Track Listing

1. Let Me Be
2. Letter
3. Messages
4. Pockets Of Peace
5. Energy Song
6. Fortune Teller
7. Mother
8. Food In The Belly
9. My Missing
10. Mana
11. Connie's Song
12. Famine
13. Generation Fade
14. September 24, 1999

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11022 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-14
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on musical transgressions committed by the likes of Jamiroquai--well, okay, only Jamiroquai—-some might say the didgeridoo has no place in rock 'n' roll. An avowed fan of Paul Simon's Graceland, however, Xavier Rudd continues to seek redemption for the much-maligned instrument from his Australian homeland on his sixth full-length release, Food in the Belly, an earthy collection of roots-rock tunes that also sees the one-man-band champion everything from wind chimes and tubas to ankle bells and tablas. On slow-percolating tracks like "Messages" and "Pockets of Peace," the part-time surfer seems to share not only Jack Johnson's laidback delivery style but passive preachiness: "So speak out loud/ Of the things you are proud/ And if you love this coast/ Then keep it clean as it hopes." Fans of Michael Franti and Ben Harper wouldn't go amiss. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

Food in my iPod.
This is what music should sound like all day long, I swear the Apple smiles when I play this.

See reviews on Solace and White Moth as well, this guy is genius.

Buy it you CAN'T go wrong.

(Oh and stop moaning about the packaging, doesn't it fit into your neat, alphabetical, Ikea ridden obsessive life? Buy a surf board and chill.)

An awesome record and performer
This is an incredibly performed album, I'd never heard of Xavier Rudd before i saw him at the SAS ball in 2006 but his live performance blew me away! hearing it on record is no different, this is a properly good record, and left me feeling awesome for ages! He really is the Australian Paul Simon, using lots of native influences, though his sound comes more from Aborigine music.

Personally unlike the last reviewer I found no problems with the packaging, I wish more artists packaged their music in this manner, clunky jewel cases annoy the hell out of me. That's merely personal preference and has no effect on the quality of the music on this record which is outstanding!

Good songs, Poor package
The songs on this album are well written, and well performed.

The quality of the writing seems, to me, to be on a par with some of Paul Simon's best work or up there with the likes of Peter Gabriel. So, can't fault the song-writing.

The quality of the performance, too, seems excellent. The man's playing around with some traditional instruments but in an avant-guarde manner, providing a real (and talented) change from most of the musicians out there at the moment.

If it were down to these two factors, this album would have got four-and-a-half stars in my review. Why didn't it?

Well, the first you notice when you play the CD on a large system. This is a side-effect, I know, of Mr. Rudd's style (he plays all the instruments himself), but the recording has very poor stereo seperation: It might as well be a mono recording. If this were a concert recording, It would be ok in a way, but this was recorded in a studio. Another artist playing all the instruments himself was (still is, actually) Mike Oldfield: Yet when Mike Oldfield produced an album like "Tubular Bells", the seperation was especially good (for it's day) - care was taken to ensure that the listener got the best "feel" from the music.

Ok, that knocked half a star off. Where did the other one go?

The packaging! What IS wrong with a Jewel case? Is it the environment? If so, it's a waste of effort, because anyone playing this album more than once will want to buy a jewel case to put it in: It's packaged in cardboard, and the CD is jammed in so tight that you have to drag it out kicking and screaming. When you do put it in a Jewel case, you will, of course, separate the sleeve from the CD: A sure-fired way to lose one or the other. On top of that, of course, it looks like a freebie from the "Sunday Times", and won't fit properly in any CD rack. If you're thinking of buying one second-hand, be warned: The case will probably be torn and tattered and the CD scratched to the point of causing problems for most CD decks out there.