Customer Reviews

'64-'95

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like some of the other reviewers here I was really given a jolt upon first listening to the newest Lemon Jelly. I plugged in the cd and sat back ready for the usual lush soundscapes LJ has given us in the past. This time I was forced to sit up and raise an eyebrow. There's even a disclaimer on a sticker that comes on the cd "This is not like our old album." How true. I tried repeatedly to just sit and listen and I couldn't. Then I took a road trip...sailing down a desert highway at a speed MUCH higher than the posted limit I plugged in '64-'95 and it all made sense!!! Suddenly I was hearing sounds I hadn't heard before and as I sped along the road it seemed the saguaros were bobbing up and down with me to 'Don't stop me now'. Later I saw a commercial for "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and they were using "Come down on me" and I thought "Yeah! Someone else gets it!!!" It's about moving forward! I feel sorry for those who want LJ to stand still in one place and expect artists to just pump out the same old crap over and over(not that ANYTHING by LJ is crap but you get what I'm saying). KUDOS to Lemon Jelly for taking a risk and creating something completely different and still being able to infuse their usual style. HOORAY for this new album. BOO to it's nay-sayers.
PS the DVD (sold seperately) is a lot of fun too.

With '64-'95, awesome duo Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen take musical samples from that year span and mold them into 9, truly wonderful tunes drenched in rock, soul, folk, electronica and house music. To the nay-sayers, this album is just a continuation of "Lost Horizons" and should be accepted as a work of pure genius. Not everyone can do such an outstanding job of mixing and shuffling as these guys do. You try mixing William Shatner into a song and make him sound good!

That notwithstadning, every song on '64-'95 was well produced and has a better dance-floor appeal than anything on "Lost Horizons" or "KY." Love how they mixed the chords and vocals of Ralph Tresvant's "Sensitivity" (1990) into the groovin', "A Man Like Me." I also dig the warmth and summery feel of "Make Things Right" which reminds me of an Arrested Development tune, and the hyper-drive of "Come Down on Me" and "The Slow Train".

Deakan and Franglen certainly know there stuff and they know how to keep their sound interesting without veering too far off the beaten path. To me, this body of work surpasses any of their past material, or any material by folks of their ilk--Yeah, That's right, you nay-sayers! I said it!!

Fantastic Job, Lemon Jelly! Highly Recommended!!!!

This record deserves the 5 stars for "Stay With You" Alone, however the rest of the tracks are equally as catchy if you give them a chance. You MUST have in mind that this is more of a "what's inside their heads when they hear..." rather than a 100% original Lemon Jelly product. THEY WARN YOU ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE DISC 'this is not like our last cd', so why would you be so stupid as to compare them? And though they're awesome Chillout producers, they're wonderful House/Dance producers as well. I say it again and again, they deserve 5 stars for this whole record and for having the guts of showing us what it's like inside their turntables.

When I saw that Lemon Jelly had a new album out, I freaked. Lost Horizons, their last effort, very quickly earned a spot on my all-time top-10 list, and I raced to get the new, undoubtedly brilliant release. But alas, I have similar feelings as many of the reviewers here. I agree that those like me who really enjoyed Lost Horizons will not enjoy this nearly as much. It's, well, very different. My impression of '64-'95 is that it was created for a more mainstream audience, what with the harder edge in a couple tunes and the R&B stylings in others. I'll give Lemon Jelly the benefit of the doubt and not call this a complete sell-out, but it's as if they felt embarrassed by the sensitivity of their last album compared to the acts out there who are more popular because they're more hard-hitting.

I really enjoyed Lost Horizons for its subtle and restrained compositions, the way most if not all of the tracks would mesmerize with their repetition, but would creep up on you and surprise you in various ingenious ways. It just seemed a lot more rigorous, careful, and artfully musical than this new one.

There are some good moments on '64-'95, but not enough, not as many as I've come to expect, which after many optimistic listens, makes this album disappointing. I sincerely hope this was just an awkward moment for these guys and that their next album will bring them back from craft to art.

* * *

Several months later...

I've tried a few times to listen to this album again, even to find a decent track on it for a compilation, and it's useless. That pretty much sums up the album for me: Useless. Dammit, I wanted to like this album as much as I liked Lost Horizons, if not in the same way, then in a different way! Were KY and, especially, Lost Horizons flukes?

although this cd may be a slight departure from there 1st two cds ,
its an amazing journey, as usual these guys are masters at production,
and this production is immaculate and brilliant,sharp and clean.
as mentioned previously ,they need to come up with an sacd 5.1
surround sound format,which would just be out of this world.
noyzmkr
las vegas

After the feel good explosion of "KY", and the sublime consistency of "Lost Horizons", I suppose that a bit a let-down was to be expected.

Anyone who explored Lemon Jelly's first release - KY - had to notice the picture of the little white-robed yogi embedded in one of the psychedlic teardrops on the CD packaging. I actually noticed the image after having listened to the CD a few times. The image reveals a motivating force which seems lacking in LJ's latest release: '64-'95.

Lemon Jelly, at its best, is nothing if not meditative. Despite the catchy hooks and bouncy beats, songs like "In the Bath" (from KY), or "Ramblin' Man" (from Horizons), inspire zen-like calmness. From this peaceful perspective, the complicated rhythms, layered melodies, and hypnotic samples inspire blissful awe... sort of like being in the presence of the Yogi.

'64-'95 brings some of those vibes into play. "Time", "Don't Stop Now", and "Slow Train" deliver the goods, and are emblematic of Lemon Jelly's better work.

The other tracks, though, especially "Make Things Right" and "Stay with You" (which sound like lame disco remixes) are uninspired and flat. "Come Down on Me" and the "Shouty Song" are moronic Gary Glitter atrocities - are these guys hoping to hear their music played between timeouts at football games? Geez. Noisy, overdone, sort of thuggish. Where's the LOVE, fellaz?

The last track, featuring vocals by William Shatner, rounds out the cheese. Putting that guy's voice on ANY music CD is a sure sign of desperation. And, sure enough, "Go" is a pale retread of "Ramblin' Man" (off 'Lost Horizons'). Genre mixing - and coming up with something original - is one thing. Genre mixing for the sake of it is a sure sign of creative exhaustion.

These guys need to go back to the well and find their center. Something sent them careening into questionable places and the musical results are marginal and depressingly derivative.

The duo behind 'Lemon Jelly' (which consists of "Nick Franglen" & "Fred Deakin"....have through, a couple of remarkably fun and accessible downtempo albums, become something of an underground word of mouth sensation. But the worry for artists that make such electronically oddball albums, is that unless something is added to the formula with each album, the record buying public will eventually lose interest and move on. So for their 3rd album, the duo have not only given the music a tougher edge, but they have also only used samples from the period 1964 - 1995 (hence the album title 64-95). But will their blend of purely sampled created music succeed a third time around?? (well, you've seen my rating, so you know the answer, but lets
pretend, for the sake of this review, you haven't eh???).

The duo have obviously sat down, and decided upon what the particular strengths/weaknesses of their music are, and worked hard to broaden the sound with less emphasis on purely quirky downtempo driven tracks, as a fair portion of the ten tracks here, are certainly more energised, than before, with elements of crunchy rock and experimental sonic beats having fleshed out the sound more, and there even seems to be the occasional nods to (un)conventional dance music with tracks such as "The Shouty Track" bearing nods to Chemical bros styled dance-rock fusions. With it's enticing loops and hypnotic hooks, and vaguely aggressive shouts, It?s sumptuous, sleek and stylish?.and although nothing really like the previous albums, shows the duo are willing to not pigeon-hole their ideas.

The majority of songs sound as if they've started with a solid idea (or indeed sample), and built the track from the ground up, with a plethora of extremely well chosen samples and loops of sorts, which generally work towards some form of energetic rhythm, that the previous albums lacked to some degree. And it's clear that with having had two albums experience to draw from, the duo have arguably refined their considerable talents here, with the displaced samples, working to stretch the imagination of each track, rather than being a mindless procession of goofy samples, that become tiresome rather quickly.

But lets not forget the reason why we all like Lemon Jelly so much....and that's because they make sublimely tongue-in-cheek gleefully oddball electronica that although meticulously devised and arranged, doesn't take itself too seriously, so it tracks like "Only Time" and "Make Things Right", that still reference the quirky concepts of previous albums are here for those that still yearn for the duo's previous work, and although there are parts throughout the album, that clearly are, a step in a (slightly) new direction, In parts, its not hard to hear that this is still unmistakably Lemon Jelly. Although it is also clear the most, that the duo are obviously eager to evolve their trademark of songs built purely around samples with tracks that although possibly alienating fans of playful classics tracks such as "Nice Weather for Ducks", will almost certainly gain new listeners with the beefed up sound, that steps over the laid back grooves of the last two records, for "Come Down on Me's" brash beats and electric guitars, that although may not work quite so well in a chilled environment like the first two albums, will certainly attract the attention of those that considered the previous albums, far too finicky & forgettable.

"Make Thing Right" feels like it's a nod to the early 90's, when Trip-Hop was a musical forced to be reckoned with. Samples of acoustic guitars, coupled with languished, shuffling slow drumbeats feature, and has a lush, romantic and completely feel-good streak running through it. And is probably the sort of clipped pastoral acoustic that most, middle of the road Trip-Hop acts, wish they could do half as competently as it has been done here. Even "Stay With you" exhibits a leaning towards being a hybrid of Disco & Electronica, as it has the sort of catchy melancholic minor-key guitar elements, that was used so often in '70s pop, and has a slight air of glammed up stomp about it, that made those sorts of tracks, such unquestionable floor fillers.

Your enjoyment of this album, will possibly to some degree, depend on how accepting you are willing to be with this album, because those that are expecting (or indeed hoping) for a retread of the previous albums, will be, by and large....disappointed, as the relaxed mood of before has been expanded to include a wider genre, including: smooth breaks & dance electronica. Two examples, that are now introduced into the fold. And musically as well, the wide selections of samples, have expanded their already-eclectic sonic palette to include more obvious hints of disco, house and rock, which may upset some, but it's becomes clear after listening to a couple of tracks, that this is less quirky and eccentric than before, and seems to be a conscious attempt, that give their music some longevity. (which critics of previous work have cited). And it's has given the music not only some diversity, but a little more depth. Personally speaking, I think this is probably their most fully realised album yet, and the various hopping between quiet / loud(ish) songs, fights off any monotony, and so long as you know what to expect when you listen to this album, there's a great deal to gleam here from Electronica's most witty act.

I love Lemon Jelly, but this album falls far, far short. All the songs seem drawn out and like they got lost halfway through and just don't reach any conclusion. Go with Lost Horizions instead.

This album defintely marks a new direction for Lemon Jelly. Those expecting an extension/continuation of their last two albums are probably going to be slightly disappointed, as the band has traded in the stoned and spacy headphone grooviness of those albums for a more club-oriented "House" sound, as if they wanted to be Groove Armada. This works for the most part, though on some songs they lose the uniqueness of sound that made it usually very easy to identify a Lemon Jelly song for a sound that's too generic and repetitive ("Don't Stop Now" is an example of this). Other songs however, such as "Come Down On Me" with its sample of a Masters of Reality song (that one was a blast from the past, Chris Goss, hope you're recovering well), do signify an interesting new direction for the band. The ending track with Shatner seems a continuation of the collaboration "Together" (also recommended) from Shatner's new solo album and is also quite enjoyable.

This DVD has 9 videos each 4 to 5 minutes long. All videos are primarily visual effects set to the motion of instrumental music (music comes from the 64-95 album).

5 of the videos are ambients: Come Down On Me, Only Time, Don't Stop Now, Stay With You, and The Slow Train.

There are 3 two-dimensional cartoon-like videos: Make Things Right, The Shouty Track, and A Man Like Me.

And, there is one high-quality-production three-dimensional video: Go.

You will be disappointed if you are expecting videos like Spacewalk or Nice Weather For Ducks -- the only video in that category is "Go".