3-Way

Lilys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 20, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 20, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sire / London/Rhino
• ASIN: B00000IAGA
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,891 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Dimes Make Dollars

2. Socs Hip

3. Accepting Applications at University

4. And One (On One)

5. Leo Ryan (Our Pharoah's Slave)

6. Solar Is Here

7. The Spirits Merchant

8. The Lost Victory

9. The Generator

10. A Tab For The Holiday

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

The Lilys' music will instantly remind you of a handful of classic organ- and guitar-heavy combos from the '60s, but they're wholly unlike any other retro outfit on earth. Theirs is an alternate vision of '60s psychedelia. Neither pretentious nor full of itself, the stuff totally rocks, Nuggets-style, in spite of the disjointed lyrics and way-complicated song structures. --Mike McGonigal

Amazon.com

Thirty-six minutes of recombinant retro bliss, The 3 Way is a keen, direly enjoyable experiment. Replace the wide-eyed optimism of the Elephant Six clan with real and implied decadence, or add cojones to Belle and Sebastian's fey dandyism and voilà: Lilys. A smart British person wrote about their groundbreaking, delectable 1996 disc, Better Can't Make Your Life Better, that the Lilys sound like every decent '60s band--playing all at once. But these days the group leans more heavily toward the Zombies' organ-savvy pop or the Kinks' high-spirited, melodic bashing. Two ways in which Lilys' music differs crucially from the la-la-la singing, crunching guitar chording, and bouncy bass-playing inspirations of their influences are the song structure and the words. The 3 Way has more changes than 2112; even the short tunes sound like four different ones stitched together. And the lyrics range from wry, Cardinalesque observations ("Get off on death or don't get off at all") to a call for group nastiness to a drug addict's ode to the pocket mirror he uses to "huff lines until dawn." The last track is a lighthearted, banjo-and-toy-piano-accented skiffle wherein the narrator counsels: "Arriving later than original estimate / Pouring shots while the schedule came and went / Heal yourself till the rescue party's sent / Just keep your mind off your broken neck." --Mike McGonigal

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'll have what Heasley is drinking, April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 3-Way (Audio CD)

I'll start with praise: Lilys are incapable of a bad album, and 3-Way helps support this claim. 3-Way, like its LP predecessor, Better Can't Make Your Life Better, and like so many 1960s pop records, is an absolute smorgasbord of happy, ambitious sound, all clearly defined and heard within songs. Think about amazing songs like the Beatles "Got to Get You Into My Life" and you have an idea. EVERY instrument sounds so close to the speaker, like a kiss in the ear almost. Tambourines, horns, vintage-amp guitar snarl, percussive pops, finger snaps, and handclaps never sound mixed below one another, and somehow never fall into "wall of sound" mush. You can put on any Lilys song and be able to follow any instrument's progression from start to finish. And that's a good thing. A really good thing, one that doesn't happen much these days for reasons that completely elude me. 3-Way is wonderfully weird, too. The opening song, "Dimes Make Dollars" (amen! how bout pennies?) sounds most like their past album: a fuzzy "Satisfaction"-sounding guitar making a Monkees run, lots of percussive pee-zazz, an organ line bouncing like a ball over song lyrics on a television screen. Right, totally fun. Socs Hip is like seven minutes long and chock full of musical twists. Leo Ryan (Our Pharoah's Slave), also like seven minutes, is just perfect. I can promise you that you will never hear another band write a song that goes from like the Monkees to Barry White to the Zombies to Philly soul and disco strings all so fluidly. So Heasley continues to prove that he is an absolute evil genius, and an unabashed fan of all kinds of music. However, all that fawning said, I don't like this album near as much as "Better Can't Make Your Life Better." Not even close. On THAT album, Lilys pulled off an amazing feat: it sounded like Mozart took a crack at writing songs like "Daydream Believer" and "She's Not There" and actually pulled it off. The songs had the most remarkable percussive propulsion, completely joyous and complex harmonies and guitar lines, and they CLIMBED as much as they turned. Plus they were just catchy as hell. Better Can't Make Your Life Better is one of the best pop albums ever, in a class with "Revolver" and "Pet Sounds" and "Oracle and Odessy," among other sixties giants, and if you laugh at that comment now, meet me in like twenty years when revisionist dopes catch up to Kurt Heasley, who too often gets blasted as being too far behind. Life is ironic like that, though. Anyhow, 3-Way has too many turns and not enough climbs. It is far more abstract, cold, and distant than "Better Can't Make Your Life Better," and reminiscent of the change Brian Wilson underwent when he hooked up with Van Dyke Parks, which is not a HORRIBLE thing, but I like Pet Sounds better than Smile, if you get what I'm saying. It's stuffy and obtuse and too British sounding. Those Brits are wound too tight and need to unclench their buttockseseses once in a while. Listening to 3-Way, I almost feel like I should put one of those unifocal glasses and squeeze it on an eye while drinking tea in a straight-backed chair. I don't want that from Lilys. I want to drink sodee pops and watch my three-year-old jump on the bed. That was what Better Can't Make Your Life Better delivered. 3-Way is still a Lilys record, and still completely enjoyable. Their emphasis on sound will always make them fun. I recommend this album, but go get Better Can't Make Your Life Better first.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We'll meet you with the camera's eye!, December 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 3-Way (Audio CD)

Another brilliant work by Kurt Heasley! This album takes weeks and maybe months to fully digest with its unexpected turns and dazzling orchestrations. Not as "riff" heavy as 'Better Can't Make Your Life Better' but if you like 60's Brit Pop and don't mind imaginative lyrics then this disc is for you. To me, definitely worth its weight in gold!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If You Love 60's Brit Pop..., February 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: 3-Way (Audio CD)

...you will like this. If you don't, you probably won't. The organ is amazing and you will feel like you landed in London, circa 1967. I like it--it's fun and makes me wish I could pop on my white gogo boots and fringe vest and frug frug frug my problems away.