Everlast started out as the front man for the rap group known as “House of Pain.” Since then he has ventured off on his own and release 6 solo albums. “Songs of the Ungrateful Living” is his latest release. His sound on each album is a hybrid of blues, rap, and rock.

“Songs of the Ungrateful Living” has a lot of songs (15 in total) for one CD, but the problem is that most of them did not appeal to me. I appreciate his variety in music styles and his attempts to be different, but the blue genre does not work very well for him on this album. On certain songs, such as “Long at All,” “Gone for Good,” and “I get by,” his voice doesn’t fit in with the instrumentals and he tries a bit too hard to be “bluesy.” If you couple this issue with mediocre lyrics and singing offbeat, you have the perfect recipe for a disastrous album.

The few songs that did appeal to me (“The Crown,” “Moneymaker,” and “The Rain”) were mostly upbeat or hip-hop. This criterion was a lot more fitting for him and I think he should have stuck to this formula instead. Another suggestion I would have made would be to release either a double CD or two separate albums for the different genres. The blues songs were depressing and slow and the hip hop songs were faster and energetic. Having both styles on one CD made things very confusing for me emotionally. Until these issues are addressed, I am giving this CD a “D.”