Blurry Blue Mountain

Giant Sand | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 23, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fire UK
• ASIN: B00428OHE6
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,927 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars up and on down the line, December 22, 2010

By 

gonzobrarian - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Blurry Blue Mountain (Audio CD)

Another album and another winner, whatever musical incarnation Howe Gelb currently resides within. Giant Sand just keeps on truckin', and with Blurry Blue Mountain Gelb and Co. have produced an album that's surprisingly superlative.

Though firmly rooted in the band's crispy Arizona desert sound, Gelb keeps pushing on from the edges of finality, seamlessly integrating his often brooding voice, often jarring guitar with a thoughtful and introspective piano tune. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard an alt-country release that's so heavily influenced by the jazz of Thelonius Monk, though still retaining a cohesive feel up and on down the line, as Gelb would murmur.

The record begins an introspection, an aging persona almost casually contemplating not only the loss of his heroes more importantly the mystery of its suddenness. The feeling of loss is pervasive, saved only by the tiny diamond discovered by his beloved who sees it as him, he a self-described chunk of coal.

Finding this tiny bit of redemption, the record picks up its emotional momentum, as the narrator regains his mojo from such disparate legends and influences as Thelonius Monk and the Molly Maguires, perhaps not so incidentally retracing Gelb's own footsteps "from the Pennsylvania coal to the Arizona copper sun". What follows is the narrator's newly found identity, a crafty, cheeky though contemplative musical self-sacrifice, which pays off handsomely. Listen closely enough and you might find a story cycle hidden just beneath the dust alongside the rail tracks.

The tracks are tight as a drum, with little deviation. Fields of Green, Chunk of Coal, Ride the Rail, Erosion, Love a Loser, and Love Letters (bonus song) are the big standouts. As usual, the guitar work, piano and percussion is dustily immaculate, if a bit too subtle at times. And like Marie Frank in previous GS works, Lonna Kelly provides provides some real sultry shivers on several tracks, nicely complementing Gelb's droll. The problem is that Gelb is musically understated and/or too tongue-in-cheek, so one typically has to turn the volume up to get a better overall feel. If anything, Blurry Blue Mountain is a grand upstanding album, while at the same time just another another teaser for Gelb's future experimentation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vinyl LP Sonics, August 15, 2011

By 

audiofan (Okla. City, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blurry Blue Mountain (Vinyl)

If you're reading this, you probably know the music of Howe Gelb and his band, Giant Sand. Since others have done such a great job of dispensing info on the "CD review" section, I will dedicate this to the vinyl LP's sonic attributes only. Which, I'll admit, you're going to pay a premium for (what else is new).
First, the good news - this import album is pressed on 120-gram blue vinyl and is a sonic delight in every way. The music, which is very well-recorded & mastered (we're in "demo disc" territory here), emerges from a silent, totally black background and seems to "hang" in the air between the speakers. The soundstage is such that it hangs outside of them, too, and front-to-back depth is impressive as well. Detail retrieval, dynamic contrasts/impact, tonal accuracy, and that impossible-to-describe feeling of musical "rightness" that a well-balanced analog system imparts are all here in spades. Quality control at Fire Records seems to be very high; all four titles I have purchased sound flawless, with no ticks, pops, or surface noise of any kind. In short, this is an album that (all things being equal) rewards the LISTENER...and lets you really appreciate the silence between the notes. The only spanner in the works is the price; the CD, which I haven't heard, may sound pretty good as well...and it's less than half what the LP will run you. But let's face it, the compact disc IS digital...and even very good digital simply won't give you the warmth & "air" of vinyl done right, and there's an end to it. So choose your side, kiddies, and whichever you fancy, please support bands like Giant Sand. They are the last stand against the corporate murk that threatens to bury us all.

4.0 out of 5 stars hitting the right notes like thelonious monk, August 31, 2011

By 

Peter Sanderson "Peter 'Pan' Sanderson" (Doha, Qatar) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blurry Blue Mountain (Audio CD)

This sandworm doesn't surface often enough! "Monk's Mountain" is 7 and a half minutes of boozy, swaggering bliss. Gelb at his best.