(hed) Planet Earth Album: “Broke [Clean]”

I'll make this short and to the point.To me none of these other so called "rapcore" bands can come close to the sound that hed has created.IT'S SO RAW!

Note: This review is for the censored MP3 album.

Broke by (hed) P.E. is a fantastic album. That's why I bought it and downloaded the MP3 version from Amazon. Unfortunately what Amazon doesn't tell you is that this version is CENSORED. And I don't mean it's a cleaned up version. They literally just blanked out all parts of the songs where there is cursing. So that means some songs cannot be listened to because so much of them is cut out. In my opinion that makes this otherwise wonderful album completely worthless.

Was completely blown away by Hed's second record (selftitled) which was extremely intelligently written, pushing the heavy/rap into a clever and diverse way and having a dramatically powerful vocal presense at all times.

At the time Broke came at first I was a little dissapointed as the sound had changed but that soon gave way to appreciation that they had gone for something a bit more diverse than before - not quite as far as say Mr. Bungle type diverse but more in that direction than the previous album - which is a lot more conventional. For me are a few time lyrically they lose the integrity of the first record but are still a lot of songs where they hang onto it.

Probably their strongest record between self titled and back to base X, definitely worth a shot if you liked those two and better than the others in the middle.

Stand out tracks for me are: "Waiting to die" Hard and Fast

"Little Stevie" clever sense of music, great timing and nearly captures the same sort of power as their classic remix of Darkie off selftitled

"I got you" greatly passionate power song with great Chorus

"feel good" apart from having Serj on it it's a clever piece of music

and a few others - generally it's really good - only negative really is the incredible record before

I'm a fan of everything. I love Metal(Soulfly, Ill Nino, System of a Down, etc), Rap(Eminem, 2pac, DMX, ect.), R&B(Lauryn Hill, D'angelo) and Hard Rock(Sevendust, Nonpoint, Rage Against The Machine). This album is amazing. It mixes all of these genres. But.....you will not fully understand how great this band is if you don't like anything other than Metal. Cause they're more than just a metal band.

Hed-PE is the only other rapcore band, besides Rage Against The Machine, to sucessfully do the genre. They are the only two rapcore bands that matter. Limp Bizkit single handedly ruined the rapcore genre and lost all of its credibilty. Don't be fooled. Hed-PE isn't just another Limp Bizkit. M.C.U.D. is amazing. Take it from a fan of hip hop...he can rap his ... off. And he's a great rock vocalist. He really reminds me of a cross between Eminem and Zack de la Rocha of RATM. The music is really heavy. Great songs to just jump up and down to and go crazy. Here's a song by song look at this album......

Killing Time: Slammin. It's really shows what the band is like. I'll give it a 9/10.

Waiting To Die: The most "metal" song on the album. Very in-your-face song. It gets a 8/10.

Feel Good f/ Morgan from Kittie and Serj from SOAD: Love this song. The vocals are tight by everyone involved. 9/10.

Bartender: Probably one of the best songs on the album. The verses are pretty funny and the rest of the lyrics are kinda depressing. 10/10.

Crazy Legs: Great song. Some of the most offensive lyrics that I have ever heard in my entire life. Great though. 10/10.

Pac Bell: Probably the strangest song on the album. M.C.U.D.'s vioce is distorted for most of the song. It's yet another good song. 8/10.

I Got You: Pretty Good song. Nothing really amazing about this song. Good none the less. 7/10.

BOOM(How You Like That): This, along with Crazy Legs, is the most hip hop influenced song on the album. 8/10.

Swan Dive: This is also one of the best songs on the album. Very reggae influenced. Dark, self loathing lyrics and heavy a*s guitars. What more could you ask for. 10/10.

Stevie: Probably the weakest song on the album. It's ok but not as engaging as the other songs on the album. 7/10.

Jesus(Of Nazareth): This joins Bartender and swan Dive as one of the best songs on this album. It's actually the best. I think the song is about feeling betrayed by the religion that you gave your life to. But I could be wrong. 11/10.

The Meadow: A very suprising ending to an amazing album. This is a very relaxing ballad about wanting to love and be loved by someone. 9/10.

All around tight album. Go out and buy it now. And look out for their next album. It'll be out this October so pick that up too. Peace!!

I remember when the first (hed) pe album came out. Boy was it a different sound! Although it was kind of a silly album and lacked focus overall, there was no denying that this group had a really crazy, slick sound that had real potential. "Broke" was that potential realized. Where the songs on the self-titled CD seemed to wander aimlessly at times, and lacked real structure or arrangement, all the songs on "Broke" have very precise arrangements, and come in "just right"... not too much, yet not lacking anything. Musically, this album is very tastefully done, and every member of the band seemed to have a sense of when to go all-out, when to hold back, or when to cut out altogether. Sections of songs turn on a dime, yet it all makes sense, and flows very naturally.

Lyrically, I believe this CD may be one of the most cynical and debauched CDs I have ever owned. As some reviews have said, there's enough cursing and depraved activity on here to make a sailor blush. In addition, the songs are just oozing with a nihilistic attitude--and the band is well-aware of it, and completely unapologetic. As a stark contrast to the sort of "woe is me/I'm so depressed/give me something to break" moodiness you heard on most flash-in-the-pan rap-rock and nu-metal, you have lyrics like this: "There is nothing wrong with me/ I'm not trying to see things your way/ I'm not lost, I'm not drowning, I'm not lost/ I'm just waiting, waiting to die."

And it's that lyrical bravado combined with the very tasteful musicality that has made this CD really stand the test of time in my collection. As much as I am almost ashamed of the unabashed filthiness (hed) pe brags about on this album, I can still pull it out almost any time, and it always brings a smile to my face, and I can't help but want to want to move to the beat.