Customer Reviews

Built to Last (Dig)

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BUILT TO LAST is the Grateful Dead's last album and they finish their recording career with a pretty boring album. The song, "Foolish Heart," got most of the radio attention and is the most often included song in their concert repetoire. However, that song alone is not worth the price of the album. There are plenty of other great Grateful Dead albums, AMERICAN BEAUTY, WORKINGMAN'S DEAD, MARS HOTEL, and IN THE DARK plus a number of fine live albums are much better choices.

This album is for completists and Deadheads only and for them, it will take up shelf space more than ever becoming a staple in the CD player.

It's more then apparent from the reviews of this album that this album is considered a low point in regards in the Grateful Dead's long career. Sadly it's also the end of their career but I really don't agree this was a bad way to go out.Now I'll start out by saying I am no "deadhead";I have never followed a group around live-never had the time or inclination to do so.And frankly from what I've heard I tend to go more for the bands funkier,jazzier 70's music such as Blues for Allah and my favorite Shakedown Street. So I came to this album with little to go on.And I wasn't disappointed.Considering how bland most late 80's-90's pop/rock could be this album actually seems to have plenty of heart in it. It's no mistake that the leadoff song and big single is called "Foolish Heart";funny that the Dead were always so openly anti-commercialism and in the end of their career they started getting hit singles. It's definately in the 80's rock genre-slick,mildly chilly in tone and with some,in this case tasteful synthesized backrounds.That is also the general tone your going to get on "Just A Little Light",the title song and "Standing On The Moon"."Blow Away","Standing On The Moon" and "Picasso Moon" turn out to be pretty touch rockers-the contemporary influence of Dire Straits and period Springsteen are in play but the presense of implied social commentary and moralizing on the latter two songs make it clear your firmly in Dead country with this music.I suppose most people who enjoy the Grateful Dead of the past will find what they're looking for on "Victim Or The Crime",a longish,slightly creepy piece of psychedelia that makes it clear that the band would never truly abandon the music that originally made them famous. The album ends with a a sweet lullaby in "I Will Take You Home".Even if this album finds Jerry Garcia's then mildly strainded singing near it's limit at times and the production is far from 100% organic in nature this is an album with a lot of strengh and a lot of treasures.The band could've actually lived off their tour revenues at this point and NEVER have to record again-and still give free performances occasionally. But at least they gave us one last album that was really good all things considered-featuring the strong writing and the jazzy,bluesy R&B heart at the core of the music. Even if the band has always been stereotyped as the original jam band before Dave Mathews and Blues Traveller the band could be excellent pop tunesmiths on their studio albums. And even at this very late date this finale to the bands career demonstrates that for all who hear.

I used to have this album, and I wrote it off in the beginning as it was the Dead's attempt to go commercial. I know that after 20 odd years of being together, and having a surprise hit with the "In The Dark" album made them get stars in their eyes, and now they wanted to follow it up with an even bigger hit. However, this was not to be as the Dead tried to get a slick production on this album, and it still sounded 10 years out of date. It sounded like circa "Terripan Station", or "Shakedown Street". Plus Jerry's vocals are weak sounding on this album. Let's face it; the man had been smoking cigarettes, doing hard drugs, and bad diet these things do add up after awhile. As I said I wrote it off in the beginning(1989), but one night in 1993 I was out at a resturant with my family, and in the background music they played the title cut, and from that point on it's become one of my 5 favorite Dead tunes. The rest of the album has it's moments, but it just doesn't quite cut it in the end. Until the surviving Dead release a new album(Jerry died in 1995, and Phil Lesh turns 70 next year)this is the last recording we have of the Dead.

I too ordered this CD and it contains the wrong music on the CD. The packaging was all Grateful Dead like all of the other Rhino releases, but the music is what sounds like a John Williams score for a movie. Someone on the reviews here said it was Harry Potter -- but I wouldn't know. Anyway, I am disappointed because since I opened it and played it, I can't return it. We've contacted Rhino about the problem with the disc. I don't know if this is a bad thing seeing how everyone hated the Grateful Dead album. At least have a good sounding John Williams score in it's place. I just wonder how many people this mishap has affected. Amazon wouldn't have known about it, when they sold it. It looks like it should be what it's supposed to be. Rhino is the company that screwed up this one. If it had been any other Grateful Dead album I might not find this as funny. Beware ordering this title until Rhino comes out with a press release stating that all the cds have the correct music on them.

I just received this Grateful Dead "Built To Last" Digipac CD from Rhino and was very surprised at what I got. Never in all the years I have been a CD buyer have I ever experienced such a blatant quality control issue as this. The CD packaging was the usual high quality packaging you would expect from Rhino. Even the disc itself is professionally screened printed with the Built To Last title. However, they put the Grateful Dead/Built To Last screen print on top of a John Williams "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" soundtrack album! Like I said, never have I seen this kind of mistake before!

With "Built to Last," the Grateful Dead give their fans the ultimate gift. . . . an album so mediocre that even the most enthusiastic fan would be thankful that there would be no more to come. This is the Dead's final trip to the studio. Had they called it a day after "In the Dark," many may have been left wondering what would have followed. Now that the Dead had a certified hit record, how would they follow it up? Rather than leave fans imagining great albums of the future (not that "In the Dark" was any masterpiece, in my opinion), they deliver "Built to Last," demonstrating that the long, strange trip was over indeed.

This album documents a mature period in the band's writing and performing career, and the four Brent Mydland tracks are quite different in their sound and style from the Weir and Garcia songs that most people associate with the sound of The Grateful Dead. "Foolish Heart" and "Built to Last" are decent Hunter/Garcia compositions that fit comfortably into their live sets of the '90s (but both are FAR better performed live). My personal favorite is the slow and passionate "Standing on the Moon" from Hunter/Garcia, but Bob Weir's "Victim or the Crime" is also a standout piece. Brent Mydland's "Just a Little Light" and his deeply personal lullaby "I Will Take You Home" are showcases of his writing and singing abilities, and all of his songs offer the band some good chances to explore some musical ideas that take them places they hadn't already gone before. This may not be a good "first" Grateful Dead album for people who are not familiar with the band, but it is nonetheless a fine bit of music-making from a truly unique bunch of musicians.