''Master of Styles'' is a

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

The Urge The Urge is an alternative rock band based in St. Louis, Missouri. Their music combines several genres, including hardcore punk, Heavy metal music, heavy metal, ska, reggae, funk, rock music, rock, and rhythm and blues. Consistent touring throu ...

, released in 1998. The album produced three singles (“Jump Right In”, “Straight to Hell”, and “Closer”) and sold 250,000 copies. “Jump Right In” featured guest vocals by

Nick Hexum Nicholas Lofton Hexum (born April 12, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter and rapper, currently the vocalist and guitarist for the multi-platinum alternative rock band 311 and The Nick Hexum Quintet. Early life Born in Madison, Wisconsin, to ...

of 311 and hit the #10 position on the Modern Rock list.

Critical reception

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' wrote that "Urge seems to have a chameleonic talent for adapting to punk, ska, reggae, hip-hop and reggae trends without ever distinguishing itself."

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

wrote that "any group that can throw funk, ska, pop and metal into the old mixmaster (accent on old) without any discernible recipe for making it all work to their commercial benefit is nothing if not adaptable." ''

CMJ New Music Monthly CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

'' opined that the band "combines sounds from funk to punk to reggae, and it's successful thanks in large part to the one constant: the mellifluous, adaptable voice of Steve Ewing."

Track listing

Personnel

;The Urge * Steve Ewing - vocals *Karl Grable - bass, concept *Jerry Jost - guitars *John Pessoni - drums, background vocals *Bill Reiter - saxophone *Matt Kwiatkowski - trombone *Todd Painter - trombone, keyboard ;Additional musicians *

- vocals in "Jump Right In" ;Additional personnel *Mike Dillon - percussion *Doug Erb - art direction *

GGGarth Garth "GGGarth" Richardson is a Canadian record producer and music engineer. He is the son of music producer Jack Richardson (Alice Cooper, The Guess Who, Badfinger, Poco), a pioneer of the music recording industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Gart ...

- engineer, producer *Mr. Colson - engineer *Tom Gordon - assistant engineer *Steve Hupaylo - unknown contributor *Michael Lavine - photography *Bob Ludwig - mastering *Luke Partridge - design *Joe Gastwirt- Mastering on Jump right in. *Randy Staub - mixing *Joe Varkey - assistant engineer *Gary Winger - mixing assistant

Charts

References

{{Authority control The Urge albums Albums produced by Garth Richardson 1998 albums