All of Our Names [Import]

Sarah Harmer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Coldsnap
• ASIN: B0001I0WJU
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,550 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Pendulums

2. Almost

3. Greeting Card Aisle

4. New Enemy

5. Silver Road

6. Dandelions in Bullet Holes

7. Things to Forget

8. Came on Lion

9. Took It All

10. Tether

11. Go to Sleep

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer's 2000 debut, You Were Here, was justifiably lauded and it made her a star in her homeland, racking up platinum sales. Four years later she's brought forth an equally engaging set of 11 finely honed songs. After the friendly mid-tempo opener and its tale of roaming the countryside in winter, she fearlessly kicks up the decibel meter with the smartly propulsive "Almost," presenting a lustful crush with appropriate passion and the wallop of a rocker. Throughout it all, Harmer has a gifted eye for the small details that give human scale and resilience to the lyrics. The sense of place evoked is unmistakably linked to her home in Ontario's Quaker Valley, and perhaps not surprisingly, All of Our Names was recorded primarily at her rural abode. The album has all the breadth and depth of a work created in a big-city studio, but it also exudes a warmth and intimacy that can be attributed to the care and comfort afforded by the setting. --David Greenberger

Product Description

Details TBA. 2004.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quietly engaging; less playful than her previous works., April 2, 2004

By 

D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: All of Our Names (Audio CD)

Sarah Harmer has finally cast off her rockier edges and become a full-fledged folk-country artist. Nothing wrong with that -- it just means if you're more into the poppy, rocking Sarah Harmer of "Around This Corner", "Basement Apt." or her former band Weeping Tile's "South of Me", you won't find her on this record. However, if you're more into "Uniform Grey", "Judy G." or even her Songs for Clem persona, that of the low-key, soulful country crooner, this album will draw you in.

Harmer's voice has matured increasingly, dipping into a very low, husky register for "Greeting Card Aisle", featuring a lilting acoustic guitar that emulates a banjo roll (think Don McLean's acoustic picking), navigating her trademark falsetto-real voice shifts ever the more deftly in "Pendulums", harmonizing beautifully on the dreamy "Go to Sleep", and conveying heartbreaking vulnerability on the lovely "Dandelions in Bullet Holes". The most uptempo this album gets is on "Almost", and then the electric guitars are tamed by a subdued sound mix which makes them melodic rather than punchy.

The songwriting is rustic, relaxed, in no hurry to impress, and lacking in the sticky pop hooks of Harmer's pop songs, but remaining melodic and pleasing. She writes more earnest and less witty lyrics this time around and I miss the bite of her old lyrics, which lent an extra layer to Harmer's vocals.

All of Our Names is a very quiet album, one that you won't readily pick up for a long road trip or to help you wake up in the morning. It's beautiful and appealing, but I do miss the rock elements which had been vital to Harmer's artistic persona previously. As it is, All of Our Names is a fine record with no flaws, but compared to the more well-rounded balance of rock, folk and country on Harmer's previous records, this record comes off as a little bit tame.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone has a 'Tether', March 26, 2004

By 

W. McNavage (Philadelphia PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All of Our Names (Audio CD)

Discovering Sarah Harmer a few years back was one of those rare music moments where you know you will have this one spinning for many many years. Don't get me wrong, 'you were here' is a stellar album and the backporch on a late summer evening laid back tone of 'songs for clem' holds it's own, but the simple pleasure of 'All of Our Names' is the equivalent of taking a breath and letting it out really really slow. This album is filled with perfect moments, a mosaic of sound that conjurs the most amazing images while you listen. The album is rural, not urban in it's pace. It keeps your attention and it at times takes your breath away. It is a sign waving back and forth in the breeze, a pickup driving down a dusty road, the small town corner diner, the dizziness you experience when you break off a relationship. Sarah's craft for songwriting is embodied in one line from 'tether': Living this close to the road/you question your vulnerability. She weaves and molds her craft into some of the finest songwriting out there these days and deliveres an album that is beautiful and gives us hope that really true insightful artists still exists

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Get Enough, October 23, 2004

By 

Robert Haven (Eugene, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All of Our Names (Audio CD)

There is a certain quality to these wonderful songs that allows me to play this CD over and over again and love it more each time. The songs at first seem simple, but then each is also somehow surprising -- in its unusual but catchy melody, or instrumentation, or a turn it takes. I don't know. I do know, though, that Sarah can make sleeping through a winter storm sound downright spiritual. And for the last several months I have listened to this CD more than any other in my large collection. I can't get enough of Sarah's beautiful understated vocals, which I enjoy as much as my two other favorite singers, Sarah McLachlan and Patty Griffin.