Customer Reviews

Blue Moods of Spain

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remain astonished at the intensity of this album and I must have played it hundreds of times. From the opening bars of 'It's so True' thro to the final chorus of 'Spiritual' (no one ever prayed like THIS before), the musicianship and underplayed lyrics convey a raw tortured beauty which I last experienced listening to Jeff Buckley's live shows. It rubs shoulders with Miles' 'Kind of Blue', Jeff's 'Grace', Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon' and Will Oldham's 'I see a Darkness'. Music to sit down and actually LISTEN to. Wonderful stuff !

The Blue Moods of Spain is one of the best albums I own, certainly when you narrow my collection down to the 90s. The title says it all really, and it differs from She haunts my dreams because this album is slower and even more melancholic than the second one. Spain is one of those bands who can't be expected to be successful with singles. You have to listen to the whole cd or not at all. Josh Haden is terrific on bass and vocals and all melodies are unforgettably beautiful. My personal favorites are I lied, Untitled #1, Ray of light, Spiritual and Ten nights. This album is not of this world.

Whatever your taste of music is, this album is a treat. For those who are consciously malancholic or those who indulge themselves in the emotional side of themselves once in a whille. This is terrific stuff!!

I bought this after I fell in love with their second CD, She haunts my dreams. This is also good, but the lyrics are not up to the same level and the song doesn't fit as well. The music is god but has also improved from the first CD to the second CD. If you want to try their music you should start out with the second album. If you love it you will probably like this one much also.

Rumours have that they will start record their third album in April 2000. I look forward to it with great antisipation.

Do you need a musical expression for your blues? This is it! Does the cruelty and hoplessness of the world make you melancholic? This might not help, but it's excellent for tears, self-pity or just candlelights. The music is soft, velvety and dark. It's kind of a Nick Cave meets Chet Baker. There's a lot of slow piano and the misty vocals. It's definetly blue, but maybe just a bit too slow.

Slow, smooth, sultry - these are apt adjectives to describe the music in this CD. When I first came across it several years ago, I couldn't decide whether I was attracted by the special "mood" or repelled by the mannerism. With repeated listenings, I have to conclude that I love it. Call me bad taste if you want, but the music is really enjoyable!

Imagine Nick Drake teamed up with Wes Mongommery. That might give you a vauge idea of what Spain sound like.

Don't take this concept to litterally. The guitar player in Spain does not emphasize solos, and the singer does not sound exactly like Nick Drake. Yet, this is jazzy, smokey music with understaded vocals. It is quiet and contemplative, yet informed by the blues. It is also atmospheric, without ever losing the importance of the songs.

Both the writting and playing are excellent, if understated. Give it a chance, because it is subtle, but has a lot of subtance, and will grow on you if you live with it for awhile.

In 1996, while driving my car, I heard one fragment of a Spain song on the radio. It was slow, beautiful and melancholic. The song was "Untitled #1", and it piqued my interest about a band I had never even heard of. I remembered it the next time I was at the record store, and decided to take a chance on it, based on that one song, and the album art for "The Blue Moods of Spain". Four years later it is still one of my all time favorite albums. It simply just grows on you. It is the perfect music for after dark, an antidote for whatever you need it to be. The slow, spare sounds this band creates is magically hypnotic. A truly rare find.

The follow up album is very good also, although "The Blue Moods of Spain" still remains my favorite.

I LOVE Spain. I think the simplicity of the lyrics, and the hushed delivery can make you laugh. But that is one of the things I think is cool about their music, ultimately. The music is beutiful without being showy, and I think more beautiful for its seeming simple-ness (there is a lot more to the music, when you really listen). I was listening to Iron and Wine, and how his singing is a big big turnoff, because it sounds so affected, and his songs -which aren't anything special, really- suffer for how he sings them. Then I thought, it -that hushed delivery- works so well for Spain. I also think I Lied is a really funny song, lyrically, and a head-bobber musically. Just wanted to praise them.

As Jimi Hendrix once said, "Just gimmie a little bit of that Spanish castle magic!" Here we have the debut album from the masters of West Coast noir. These boys may like NYC and Europe, but the inescapable fact is that the music on this CD is tainted with the sultry romanticism of the Pacific Rim. Only on later releases would their sound become overly genial (ah, to be a critic!). The musicianship is clean, however sparse, and the blue mood is at times entrancing. The song "World of Blue", for example, is very relaxing.