Beautiful Midnight [Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics]

Matthew Good Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 30, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Atlantic
• ASIN: B000056K2S
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,705 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. 05:00 P.M. Giant

2. Hello Time Bomb

3. 07:00 P.M. Strange Days

4. 08:00 P.M. I Miss New Wave

5. 09:00 P.M. Load Me Up

6. 10:00 P.M. Failing the Rorschach Test

7. 11:00 P.M. Suburbia

8. 12:00 A.M. Let's Get It On

9. 01:00 A.M. Jenni's Song

10. A Boy And His __________

11. 03:00 A.M. A Boy and His Machine Gun

12. 04:00 A.M. The Future Is X-Rated

13. 05:00 A.M. Born to Kill

14. Sun Up Running for Home

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Canada's best, February 2, 2001

By 

Steve Gold - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beautiful Midnight (Audio CD)

This is one of the few cds that I still listen to, more than a year after the initial purchase. That says a lot. There's an incredible depth to this album that makes it difficult to appreciate at first, but then impossible to become tired of. Rock is very tired lately, and I'm afraid this album is going to bomb stateside. I mean, c'mon. Britney Spears and Limp Bizkit rule the scene down there; I don't think there's room for the intelligent, passionate, sometimes subtle music of the Matthew Good Band.

This is not to insult Americans -- it's just a simple fact that good music isn't widely appreciated, anywhere. Even in Canada, Matt Good plays second fiddle to Our Lady Peace, who are, granted, a great band, but one that lacks the solid, creative vision of Matt Good.

It's hard not to love this band, and this cd. There are simple, thrashing rockers (Load Me Up, Everything is Automatic), spare, melancholy songs (I Miss New Wave -- unfortunately not on the American version), lyrically frustrated, desperate, and passionate tunes (Failing the Rorschach Test, A Boy and His Machine Gun) and then moments of sheer musical brilliance (Suburbia). The band throughout shows an incredible range of texture and sound, but there is a totality and wholeness to this cd that I haven't come across anywhere else. I think some of that might be lost with the American version, because some songs have been removed, and some hits from Underdogs (1997) have been slipped in. The added songs are great, but don't fit in with Beautiful Midnight as a whole. This shouldn't discourage you from getting this disc, however.

There are very few rock bands out there that can put together a solid album, nevermind one that as deceptively complicated, powerful, lyrically brilliant, and human as this one. This isn't some rap-rock 40 minute static-fest with one or two decent, radio-friendly songs. Heck, some of the best songs here would never make it to radio. This disc is a complete work, which can only be appreciated as a whole.

This band doesn't exist single-to-single. They make great videos, but aren't based on an image. Each album is a progression, an improvement from the last; they seem bent on creating the perfect rock record, and with this they've just about done it. I can't wait until the spring, when The Audio of Being is released in Canada -- I want to hear what an album better than Beautiful Midnight sounds like.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Escape from the barren wasteland of American Radio Music, April 20, 2001

By 

Martin P. McCarthy (North Chili, New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beautiful Midnight (Audio CD)

It is a shame that the Matthew Good Band serves as just one example of the idiotic choices or alternatives thrust upon the American radio listener. To echo another review, "Limp Bizkit or Britney Spears." Not much of a choice, I'd say. I wonder what acts of bad karma Americans committed to suffer the fate of being able to interchange the lyrics of Third Eye Blind's "Semi-charmed life" with its song "Jumper" while Canadians are treated to the likes of the Matthew Good Band.

To say this album is solid would be an understatement. This album will knock your socks off. I have mixed emotions about the American release - it has most of the best from Underdogs (minus "Rico" as another reviewer pointed out) and does yield "domestically" MGB's gem "Apparitions," the American version DOES suffer from the subtractions that appear on the Canadian version - "Let's Get it On" (credit going to the same reviewer making the "Rico" observation) is arguably one of the best songs on the disc. "Going All the Way" is a huge loss. Also, the subtraction of "I Miss New Wave" as song #4 deprives those unfamiliar with MGB of seeing the Band's talent at juxtaposition. In many ways, the Canadian release does not proceed track by track but rather movement by movement.

It has been said before, but I will say it again, "Running for Home" is a beautiful song - I was astonished (though I should have known better) to hear this song at the end of "Beautiful Midnight." After listening to the entire album, it was the last thing I thought I would hear - and perhaps, the only thing I should have expected after MGB pulled out all the stops on the first 13 songs.

Some reviews and reviewers for other bands (the crappy ones) have a threshold test to buy an album - "If this album has 2 GREAT songs, buy it... or 4 GREAT..." This album has 13 great songs so I guess that means you should buy it twice - or better yet, buy the import Canadian release (sorry, if I were deleting songs from the Canadian release, I would have left in "Let's Get it On" and deleted "A Boy and His Machine Gun.").

Incidentally, the "explicit lyrics" label is a sham since I have heard FAR WORSE in terms of explicit lyrics on an album that carried no disclaimer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Matt Writes What I Think So I Don't Have To, November 13, 2001

By 

Rachel Emmer (Bakersfield, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beautiful Midnight (Audio CD)

All I can say is Wow about this album. Tracks like "Apparitions", "Suburbia", and "Strange Days" fill in your moody side while "Hello Time Bomb" and "Load Me Up" help you through your angry moments. "Running For Home" is almost not even a song, it's rather just a pure emotion injected into your mind. The piano accompaniment makes that track a masterpiece. In a time where music is a big black hole of soulless pop and meaningless rock, Matthew Good Band comes in to save the day. The guy is a song-writing master, and everyone should be thankful that he decided to be in a band instead of being a history teacher. The hyperCD feature is a plus which allows you access special stuff on your computer. The only drawback is the fact that the version of the CD released in the US lost some of it's original Canadian tracks and were instead replaced with "Apparitions" "Deep Six" and "Everything is Automatic" from Underdogs. While they are definitely good songs, it detracts from the overall product of what was supposed to be a concept album. (That's the single reason why I gave this four stars instead of five.) I still emphatically push Beautiful Midnight for anyone who likes music with substance. Being that I don't have a car, I walk around town a lot. This album is practically permanently cemented to my Discman for when I'm walking around. I steal lines from their songs and write them on the walls of my room. I used to think the best band to come from Canada was the Barenaked Ladies, but Matthew Good Band is presenting BNL with some serious competition. Go buy this album! Now!