Customer Reviews

All of Our Names

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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

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.

all of our names is another standout album from Sarah Harmer, the brilliant Canadian singer-songwriter who remains inexplicably obscure in the states. With any justice, this disc, which is just a tiny notch below You Were Here, will garner her the attention and airplay she deserves. The bouncy first single, "Almost," is not the strongest track on the disc, but it grows on you. The standouts include "New Enemy," an incisive take on the end of a relationship, "Silver Road," which, much like "Lodestar" from the previous album, is a meditation about an evening in the country, and "Dandelions in Bullet Holes," a subtle and engaging anti-war track. Overall, it's easily the best album I've heard so far this year, bittersweet, catchy, and moving folk-rock. The only person I can think to compare her to is Dar Williams, but Harmer is infinitely less cloying and obvious, and rocks much harder.

I own every Sarah Harmer and weeping tile album ever produced. Sarah is an excellent musician, with great talent. Her songs are heartfelt and strong, and still simple and pleasing. However, All of Our Names is not my favorite of all of her releases. The songs are not as catchy, and they sound more mainstream. There is less definition and fewer differences between the individual songs than on her previous albums. To me, this makes it sound like the whole CD is one song, which I don't like. If you are looking for a mainstream-sounding adult alternative pop album, buy this CD. However, I prefer her older album, You Were Here, because the songs feel stronger and more defined. If you do not own any Sarah Harmer CDs, I would recommend first Buying You Were Here. This is still a great album and should not be missed, but it is not as good as her previous works.

Well, after falling in love with the album 'You Were Here', I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. After listening through it, I was a little dissappointed. I still think Sarah is one great singer/songwriter, but this album left me longing for something more. I agree with the review that said this album felt like one big song. She has some amazing lyrics, but musically the songs were much too similar for me. It's almost like she didn't want to strecth herself with this CD and kept to familiar themes. I guess 'You were here' will still be the album to beat.

I first heard the song "Almost" on a compilation CD from Paste magazine. It was easily the best song on the CD (which had some other great songs on it), and I found myself playing and re-playing that song in particular. It's catchy but not at all annoying; memorable and surprisingly subtle. After the tenth listen or so, I knew I'd have to have this album just to see if the rest of it was as good.

As it turns out, it's even better. The variety of songs on "All of Our Names" is in itself a good reason to buy the album, and the quality of the writing and performance is another.

On this album one finds all sorts of songs, from the catchy hooks of "Almost" and "Pendulums" to the smooth and steady "Things to Forget" to the dark "Took It All" to the slow, sad, folk sound of "Dandelions in Bullet Holes." These are not simple songs, either, but complex pieces which reveal themselves slowly, new aspects showing themselves with each hearing. "Dandelions," for example, didn't impress me much when I first heard it, but by the second or third listening it had me nearly in tears with the emotions it evoked in me. Between the variety and the complexity of the songs, the album as a whole stands up to multiple listenings remarkably well. In fact, I've had it in my CD player pretty much constantly since I got it several weeks ago, and I have yet to tire of it.

The album has a remarkable mix of sound to it, somehow very professional and deeply intimate at the same time. The songs are well-performed, flawlessly constructed, not at all overproduced, and beautifully written. The instrumentation, sometimes a full band and sometimes little more than a guitar and a cello, is powerful but never overblown, and really highlights Harmer's voice perfectly. And when it comes to her voice... well, what more can I say about her singing than I find it utterly charming and a joy to listen to. Sarah doesn't seem to feel the need to showboat her talent like many modern singers do, but the talent is obviously there. The range of emotion expressed just by the words she sings is a large part of the album's intimate sound -- it sounds like she's there in the room with you, murmuring her songs softly into your ear.

And the words she's singing so beautifully are deserving of attention themselves. It's been a long time since I heard lyrics I really appreciated just for how they flowed together, but these words did it for me. Harmer's use of lyrics is unique and often quite moving. There are some great memorable lines in most of the songs ("If I am a sailor, you are the warm Gulf wind, and you've blown into this little port and roused my dreams again" and "Holidays are made for reading, and remembering things that are worth repeating" both stand out in my mind at the moment), but what's really amazing is how they come together in the songs as a whole. Clever, observant, and emotionally honest, the words Harmer uses for each song really add to them, musically and poetically. It's rare that I'm reminded the music with lyrics is really poetry, but Sarah Harmer is truly a poet in what she writes.

I wound up buying one copy of this CD for myself, and a second one for a friend. I will sometimes recommend albums to friends, but I only rarely give them music, as one's musical choices are often such a personal thing. Sarah Harmer, however, is such a standout artist, poetically and musically, that I can't help but think that she can appeal to a great many people... and deservedly so. This is one of the best new albums I've heard in a long time, and I recommend it without reservation.

Sarah Harmer has a real knack for describing everyday scenes and emotions with a wry humor and sometimes stark realism. The backing of her band lays down unusual, sometimes sparse, sometimes thick underpinnings for the songs that make the whole thing just, ... clean and beautiful. These are songs you don't get tired of. These are songs you enjoy more, and hear more IN, each time you listen to them.

I'm a huge fan of Kathleen Edwards, and I'd still have to give her the nod because she has a bit more ability to spice up her song mix with more rocked up tunes. But this is an excellent CD. I also have "All of Our Names" and, like some other reviewers, don't understand the knocks about this one being a step down. If anything, I like this one more.

Beautiful songs, quietly observant and poingant. The melodies are simple and unfussed. A genius cd.

I could listen to Harmer's lovely voice on a Gibson guitar all day long. It leaves me with the feeling akin to having woken up from really great dream. The songs contain the perfect mix of alt country, pop and folk sensibilites. You may need all your fingers and toes to count the different directions her lyrical musing take you.

This is one of those CD's that you can listen to over and over again without getting tired of it. Great for rainy days when you just want something to relax to, nothing complicated, just solid, homespun songs. I have not heard Sarah Harmer's first CD, so I cannot compare, but will definately be checking it out soon.