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Seven-Grits
Seven discs.  Most bands tend to lose their popularity after one, and even the more popular artists end up killing their careers after three or four.  It's a rare breed that can consistently sell a lot of discs and allow themselves to make their careers an actual career.  The guys in Grits have accomplished this feat.  And now, with the release of the appropriately titled Seven, they look to continue making good music and looking to make a big impact in the mainstream.  Seven marks the final disc in Coffee and Bonafide's contractual obligation to Gotee Records and, like most final discs on a label, it's a "greatest hits" disc.  With six prior discs, surely it won't be too difficult to pick out plenty of great tracks, right?

Well, to an extent, that is true.  Big singles in Grits' career appear throughout the 17 track disc, including
Here We Go, Hittin' Curves, Tennessee Bwoys and a remix of Ooh Ahh.  But what you're more likely to notice is the big singles that are missing from this greatest hits disc.  Nothing before The Art Of Translation is included on this disc.  That means no They All Fall Down or Ima Showem.  This will come as a huge disappointment for many hardcore Grits fans who take great pleasure in the "old" stuff.

The other thing that you'll notice is that it seems like a lot of tracks were just randomly thrown on to this disc. 
Sippin' Some Tea, Get Down and Where Are You Going appear, with little fanfare.  Likewise, the remixes and new tracks leave quite a bit to be desired.  The Pettidee remix of Make Room screws with the whole flow of the original song, and it sounds as though the vocals from the original were just thrown over new music, rather than completely adding the vocal areas into the complete remix.  The Jay Mumbles Mega Mix, which appears as a bonus track, is a solid mix of many Grits songs, but it still seems a bit out of place on a greatest hits disc.  The new tracks, Changes and I Try, seem to be something completely different from the normal Grits sound.  Changes in particular takes a far more R&B approach than most Grits songs.

Overall,
Seven is, at best, an interesting collection of Grits songs.  The lack of some of the big hits from early in their career and the addition of some strange choices, combined with some sub-par remixes and relatively average new music, make for one disappointing to the collaborations of Grits and Gotee.  For a relationship that produced six quality discs from '95 to '04, the final one in '06 certainly makes you wonder who was behind the wheel for this final release.
5.75 Out Of 10
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