Customer Reviews

All the Nations Airports

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With this 5th release, the Archers of Loaf have strayed even further from their original punky indie-rock sound -- and I love every minute of it. Although some songs on the disc don't work perfectly (like "Assassination on X-mas Eve" and "Distance Comes in Droves"), this album is pretty consistently great. And it flows like no previous Archers release has. "Worst Defense" flows perfectly into "Attack of the Killer Bees" which flows perfectly into "Rental Sting". The real standout track on this disc, though, is the piano ballad "Chumming the Ocean." It is the most beautiful song you'll ever heard that is about a shark attacking a diver in a cage. Yet again, this is a necessity for an Archers fan, and would be a delight for anyone who is looking for something new.

This is without a doubt the shining hour for the Archers of Loaf. They nail a certain mood perfectly on this cd -- Eric Bachman's ruined voice lends a melancholic quality to the music, which is more varied than previous outings. Most importantly, the bands also rocks quite hard; the lack of said rocking was the problem I had with their last record, White Trash Heroes. What is great about the album is the catchy vocal lines melded to AOL's trademark two-guitar attack. I don't know how some of these songs manage to be pretty and biting at the same time; it's hard to describe until you've heard it. In particular, scenic pastures and form & file push the envelope for guitar-based rock. AOL was a highly underrated band and I wish very much that they were still around.

This album was the first that I ever heard of the Archers of Loaf. As soon as I listened to it, they hooked me with the incredible melodies, versatility, and Eric Bachmann's crooning voice. I soon bought up all of their albums - Vee Vee, The Speed of Cattle, Icky Mettle, and White Trash heroes...all of which are excellent albums and have great songwriting. I've also seen AoL a few times live and Bachmann's new project, Crooked Fingers - great live shows. I've had all of these other albums in regular rotation over the last 7 years and just last week I happened upon the first album that turned me onto them, All the Nations Airports. It was like hearing AoL for the first time, it truly is an amazing album. Highly recommended.

The Spin Alt.Rock guide describes the Archers as "steeped in countrified classic rock and gleeful noise, with Crazy Horse and the Grateful Dead no less equal predecessors than the Clash and the Dead Boys." The Trouser Press guide describes them as creating "a provocative guitar rock with distinctive, if collegiate, melodic dissonance." Here, after such worthy earlier recordings like "Icky Mettle" and "Vee Vee," the Archers offer something slightly different: a concept album, of sorts. Like Rush's "2112" sci-fi concept album, All the Nation's Airports is cinematic, like a suspense film about terrorists as directed by Costa-Gavras, conveying a feeling of both exhilaration and foreboding, with tuneful songs that rock and that ring in your ears for hours afterward.

Ok, so maybe they aren't broken up, and maybe they are. I've never really gotten a straight answer on that one. Nonetheless, this is, in my humble opinion, the best work the Archers ever did. Sure, it's not the catchy debut Icky Mettle, which took college rock by storm. And maybe it's not Vee Vee, with the "hit"(?) "Harnessed in Slums." But this album's fifteen tracks mesh together into an adventurous, beautiful, tortured, surprising listening experience. Eric Bachmann's vocals on this album, especially on "Chumming the Oceans," are undeniably affecting; they brought one friend of mine to near tears. There is a magic amongst these four boys, and this album may end up standing as their greatest musical achievement (that is, unless they make more albums, and make them better than the fairwell "White Trash Heroes," which was incredible in its own little way). The instrumentals on this album are more painfully beautiful than the rest of the tracks. Buy this album and experience it.

This album is well worth your money! The band really expands from the punky roots of their first album, Icky Mettle. Songs like "Chumming The Ocean" and "Rental Sting" are gripping and powerful enough to carry the entire album. Give these guys a try--you won't regret it!

This is an excellent album, as most reviewers say. I would just add that the reviewers point at the marvelous sad songs like "Rental Sting"or "Chumming the ocean", but maybe the highlights are most enthusiastic songs like "All the nations airports", "Strangled by the stereo wire", "Vocal Shrapnel" and even the very much criticized by AOL fans, "Assassination on X-mas Eve". And although I normally don't enjoy purely instrumental songs, "The attack of the killer bees" and "Acromegaly" are brilliant. Highly recommended, to say the least.

dig it. i do this band rocks and the songs kik down like a plane landing on a wet runway. seriously. this cd gets tons of replay. youll wear it out, put it down, and then play it again

This is the album that removed the Archers from their spot as my favorite band and made me stop attending their shows. The catchy, fast-paced guitar rock of Icky Mettle, Vs., and Vee Vee is virtually nonexistent on Airports. Although the first three tracks are brilliant, the album deteriorates into Bachmann moaning and moaning in his less-than-appealing mumble. This album made me feel almost as betrayed as I felt when U2 produced Zooropa.

I feel so guilty bad-mouthing music recorded in Wisconsin, but this sadly fits in with my veritable stockpile of so-so just-above garage band rock albums. In fact, my friend the punk afficionado was getting rid of it, and I had to rescue it from becoming a colorful wall hanging. This album does not deserve decorative adornment of a dormitory wall, but it does precious little to make one want to take it down and play it.