Diamonds on the Inside :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

By Far His Best Ever!

2007-09-03
Don't listen to the negative reviews of this cd it is one of the best and liveliest albums i've ever heard save for one or two songs. People just don't enjoy it because they're probably just the original fans of his early more simple music. The quality of Diamonds sounds like a pop album and it's great. The album just Hits its so diverse and has everything from Reggae to Jam Rock to Funk,Heavy Blues, an Italian love song with an accordion, to Spiritual songs inspired by World Music. I love all his stuff especially his newest cd Lifeline but this is one of my favorites.

a perfect album

2007-08-11
if you enjoy high quality music, Diamonds is a great place to start, period. This album was my intoduction to Ben Harper

Legend Incarnate?

2006-11-10
Ben Harper was only a name to me as he is to most people until faily recently. I saw him live and on the Henry Rollins show both this year and and picked-up his new double album and am now scampering to get ALL his material and soak it up. Bottom Line: Ben is out of era...in the Motown years he would have had a home but today no one (including his label) really knows how to market him. He is far too mature musically for the modern day R&B radio and out of the mold for alternative music so he fits into that void that many have had GREAT success in such as Jack Johnson, Tracy Chapman and others but he is his own (as are the aforementioned). He is old school R&B and his openess to experiementation and variation not too mention his talent and sound sometimes make me think he is the incarnate of the late, great Marvin Gaye, funny since I do not believe in reincarnation.
I can ealisy reccommend ANYTHING by Ben if you love Marvin and Motown. He also has hints of Marleyesque struggle in his musical lyrics as well as a heavy gospel influence at times. What an amazing talent! This album is one of his best overall and a good showcase of his music. A good place to start but you can't go wrong with anything he has done.

*side note regarding review below that is overall positive (not trying to dis the reviewer, but if you want to play critic get it right). IN the second paragraph this person claims that in "Picture of Jesus" Ben rips-offs Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Sole of her Shoes" (Graceland is a favorite of mine by the way) so I had to take a listen myself to see if there is any truth to this. The only reason I address this is b/c he or she accusses Ben of being 'classless' for not giving Paul credit! While the review was pretty good compared to most this was one of the funniest things I have ever read from a layman's review...first of all the only similarity between the two songs is that they both use a South African (Soweto) group to harmonize in the song, that is it! Ben's melody and musical song structure is completely different and rather Paul had any influence on Ben is highly questionable (and even if he/she is right does it matter, music is all about influence). Soweto has been around forever, long before the great Paul Simon brought it into the mainstream not to mention Grammy fame...so to say that it is classless to not thank Paul Simon (a WHITE amerikan songwriter) for Ben's (a Black amerikan) use of Soweto harmony in one of his songs is both hilarious and completely irrelevant.

All good

2006-04-24
This is great album, I like how pretty much every song is different, and not just songwise, but it spans many different genres. Ben Harper is always good. There's a lot of good reviews for this album, so I won't go much further than that.

Two quick points:

1) I had no trouble playing the music on my computer and converting it into MP3 form. Don't know if it's just some CDs that have the protection or what.

2) Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been around forever and have sounded the same before and after Paul Simon's Graceland album. I don't think it's fair to say that Ben Harper copied anything. They're a beautiful sounding group and they always have that sound. I'm sure everyone remembers the Lifesavers commercials...

Blah!

2006-04-04
Tried listening to this album, failed. Ben Harper apparently has an awful voice, and the song writing is difficult to listen to. The lyrics are so lame. So so lame.

One star.

"When it's good, it's so, soooo good, but..."

2006-04-02

Ben Harper Photos

More from Ben Harper

Fight for Your Mind	Both Sides of the Gun	Welcome to the Cruel World
Live From Mars	The Will to Live	Live at the Hollywood Bowl

diamonds

2006-03-23
I thought that this cd was great. I really wish he would put Diamonds On The Inside on one of his greatest cd's.

Bummer...

2006-03-15
I second the comment from M. S. Hillis. The copy protection on the new ben harper cd means I won't be buying it. Further, if you go to the virgin website and try to leave feedback your message is not accepted. I guess that explains why they never get any complaints...

I simply hope this is not a problem that will occur with all virgin releases - if it is, guess I'll have to listen to different labels.

Not the best of Ben but good

2006-03-09
Only a few good songs compared to his other albums and he's seemed to transition into a Paul Weller style.

Zirconia on the inside

2006-02-21
To refer to "Diamonds On The Inside" as the most blatant false advertisement ever would not be out of line if it wasn't for Ben Folds Five's "Rocking The Suburbs". There are as many diamonds on this release as there are people properly rocked by the other, equally limp wristed and unnecessary Ben.

Is it any surprise that the only highlights on this CD are provided by Ladysmith Black Mambazo? None whatsoever.

Any person not devoid of sense, taste and intelligence will be shocked and dismayed that someone with this little talent is taken seriously enough to be compared to Dylan.

He, along with fellow bed wetters Jack Johnson, Ben Folds and The Shins are exactly one step removed from the bark eating James Taylor. If that's your cup of tea go on and take a swig, but you've been warned.