Customer Reviews

Bad Timing

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this after I got Eureka, and had no clue what to expect. Boy, was I floored. The guitar playing is very good but most of all, extremely catchy and smooth. The change in dynamics (whether it is adding another guitar track or just slamming on distortion accidentally) is quite welcoming and plays into the whole album nicely. The pedal steel fits in so well with just about anything this guy writes, and to be honest with you, I'm yet to find a song of his I dislike! 93 The Long Way (Track 2) is an opus of teasing acoustic riffs with the pedal steel filling in the blanks nicely. Whether you're a die-hard Jim O'Rourke/Gastr Del Sol fan, looking for some quality cross-country driving music, or your just looking for some really really REALLY good porch music, go for it! You will not be disappointed.

It seems Mr. O'Rourke puts out two different kinds of albums. There are the ones like Happy Days and that thing that he did with Sonic Youth that sounds like he turned his guitar all the way up, leaned it against his amp to get some nice stable feedback going, and pushed record. Then there are albums like Bad Timing. Bad Timing is one of the dopest albums. It is mainly acoustic guitar picking, in the vein of John Fahey, with some modern additives. He does a wonderful job constructed peaceful, smooth, unbelievable songs with his guitar. This album is perfect for a calm day, when your doing nothing, sitting on your porch, watching the wind blow the dust around.

I can never just go out and buy a jim O'Rourke record anymore. You gotta go do your research to make sure he actually picks up the guitar. And on Bad Timing, he does it brilliantly.

Jim O'Rourke proves once again his mastery of the simplistic. Following closely in the steps of christmas-loving folk-legend John Fahey, O'Rourke crafts 12 minute long epics using only the most simplistic musical building blocks. A heaping teaspoon of "down-home"-style guitar, a pinch of trombone here and there, throw in some piano, drums, and bass to taste. Slowly mix ingredients, layer, and bake to crispy golden perfection. O'Rourke creates the perfect blend of provincial "twang" and musical taste and talent. As the album progresses, one comes to the realization that every note is perfectly placed: everything starts, stops, and flows exactly as it was meant to, with no mistakes and no misplaced or misspent ideas.

Very chill relaxing music from the song bad timing to the lovely theres hell in hello, but more in goodbye. very light free spirited music that will leave you in a trance weeks after listening to it. well done.

I personally think this is Jim O'Rourke's tribute to John Fahey. Many trademark elements of Fahey are present here, re-enacted lovingly like a southern sympathizer might re-enact their favorite civil war battle. There is the classic Fahey bounce in Jim's fingerpicking style, more so here than anyhwere else. There is the meandering contemplative river of acoustic guitar, occasionally stopping to breathe and cleanse the aural palette, just as Fahey often did in his longer pieces (by strumming a few loose open chords before launching into the next passage). There is the parade music that abruptly shows up at the end of "94 the long way", which has got to be a nod to Fahey's tape experiments, most prevalent on releases like "Requia and other works", where parade sounds and crowd noise are faded in and out of the mix over four tracks. Like any good tribute, Jim doesn't re-enact Fahey by rote, but nevertheless manages to both capture Fahey and express his obvious love for him as an artist. Perhaps the title "Bad Timing" is a reference to the fact that Fahey was so far ahead of his time. Of course, thats just a guess.

This album is best listened to either in the early morning or later in the evening....it makes more sense then than it might in the middle of the day.

Simply one of the best , best composed, best arranged, best played ... albums .. I have in my collection (2700 vinyls and barely 600 CDs).

You should listen to Bad Timing and then you won't avoid to have it. Don't miss Eureka ... it is another must.

Ezio

this is an album i just happened to wander up to, thanks to a friend i worked with at a cybercafe in th' ATL in the 90's. i just recently rediscovered the cassette i had made of the LP version this friend loaned me. (my new-to-me used ferd F-150 has a casette deck in it.) this is an absolutely amazing work. yes, the john fahey comparisons are vital to explain how this sounds. (if you don't know john fahey, you should!) yes, it's also very the post-whatever adjective one uses to describe music like what tortoise makes. (thankfully no marimba or vibes here!) but more than that, the other reviewers seemed to miss something i caught. i often use the word "wistful" to describe music but never use the word, "joyous" EVER! and never together. these pieces of untitled tunes are both by turns. two of the tunes are purely john fahey inspired ("wistful" which to me means "sad but happy anyway/resigned"???) the other two untitled tunes, not these are another thing altogether. they start out fahey and "wistful", but in one track it slowly adds some wonderful horn stuff that takes us right up to "joyous" then slowly takes us down to "wistful" again. the last track starts as fahey/wistful but then SUDDENLY! danny davis and the nashville brass STOMP thru the studio, then immediately, leave. now, not many hipsters/youngsters are going to know that reference, but i am positive that me and jim o' rourke are similarly aged and our parents had similar record collections. the nashville brass were a record label confection that were equally muzak and "country cosmoplitan". we're talking american cheese here! and somehow, not fake-up but merely "joyous". FUN, even. (it makes me smile!!!) the drum solo (hip hop-lite from the guy from tortoise) only adds to the abrupt discontunity. i HATED the artwork on this LP - a muddy disco ball as painted by some amateur - made no sense to me until i heard the record. BUY THIS!!! you will not be disappointed, if you managed to get this far.

maybe one day, he will do something with a herb alpert influence.

Like a fine whisky, distilled from ingredients culled by bandits, smugglers, thieves and vagrants, Bad Timing emerges from Jim O'Rourke's sonic palette. The trilogy commencing with "94 the Long Way" is both a treatise in tape-splicing and a profound exercise in the melancholy of the non-amplified guitar (though there is some amplified slide in the final movement). Hear it in its entirety on Scaredcat Radio ...or buy it on Amazon, but don't miss out on this classic.

too bad previous reviewer doesnt get it all.
youre right that album is great! but so are the others
relax and let it come at you side ways. the man is a mad professor.

i LOVE jim, but its NOT becauase of this albulm. its great.. but a bit stagnant.