Aris' Favorites: January 2007          

My pick this month is a song from Season 8 of KIDS Incorporated (1992) and posed a hard challenge in picking a song.  This is mainly due to some awesome KIDS Inc. originals and some insanely awesome covers within that season.  My song choice for January is Real, Real, Real by Jesus Jones from 1991.  You can see it on YouTUBE here.

One thing I liked about Season 8 was the fact that the music started to sound more solid.  What do I mean by solid, you say? In various postings on the net and reviews on KIDS Incorporated, people often reference the music as "watered down".  What they mean by this is that the instrumental doesn't have a full sound to it. Basically, not enough instruments.  Be that as it may, they were a kids band. Plain and simple. Not to mention that was probably the intent with the producers and sound engineers.  If the music was too rich then it wouldn't be believable that these kids really had a band.  Not many kids at that age are polished musically enough to have their own club.  

I was a big fan of Jesus Jones when I was a kid. I remember seeing the actual video on MTV and VH-1 *gasps*, yes, I said VH-1. Back in the day, VH-1 was for old farts, but today you would never know (for those of you who didn't know)! Anyways, I digress.  KIDS Incorporated really performed their magic on this song--vocally and instrumentally.  The wide use of studio vocal effects and a hardcore, pop rhythm really made this song stand out in my mind.  I actually remember telling my friend, "Josh, the Kids Inc. version is wicked cool compared to the Jesus Jones hit, ain't it?" Yes, kiddies, I used the word ain't as a kid and thankfully grew out of it :-) Josh and I always battled back and forth on if KI's version was better than the originals or vice versa.  Sometimes we would agree, but more often than not we'd disagree, haha.

The kids performing in this song sounded really cohesive as a group packing the same sound as the kids did the first 3 seasons.  The guitar riffs and drum work are fantastic in this song.  Vocally, I think this is one of Jared's best.  He seemed to always get the wrong songs to sing, but his voice was really on par in his part of the song. Haylie definitely stood out in this song to me because I really didn't care for her until the last season.  Her voice always annoyed me but it started to grow on me in this season, especially with this song.  Ana and Kenny, as always, were amazing and I can't find any complaints with them.  Nicole didn't have a part in this song except for background vocals.  This was definitely my top song of 1992. 

My top 5 of 1992:

• Real, Real, Real

• Ain't Gonna Hurt Nobody

• Running Back To You

• I'm The One You Need

• Seal Our Fate

You can download Real, Real, Real here by right-clicking the link and saving the file. Enjoy!

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