Very Good and enjoyed listening to Welcome to the Cruel World by Ben Harper but unfortunate when I first rated it I accidently confused it with another CD by Ben Harper so I'd like to apologize to you readers and liked to change my rating to 5 / out of 5 stars for Welcome to the Cruel World .

Harper offers a great interpretation of Maya Angelou's I'll Rise poem. Also, you'll find "Waiting On An Angel" on the album. The song, if you don't know, was featured in the Lines in the Sand episode of the television show House, m.d.

Couple of great tracks a couple hokey tracks. Great lyrics and nice melodic rhythms. Overall a good album to own.

Ben Harper combines a wide variety of music styles in order to produce his various albums. Each of his albums combine aspects of jazz, rock, and folk. Harper's 1994 album, "Welcome to the Cruel World", was a major success. This album covers introduces listeners to Harper's aucoustic, Instrument, lite rock, and more heavy rock styles.

As with most of Harper's albums, he begins the album with his Instrumental style. The Three of Us, Harper's first track on the album combines all of the styles expressed within the album. The track begins soft rock and carries out in a more heavy rock tone. Other songs on the album like Walk Away and Forever are very similar in their soft rock nature. While How Many Miles Must We March and Welcome to the Cruel World show Harper's more hard rock style.

Harper is very successful in all of his albums especially "Welcome to the Cruel World" in providing listeners with a very ecletic mix of sound on one album. This album serves as a model for his following albums, "The Will to Live" and "Diamonds on the Inside", in the style and order of the tracks on the album. Overall this ablum is a must for any Harper fan.

"Whipping Boy" ... "Dont' Take That Attitude To Your Grave" ... "How Many Miles Must We March" ... "I'll Rise" :
Just these four songs make the CD worth having. Not to mention all the other songs which are just as good.

I've been listening to this dude back and forth from work for over two weeks...don't be surprised if some of his songs make you grow an attitude.

This is music to think about, not just your old hum and tap routine. Kinda reminds me of how we wrote music back in the late 60's early 70's. Ben Harper is the MAN!!!