Customer Reviews

Boomtown

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Baerwald and David Ricketts seemed to appear from thin air in 1987 with their victorious debut titled Boomtown. The album depicts the hopeless struggle of two close friends to overcome their obstacles and reach their goal; which is, complete an artistic work of tender and stirring compositions. Plagued by alcohol and drugs (Swallowed By The Cracks, A Rock For The Forgotten), and bending under the burdens of daily existence (Being Alone Together), David & David delayed their ambitions. Failed relationships also enter the picture: `Ain't So Easy' pits affection against possession, and earthly pleasure temporally cures the trials of survival in `All Alone In The Big City.' The only optimistic cut is the final `Heroes' where David & David vow to bury their past failures, and concentrate on the venture ahead. The result is the majestic Boomtown.

Musically, Boomtown is sensuous and intense. Their ability to create dramatic compositions (Welcome To The Boomtown, River's Gonna Rise, All Alone In The Big City) is superb .These cuts bring to mind the percussive rhythms of Peter Gabriel and the romantic sheen of Roxy Music's Avalon. The CD is produced by Davitt Sigerson who also worked with and The Bangles and Tori Amos. Boomtown is a triumph - the stunning surprise of 1987.

I first heard "Boomtown" on a local College station in Bloomington Indiana. I was hooked and picked it up that same day.
What a shame they never went past the one album.I have what is available of David Baerwald and it also is very good.But Boomtown
is by far one of the best I have ever owned.Strong lyrics ,catchy
melodies, and instrumentally tight.A must have for any solid music collection.My 18 year old son has a copy and plays it on a
regular basis and rates it one of his favorites.Pick it up and I
promise you it will be in heavy rotation on your system.

As most that have listened to this album will agree, it is a must. To follow suit with the rest of the reviews, I too heard Boomtown on a small college radio station, late at night, and had to know who they were. After walking accross campus and talking with the DJ of the station, and begging for another cut, I had my prize, a bootleg copy. That was in 1986 at Humboldt State University, and I still have the album fourteen years later (now on CD). The music that these two have made, I feel, still stands up with some of the best of today. Give it a listen, and you will have found one of those rare albums that is good all the way through.

I first picked up this album after hearing Boomtown on a college station. What followed was a ten year love affair with this disc. I'm on my third one, listen to it all the time and I'm still amazed that it never made more waves. Bedtime Stories followed up and left me wanting more. With the release of Triage I got it and more. These three albums should be in every rock lovers collection.

The 1980s were often described as "the ME decade"--an era characterized by materialism, self-indulgence, and self-satisfaction. Popular music of the decade tended toward heavy synthesizers, dance-friendly beats, and concert appeal, with such acts as Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson dominating the charts with slick, glossy, and sexy pop. But in 1987 David Baerwald and David Ricketts took a musical look beneath the veneer at the underbelly of greed, drugs, and alienation that fueled the day. BOOMTOWN would be their only recording together, but they needed only one: it is a masterpiece.

The three opening selections are typical: languid, sultry vocals are accompanied by crisp yet senusous instrumentals in which undercurrent guitars mix with a touch of synthesizer and remarkably strong percussion--and which present tales of self-destruction, disillusionment, failure, and internal pain. "Welcome to the Boomtown," which actually made a hit as a single, sketches portraits of drug dealers with wry humor and deep cynicism; "Swallowed by the Cracks" presents three friends whose youthful dreams are crushed by reality; and "Ain't So Easy" gives us a man attempting to convince his woman to remain after he has beaten her. The material remains dark and laced with cynical humor as it continues, referencing everything from loveless marriage to social collapse, and then ends on a faintly optimistic yet distinctly gray note: "Heroes" seems to imply that the only escape is a complete walking away from the values that create such situations, but it offers no clear idea of what other options might be available.

The lyrics tend to play against the surface smooth of the music, creating ambiguities and juxtapositions quite unlike those found in most other recordings. David & David were clearly influenced by the likes of Roxy Music in the liquidity of their vocals and Lou Reed in the unexpected nature of their lyrics, but the way in which they combine the two are unique. Few, if any, have mined the same material and styles to such tremendous effect--and although BOOMTOWN is distinctly of 1987, it also transcends 1987 without the faintest show of strain; it is as musically accomplished as ever and in terms of material as topical and relevant as it was twenty years ago. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is so overlooked by so many people. I as a rule don't feel many artists deserve 5 stars but this is one of my favorites, and in my humble opinion deserves it- period. You can not only feel the passion in their music but the message speaks quite clearly. I only wish there was more. I did not know (until I read the reviews here) that they hated each other, you would never know that. This is really a great album---check it out!

Not many artists could record an album full of songs on these topics and actually pull it off in spades. Lead singer/lyricist David Baerwald has a dark, twisted sense of humor enlivened with just the right amount of compassion. "Welcome To The Boomtown" is a perfect example: the verses sketch the lives of two drug addicts, supposedly leading up to a romantic encounter. Then the punch line comes in- "Well the ambulance arrived too late. I guess she didn't want to wait." Baerwald has incredible range as a singer. Listen to "Swimming In The Ocean," where he shifts effortlessly from an eerie falsetto in the verses to a deep, almost comic tone in the bridge. The music is more than up to the challenge of backing him up. It never panders to the listener. Every hook has a rough edge - you'll never forget the menacing piano riff of "All Alone In The Big City." A few tracks aren't up to the standard of the rest ("River's Gonna Rise", "Heroes"), but that's a minor quibble. Also keep an eye out for David Baerwald's first solo album, "Bedtime Stories," a slightly more optimistic outing.

This is great stuff. I got their album when it originally came out and loved it. I recently got the CD and love it even more. Upbeat, downbeat, creative, clean recording, snappy, brainy, feeling and more. Somewhat "classic rock" with a hint of "top 40". This album still holds its own. Highly recommended.

David Rickets and David Baerwald--what a fruitful pairing of like-minded cynical musical geniuses. This is a fantastic recording, and the more-than-casual listener will want to track down David Baerwald's out-of-print solo efforts as well. Those albums, "Bedtime Stories" and "Triage," along with "Boomtown," make up 30% of my own personal top ten list. Also up there on my list are Kevin Gilbert's "Thud," and Sheryl Crow's "Tuesday Night Music Club." Both of which have solid ties to David & David. This album is fantastic and should be a part of the collection for any lover of excellent rock/pop/folk music.

When this album came out, I worked at a computer graphic company. There were 5 of us, 4 guys and one girl, all young and all stereotypic of the time. This cassette was in the boombox in the office and we wore it out over the course of the next year. Every evening after work was spent in the local bar, recounting the day. When the company went under we all were blown to disperate places on the map, some of us surviving, some of us getting dragged under. This album pretty much fits that story well and when I hear it I am taken back to those days of young cameraderie.

If you'll notice, the reviews here are mostly by men. The reason is simply that this is the quentessential "guy rock" album. It's for lone wolves and troubled times... basically a soundtrack for any man struggling with demons and hoping for better times. It plays much like a great movie is watched and will stick with you for a long time.