Customer Reviews

The Cage

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

 

 

I actually ran across Dirt Poor Robins while trying to find out who the genius behind the band "No More Kings" was. NMK frontman Pete Mitchell cited Neil Robins as co-author, band mate and producer of those awesome tracks, so I decided to download "The Cage."

The music on "The Cage" is varied in style and there is something that everyone will love(Unless you only like Reggae Death Metal). The ballads are great and the rockers rock like a rocker should. You'll find all sorts of great instrumentation on the album, everything from strings to pianos to guitars of every color. Neil is a masterful guitar player and there is great fret-work all over the CD - the solo on Great Vacation is particularly tasteful (and hooky) and the clean delayed tone on Love Again fits the song perfectly. Rise Up is well done and has a great heavy riff that could hold it's own against Dream Theater or Zakk Wylde or any other band for that matter.

The writing is excellent and the vocals are shared between Neil and Kate Robins (and what might be Pete Mitchell at times). Kate's vocals are strong and remind me of Evanescence a bit. The production is great and each song is nicely complimented by the right instruments, right mix and right effects. The cover of Eleanor Rigby is great and there is a sweet little guitar vamp that comes in right off the top that really makes the song for me.

It's only 9 bucks, give it a try, you'll like it. And you'll like it more on the second listen and more on the third....

The great standouts for this album are Eleanor Rigby and Great Vacation. The rest feels a little blase, with uninspired music and a talented vocalist that seems to spend far too much time going from whispery, weepy lows to soaring highs (very much like Amy Lee from Evanesence in this respect, as other reviewers have mentioned).

Rise Up, When All is Said And Done and Love Again stick out as songs with a lot of potential or simply strong B-sides, the latter embracing the same sort of fun, upbeat sound and the range of the male vocalist that carries Great Vacation, but ultimately their quality doesn't rise to near the same levels as the two great songs and would only seem to stick out due to the rest of the bland album.

Those five songs alone make for three stars, but it's difficult to recommend going deeper. The band works best when the male vocalist helps weave a more complete sound and they move from trite power rock sounds to more acoustic instruments and I look forward to hearing more from them in this regard.

I discovered this group via Pandora. It was so cool that I bought the CD both for myself and my friend Robin-the-Artist (for obvious reasons).

In my trying to explain the sound to her I landed on "Buffy-esque with a Cirque twist." It fits.

Really a nice find. Agree with previous reviewer that the singer sounds a bit like evanescence -- also some songs that sound a bit like Lacuna Coil. The Elanor Rigby cover is really powerful. The whole disc is very good. Anyone know if this band has plans for more releases?

When a friend introduced me to a couple of songs from Dirt Poor Robins, I was immediately hooked. The music has a great beat to it and the lyrics have a lot of depth to them. Since I've gotten this album I've played it almost constantly. While there are different moods to each of the songs they are all brought together with a single cohesiveness. This is an amazing album and I highly recommend it!

I just love this CD. The music is so fresh, yet has a vintage quality to it.