. That’s why I was excited to hear that this year they released a new album, Among The Trees — featuring, among other things, an eight-minute bonus live track of “Tennessee” (which is pretty sweet). (There’s also a nine-minute live version of “Everyday People.”)

What I like about them is that they don’t falsely forward a half-baked, rose-tinted philosophy of the world like many of their “upbeat” successors; the undercurrents of an unjust world are still there. The fact that they don’t always talk about them (because sometimes music is fun) is a’ight.

Absent also is the mindless self-aggrandizement that plagues many current rap lyrics. I think, in the absence of injustice to sing about, rappers often use their awesomeness as a crutch: “Well, I can’t sing about bad things, so I guess I’ll sing about the spinners on my Escalizzalade and the number of carats in my teeth.” Although I’m awesome, sometimes it’s hard for me to relate to that.

That’s why, when I’m chilling, I sometimes find myself listening to Arrested Development’s new CD, which gets a thumbs up.