No love for G. Love

One might wonder where the justice is for G. Love and his band, the Special Sauce. The Philadelphia trio certainly has talent, but no luck. They debuted in the same year as Beck, but never garnered the cultish following. Then they highlighted breakout Jack Johnson, who is now selling records by the truckload, and ended up climbing onto Johnson's label, Brushfire Records, to survive.\nLove's newest, The Hustle, is a rather eclectic blend of laid-back sloppy blues and country, rock, reggae, hip-hop and rap, which gives it something for everyone and makes it ideal background music for a barbecue, party or small get-together of friends. But unlike Beck's Sea Change and Johnson's On and On, The Hustle is a new album which doesn't warrant any listening much beyond tangential association.\nThe Special Sauce, also known as Jim Prescott on bass and Jeffrey Clemens on drums, are not explicitly co-billed with Love on Hustle, but they're here. The musical range the trio can encompass is quite wide, all over the spectrum, but scatterbrained and not grounded.\nHustle contains echoes of The Beatles (the perky, melodic "Love," the only song which could merit re-listening on your own) and Bob Dylan ("Loving Me"), but like most echoes, they are forgettable with their feedback. It's the kind of album you might overhear at someone's house and wonder who it is, but not one you should go out of your way to purchase for yourself.