Customer Reviews

Born to Quit

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

 

 

Smoking Popes aren't the biggest band in the world, but if you have ever wonder what it would sound like to have the voice of a lounge singer backed by the guitars of a band like Weezer or Blink 182, this album is a must buy. It's one semi-hit, "Need You Around" is a beautiful example of the bands break-neck speed and soothing lullabye sounds simultaneously. A big fan of their third album, Destination Failure here, which was marketed more careful and probably more successful, I would still have the say the ten songs on this album top it by a great deal. Rubella will make you want to jump, My Lucky Day will make you want to smile, and Adena will make you want to croon along. Take a risk on the Smoking Popes and you'll wonder how you lived without them.

Even though the smoking popes are history, this cd is one of the best rock albums out there. The songs are simple but they sound really good; they get in your head stay there. I wish this band could've gotten some support from their label, then they might still be around. Oh well, there is always N SYNC.

It was 1998, I was a High School Junior in a used record store looking for a cheap Weird Al Yankovic CD. Little did I know that just behind a CD with Al looking like Coolio, I would find the most important misplaced album of the century "Born to Quit".
All I saw were the words "Smoking Popes" and I thought, "Hey, my last name is Pope, I wonder if they're funny...I wonder if we're related".
So I bought the CD, leaving Weird Al in the dust and upon hearing the opening chords of "Midnight Moon" accompanied by Josh Caterer's stellar voice, I could feel my musical horizons being busted wide open.
I had never played an instrument, but I knew at that moment that I needed to buy a guitar and learn how to play "Midnight Moon" and "I Need You Around".
I have often heard them compared to Weezer and although I am a Weezer fan, the only connection I can find is that the songs from both groups are so heartfelt and personal.
This is a truly cohesive album, with each track blending perfectly with the next. These songs are not deep by any means, and though I don't use the word often, the only way to describe the album's play list is sweet in its sincerity.
Buy this album, 'nuff said.
As a side note, it turns out I'm not related to the Caterer boys, but I am now related to Weird Al Yankovic, since my brother just married Al's cousin. Small world, it all seems to come back to that fateful day: It was 1998, I was a High School Junior...

"Born To Quit" is a power-pop masterpiece. The Smoking Popes' sound is somewhere in between the Smiths and They Might Be Giants...in fact, Morrissey has given them a ringing endorsement of "my favorite American band". Buy this album ASAP, and see what he's talking about.

Teen-age love angst with a peculiar feminist slant from three brothers?, cousins?, with the same last name of Caterer and a drummer who make up the disbanded but fondly remembered 'Smoking Popes'. This is breezy power pop with a dominating lead guitar, a little like 'The Smiths' or 'Talking Heads', but without the psyche hangover of pent up emotion. Singer and lyricist Josh Caterer clearly wants something but is it the girl or just the girl's dress? His quest for love's renewal is so insistant, he sounds on the verge of becoming the woman he wants. "Just Broke Up" and "Need You Around" are great radio songs, if only there was a radio station that would play them.

Great, short, heartfelt lovesongs sung in a style that can be best described as Frank Sinatra being backed by the Sex Pistols

Read this while reading Richard Craze's The Voice of Tobacco and have a ball - great CD, great book.

The Smoking Popes made nary a dent in the music world, but at least they brought something fresh to the table. Fuzzy guitars and punk rock tempos backed the lounge-lizard stylings of vocalist Josh Caterer and his nostalgic, matinee-era vignettes about the trials and tribulations of good ol' fashioned love. Upon hearing his vocal stylings, you'd think the guy transported through time from the 1940s, only then to log hours on end at Punk U feverishly studying the Ramones and Buzzcocks.

"Rubella," "Gotta Know Right Now," and "Need You Around" paint a picture of youthful, starstruck, obsession and longing. While sincere and snappy, these tunes also hint at an underlying insecurity and awkwardness indicating that the distance between the parties in question is likely farther than it seems. Regardless, the music chugs along, shimmering at times, with rather convincing Cheap Trick-style guitar solos abound. Themeatically, the album becomes a bit monotonous, and with such a brief set, that is definitely an offense worth noting. Some songs fall rather flat along the way, with "Can't Help the Teardrops from Getting Cried" being a particularly cringe-inducing mis-step. Although slightly less than stellar, this album does provide a delightful ride in which one can drop the top, crank the radio, and reminesce of that high school crush that you never could quite manage to catch up to.

Ok, I know that terms such as "Greatest album ever" and "Greatest band ever" etc are constantly thrown around by people who think they know everything about music. But THIS album, and THIS band are the real deal.
I first heard of them when my sister had the "Clueless" soundtrack. I couldn't believe what I heard! At that point, I was a junior in high school and had been playing in several bands. I really had no idea of what I wanted any of the bands to sound like. Were we grunge? Were we alternative? Were we metal?
My best friend and I were always into cheesy pop love songs. We were huge Sinatra fans, huge Lionel Richie fans, but at the same time, we were children of the '80s. We loved loud, distorted guitars and up-tempo paced songs. So when we played in our bands, we never really had any kind of identity.
The first time I heard "Need You Around" coming from my sister's bedroom, I ran in there and found out who they were, and immediately tried to find out everything I could about them. You have to remember, this was the mid-90s, just before the internet boom. Info on the Popes wasn't easy to find.
I was able to locate the CD (I had to special order it from our local store) and it changed my life. This was it! This was the sound that I had been searching for and trying to imagine. Loud guitars, catchy riffs and most of all, heart-wrenching lyrics of lament sung by Josh Caterer's smooth neo-crooner voice. The production was amazing as well. Nothing sounded too loud or trebly.
I listened to that CD non-stop for literally 2 years. I still listen to songs from the album at least once a week. It is still my standard of what a perfect album should sound like.
Over the years, I've turned dozens of people on to this album (and the Popes in general) and I've always had the same response. "Why the hell have I never heard of these guys?", they always say. "This is amazing!" So, like I said, any true music fan must own this album.

I bought this cd as a replacement. I loaned my first one to a friend and never saw it again. It is a very different kind of sound. The main singer has a crooner sounding voice (like a Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra) which complements perfectly with their alternative rock sound. My favorite songs are "Midnight Moon", "Rubella", and "Need You Around". This cd is very different from any other cd I own. I bought it used and the condition was great, exactly as described.