The Casual Gods

Jerry Harrison | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000008GEH
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,463 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated side project, June 22, 2005

By 

R. Josef (New Haven, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Casual Gods (Audio CD)

Jerry Harrison released this, his second solo album, a few months before the last Talking Heads album, "Naked". It's clearly the better album. The Heads seemed to be running out of inspiration, but Jerry himself wasn't.

After two relatively straightforward TH pop albums, "Little Creatures" and "True Stories", Jerry returned to the funk-rock sounds of "Speaking in Tongues". The groove-oriented atmosphere is helped along by two members of the "Stop Making Sense" live band, Alex Weir and Bernie Worrell, although Jerry wrote a number of the songs with his old Modern Lovers bassist, Ernie Brooks.

However, the album is hardly a clone of "Tongues". Guitar parts are as prominent as keyboards in the sound. And the lyrical topics are far darker than the whimsy of then-recent TH albums: mercenaries ("Cherokee Chief"), disappearance and suicide ("Bobby), depression("Let it Come Down"), less-than-happy relationships ("I'm Still Running", "Breakdown in the Passing Lane"). The lyrics are always thoughtful and intelligent, almost like little film noir tales. At the same time, the music is very catchy and danceable. Jerry's voice is rather limited in range and a bit colorless, sort of like Lou Reed's, and occasionally hard to hear, but effective despite this (again, like Reed).

The outstanding tracks are the hypnotic ballads "Let it Come Down" and "Man with a Gun" (the latter from the movie "Something Wild"), the rocker "Cherokee Chief" (which got a bit of airplay) and "Rev it Up", especially. The album's single, this cruising song is more extroverted than the rest of the album. But the CD as a whole is really listenable until the end, which contains two versions of "Bobby" -- the second a remix which wears out its welcome before it 7 minutes are up. The album, on a whole, though, was unfairly overlooked, and deserved a second chance from TH fans as well as people who like a some thinking along with their dancing.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRACK LISTING and info, September 13, 2005

By 

Tigger64 (Syracuse, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Casual Gods (Audio CD)

Amazon doesn't seem to have the track listing:

1. Rev it up
2. Song of angels
3. Man with a gun
4. Let it come down
5. Cherokee chief
6. A perfect lie
7. Are you running?
8. Breakdown in the passing lane
9. A.K.A. Love
10. We're always talking
11. Bobby
12. Bobby (extended mix)

I'm not sure if all versions have track 12. Sire Records, 1987.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Glad I tracked it down., October 15, 2005

By 

H3@+h "Over 1500 reviews!" (thanks for the helpful review votes) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Casual Gods (Audio CD)

I began my search for "Casual Gods" when I heard the song "Man With A Gun" at the end of the movie "Two Moon Junction". I had that track in my head for weeks before I finally got this album in the mail, and I think the song is hypnotic, sexy, excellent, and worth the purchase alone. "Rev It Up" is another great track, and I believe was a single. A few of these songs have a subtle Talking Heads vibe, especially during the "keyboard solos", but I suppose that's unavoidable since he was in that band. In the track "We're Always Talking" I even hear some "Roxy Music" influence. Others worth a mention are "Song Of Angels" and "Let It Come Down". I'd say the first half of the album is a bit stronger overall. It's too bad all his stuff is out of print since it's quite good. Worth getting like I said, whether you're a fan of Talking Heads, the late 80's, or just good tunes.