Better Can't Make Your Life Better

Lilys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 10, 1996)
• Original Release Date: September 17, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Che Records
• ASIN: B000005IR9
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,591 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cambridge California

2. A Nanny in Manhattan

3. Shovel into Spade Kit

4. Elevator Is Temporary

5. Can't Make Your Life Better

6. Who Is Moving

7. Tennis System (And Its Stars)

8. Paz en el Hogar

9. Bring Up the Stamp

10. The Sammael Sea

11. Returns Every Morning

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lilys are searching for a genre here, January 20, 2001

By 

Jeffrey Jotz "You'll know him when you find him" (Rahway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Can't Make Your Life Better (Audio CD)

The Lilys burst onto the indie music scene in the early 1990s as classic shoegazers hiding behind walls of guitar chords and muddled lyrics.

As the decade rolled on, the Lilys traded their keds in for paisley shirts as they went in the direction of mid-60s psych/mod/pop, fashioning their tunes (at least on this record) right out of the Beatles' Rubber Soul days ("Cambridge California"), a 1967 Kinks single ("Who Is Moving"), or modern-day Elephant 6 band (Hear the Apples In Stereo in the CD's title track).

Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the band that they no longer have to hide their vocals and blur (pun intended here) all the catchy guitar riffs that are part of cool 60s-esque pop into another shoegazer anthem.

Better production would have made this disc a stellar record with no weak songs. Still, the positives far outweight the negatives, and I play this disc quite a bit.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't go wrong here, July 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Better Can't Make Your Life Better (Audio CD)

Consistent with the other reviews, I believe this is one of the best albums in my collection. The songs are catchy--a lot of nice hooks and melodius vocals--but complicated, giving them a long shelf life. I wouldn't say, however, that it is straight out of the 60s, but more a postmodern mix of 60s psychadelia with 90s math/prog rock. Very few bands in the 60s could write songs with such maturity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God some of us can get past staring at our shoes..., April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Better Can't Make Your Life Better (Audio CD)

Here's another hearty endorsement of said CD. Mssr. Heasley & Co. tap the same pop vein that the Brothers Davies, Arthur Lee, and others have mined in the 60's. Yet, instead of sounding like a paint-by-numbers re-take of Kinks, Love, the Who, etc., Lilys manage to crank out some divinely f**ked pop gems that seem to come from a psychotic blender. Bravo!!!