Customer Reviews

Coke Machine Glow

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

 

 

ok, here's my un-expert review of Gord Downies's (GD's) Coke Machine Glow after a few complete listenings:

the best thing to come out of the great wide (white) north since young's harvest...you have to keep an open mind, folks, this is very, very, VERY un-tragically hip, this is gd's ponderings and musings about life in general. some of it is catchy, quirky spoken word with background music, others are brilliant, unrefined songs with rough edges. All of the songs blend in well. It reminds me of a group of musician getting together, sitting down and playing in a room in a big house with a tape recorder recording the music.

Songs like Vancouver Divorce, Chancellor, Lofty Pines and The Never-Ending Present are wonderful and thought provoking...

this is a great album to listen to on a sunday morning with a cup of coffee. It really makes you think and listen to the lyrics. It lends itself perfectly to live performance in a hazy, dimly lit bar, where people are drinkin' their fancy dark beers and wine.

Gord has done something fresh and amazing.

Only four stars? Get back to me in a couple of days and I'm sure I will want to amend my rating upward. As with the past few Hip albums, it has taken a few spins to get into Coke Machine Glow. Its eclectic nature and its departure from Gordie's work with the Hip makes it a bit more difficult, but the effort is worth the rewards of such lines as, "Now for the spectacular part" and "I'm discovering uses for you I though I'd never find." The album is filled with these little gems, but any Hip fan already knows about Downie's tendency toward lyrics that are at once powerfully familiar and impenetrable, an effect both pleasing and provocative. The words are the attraction here, but the music, by turns folksy, bluesy, and just plain goofy (good goofy, ya know), also seems an effort to force the average fan to consider what else is out there. Consider it well. Thanks, Gordie.

I you want grunge, hard-edged, glam, rap-style rock n' roll. Stay away from this album.

This album is just great music which I feel is centered around great lyrical expressions. Great to fall into and get involved.

I have lived in Texas for all of my life. Different cities, but Texas is a large place. I was first introduced to The Tragically Hip with 'New Orleans is Sinking' back in 1989 - 90. After that, each on of the LP's has intriguied me and found EVERY track to be something I can listen to over and over.

Well, this path has led me to Gordon Downie's solo shot with Coke Machine Glow. This album has textures, meanings, and subtleties that are incredible. I was immediately drawn to Chancellor, but the more you listen to it, the cd is incredible. Many of the songs are very powerful, and have a great emotional component. You can see that the music comes from within the artist.

One of the best cd's that I have...

This here be Gordon Downie's, he of Tragically Hip fame, first solo album. Is it good? Why yes, very much so. Is it a Tragically Hip album? No. Not at all. Gone are the Keith Richards power chords, so beware all ye in Molson T-shirts and F-150's. The songs are surrounded in reverbs, accordions, tinkling piano's, lots of acoustic instrumentation, and some gnarly-rad production. He's backed by an all-star band of Toronto's best, such as Don Kerr (Ron Sexmith, ex-Rheostatics) , Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies, Thin Buckle), Dave Clark (The Dinner Is Ruined Band, ex-Rheostatics), Dale Morningstar (The Dinner Ruined Band), Travis Good (Sadies), Jose Contreras, as well as some added bonuses, Julie Doiron, Atom Egoyan (yes THAT Atom Egoyan), Paul Langois of Tragically Hip & Steven Drake of The Odds. Recorded in 11 days the album is very loose, very open. Quite a bit like pals just jamming around with the 4-track running. Spoken word pieces are scattered throughout and are very effective. (For all you Rheostatics fans out there check out "Mystery", which shares lyrics with the Rheostatics "Fathers Sad Song".) As for actual songs the highlights are "Canada Geese" ("...like middle aged men smoke dope and talk just to their cars..."), "Chancellor", "The Never-Ending Present" and more or less everything else. Buy this and play it on a summer night when you're sitting on your porch watching the fireflies drift, and the mosquitoes bite.

I find myself constantly playing this album. It has become a soundtrack to my life lately.

I do not find the album "too mellow" at all but feel a simmering energy despite lower decibels than I would have imagined. I find the back up band very satisfying and refreshingly different.

I bought this at the same time as the new Hip. The new Hip album, as usual, took a while to grow on me, but I loved Coke Machine Glow immediately.

It is quite odd. The songs are such that they creep into your consciousness and you find yourself humming them at unexpected moments; but if you dare to sing along while listening to the music, Downie's phrasing will challenge you and you'll stick to humming!

A master atist.

Don't expect the folky Canrock sound of the Tragically Hip to accompany Gord Downie on his first solo venture. The voice is the same, but the sound is entirely refreshing and new. Downie brings his brooding energy and philosophic stream-of-conscious musings to an album that spotlights a confident and edgy artist at his peak. Downie blows the lid off the musical ambitions that come through in the Hip's latest work. He experiments with everything from spoken word, to country and western, to enigmatic love song. He is a true original and let's every bit of his wonderful eccentricity shine. Pick it up and give it a spin. It may be radically different, but it's radically hip!

This is one of my favorite Canadian Albums of all time, and I'm discovering it all over again. It's the forebearer to the now numerous indie-style Psych-Folk albums that are currently painting the airwaves. Only this is much better and much smarter than anything in the mainstream.

Too smart for the masses and about 5 years ahead of it's time? - perhaps it was, but its time for another spin, so plugin your pods and enjoy....

Despite mixed reviews, I found Gordon Downie's album and poetry book to be the perfect mix for good solo listening. Typical of Gordon are the smooth poetic lyrics and his unmistakeable folky voice. It's like Tragically Hip without the rock! Although the recording is not of excellent quality, this CD is perfect for singing along as you drive across the country on a warm summer night.

I find myself constantly playing this album. It has become a soundtrack to my life lately.

I do not find the album "too mellow" at all but feel a simmering energy despite lower decibels than I would have imagined. I find the back up band very satisfying and refreshingly different.

I bought this at the same time as the new Hip. The new Hip album, as usual, took a while to grow on me, but I loved Coke Machine Glow immediately.

It is quite odd. The songs are such that they creep into your consciousness and you find yourself humming them at unexpected moments; but if you dare to sing along while listening to the music, Downie's phrasing will challenge you and you'll stick to humming!

A master atist.

Those anticipating a reprise of the turbulent hip venacular may want to give this debatable solo disc a wide berth. Clearly not the musical force behind his day gig, Downie relies on resonant background effects and airy engineering to add heft to some rather rickety compositions. Lilting ballads "Vancouver Divorce", "Trick Rider", and "Lofty Pines" are the keepers here, along with a sloppy garage rocker called "Canada Geese". The remaining songs on this drawn-out release are little more than fussed-over filler; genre pieces like "Elaborate" and "Every Irrelevance" are generic and uninspired, while the ponderous spoken-word segments - complete with Director Atom Egoyan on classical guitar - are likely to alienate any listener not incontestably enamoured with, well, ponderous spoken-word segments.