The Speech Discography

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the second installment of our discography series. We previously covered Arrested Development's output, so it follows that it's time to cover Speech's. Speech's albums include seven "original" albums (two with alternate US versions), four compilations of his work, and a remix album. Hopefully by the end of this, we will have made sense of it all....
THE ALBUMS

Speech (1996) - The debut solo album from Speech. Like most, I wasn't really sure what to expect with this album- was it going to be basically another Arrested Development album? Would it be completely different? The answer was of course that it lied somewhere in between, but it's very much a Speech solo album. There is a lot to like about this album, and I do like it. A lot of my favorite Speech songs are on this record- "Poor Little Music Boy," "If I Was You", and "Filled With Real" And how appropriate is "If U Think the System's Working (Ask Somebody Who Ain't?)" right now? So a very solid record that stands up. But there would be much more to come from Speech.

The international version features two bonus tracks and was covered here.

Hoopla aka 1998 Hoopla (1998 Japan/1999 US) - We've been over the two versions of this album as well. Another very solid Speech album, with more classic Speech songs. The title for this blog came from the Intro and "Clocks In Sync With Mine," which really starts the album off well. "Slave of it All" is probably my favorite song from the album.

Spiritual People (2000 Japan/2002 US) Again, we've been over the two versions of this one. In either form, you've got a classic Speech record!

Down South Produckshuns (2002) This just might be my favorite Speech album. Released in Japan only, although it can be found on itunes domestically.

Peechy (2003) If Down South isn't my favorite Speech album, then Peechy is. Released primarily in Japan, and also available on the official site.

The Grown Folks Table (2009) - Before starting this article, I really had no idea it had been six years between Speech albums. Now it's not like he wasn't busy as we saw a number of Arrested Development albums and Speech compilations during that time, but still, I was surprised. Anyway, this is a really good album that expanded his sound while staying in the same vein. Another album released primarily in Japan, and also available on the official site.

Compilations:
Disciples of a Lyrical Rebellion (Speech's Favs) (2000) - We've covered this one before- this is made up of songs from the first two Arrested Development albums, the first two Speech albums, and a few new songs and skits.

Freedom: Speech Remix Tracks (2000) - This is a little tough to find- and pricey. It is made up of seven remixes from the first two Speech albums. This will be covered in greater depth later on.

Speech's Best (2003) - This is my personal favorite of the various Speech compilations out there, because it features nine live songs not found anywhere else. The versions of "Poor Little Music Boy" and "If I Was You" are far superior to their album counterparts in my opinion- and they were already great songs, so that is saying something. Even if you have all the albums, the live songs make this a must purchase. Reasonably priced for a double-disc set as well. The only downside is that other than a "hidden track" on disc one and the live songs, the first album is not represented here. But seeing as the live tracks from that album are better than the studio versions, it's not really a problem. I would have liked to have heard the live version of "Like Marvin Gaye Said (What's Going On)" that can be heard starting at one point during the live portion, but such is life.

Love Life Music (2005) - This compilation was released in Japan and can also be found on Speech's website. Features songs from the first five albums and a live version of "Redemption Song" that I believe is exclusive to this album. Also features "Across the Universe," a Beatles cover that would later appear on The Vagabond. We'll look at this further in depth later on.

The Vagabond (2005) - Most people would categorize this as a solo album, and if you are only exposed to Speech's US retail output, then I could see your point. But if you have the material from Japan and the website, then I think it's easy to chalk this up as a compilation. Features material from Down South, Peechy, and a remixed version of "Esmeralda" from Among the Trees. The only new song on this release is "What You Give" featuring Eshe of AD, and it's a nice hip-hop song. I bought this used and ended up with a promo copy that people aren't supposed to resale (shame, shame!), so I recently bought the retail version as I am really that much of a completist. Hey, the cover wasn't the digipack that you're supposed to have, just a plain label! It's a sickness....

Anyway, hope you found this useful if you have just some of the albums or even if you own all of them. It can be a little hard to keep it all straight, that's for sure!