William Shatner's musical career has long been a joke amongst the musical community, except those people have never listened to his album Has Been.
Has Been was produced by Ben Folds, and features appearances by Brad Paisley, Henry Rollins, Adrian Belew, and more. There is only one cover, and the music to exact song is in no possible way cheesy.
Of course, Shatner's signature vocal stylings are the main focus of this album, taking his poety/spoken word pieces, and setting them to soft, jazzy background music by Folds and various guest musicians on the album. The whole album stands out to me, but I can't ignore what is most definitely my favourite track on the album.
"I Can't Get Behind That" is a frantic, loud track, featuring Henry Rollins and Kirk, erm, Shatner, going back and forth on...well...things they can't "get behind". It also features Adrian Belew on guitar, and listening to the track, you hear these sounds, these crazy, scary sounds, and that's the guitar playing. But this isn't a review of Adrian Belew's guitar playing.
Anther track I feel is quite strong is "Ideal Woman" a song about all the things he loves about this woman except.."not that, that doesn't work." It brings a smile to your face, and it always
ends happily with Shatner explaining "I want you to be you."
All in all, I feel this is an album worth checking out, Shatner's lyricism is very poignant, and it lets you take a look at how he feels inside about his life. It's by no means a novelty album, and I lke to think this is his debut album, and forget the other one.
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