Customer Reviews

Cosmic Egg [Deluxe Edition]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I waited a while before writing this review, mainly because I believe you can't really judge an album until you listen to it multiple times and let it sink in.

First and foremost, Wolfmother is constantly berated as a band that just rips off classic rock. Supporters say no way, haters say yes it's obvious, and I really could care less. Nearly all music is just ripping off the music that came before it. Modern "rock" is derivative of classic rock, heavy metal in all its forms owes its debt to early Black Sabbath, rap is the successor of early hip-hop (also using samples of classic rock), pop and dance is highly influenced by Motown and new wave, and country is straight from folk rock. My favorite music is classic rock, and even I know that wouldn't exist without the blues of the 1930's. What I'm getting at is the line between "influenced by" and "ripping off" doesn't really exist because you can argue either way and you'd be right. Personally I think that as long as the music grabs you in some way, it's doing its job and that's all that matters.

That's enough of that. Onto the review!

Wolfmother's self-titled debut was excellent, with some great riffs and epic wailing vocals. It was like an album straight out of the late 60's/early 70's, reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Blue Cheer. While this drew a lot of criticism, I loved nearly every song on the album except for "Apple Tree", which struck me as entirely uncharacteristic of the band's sound. I must also note that the album art is excellent, reminding me of a Pink Floyd album cover infused with heavy metal. So after a smashing start, could Wolfmother continue to amaze me with their second album?

I respond with a resounding yes! Cosmic Egg is just as good, if not better than their debut. Interestingly (and thankfully), it keeps a similar sound and maintains the same level of quality despite the line-up change. Great riffs continue to permeate the album, and Andrew Stockdale's vocal work continues to shatter glass with its power. There are some nice mellow tracks that really elevate the album, as well as a few melancholy ones. I got the Deluxe Edition and, as expected, the album art is once again beautifully chosen. So let's break the Deluxe Edition down, track by track:

1. "California Queen" - A great opener to the album, with a catchy, distorted riff and fast tempo.

2. "New Moon Rising" - Another awesome riff, with some great drumming and epic crescendo wails.

3. "White Feather" - This track is more sporadic and not as riff driven, with a nice mellow feel and some good guitar work. Interestingly, it reminds me of the similarly titled "White Unicorn" from their debut.

4. "Sundial" - One of my favorite tracks. An utterly excellent riff, nifty keyboard work and Bonham-esque drumming drive this track, resulting in one helluva song.

5. "In The Morning" - One of the slower tracks on the album, with smooth vocals and soothing guitar. This track has an epic feel, building a slow crescendo beautifully.

6. "10,000 Feet" - A very Black Sabbath sounding track, especially the riffs and drumming. The vocals harmonize perfectly with the guitar, creating an magnificent effect. I think this should've been one of their singles.

7. "Cosmic Egg" - Catchy, riff driven track that has some fantastic drumming.

8. "Far Away" - Another one of my favorite tracks. Slow and melodic with smooth vocals and some great acoustic guitar parts. I also love the guitar solo.

9. "Cosmonaut" - Droning vocals and guitar dominate this track, enhanced by an excellent build-up.

10. "Pilgrim" - This track reminds me of "Apple Tree" crossed with "Witchcraft", from the first album. It features a particularly gnarly guitar riff.

11. "Eyes Open" - A very somber track, with great guitar work.

12. "Back Round" - Probably the most raw sounding track on the album, with excellent vocal work.

13. "In The Castle" - Another mellow track that builds into an sonic explosion of incredible proportions.

14. "Caroline" - Melancholy track with a very bluesy feel.

15. "Phoenix" - A more upbeat track with a great tempo and piercing vocals.

16. "Violence Of The Sun" - One of the best tracks on the album, and an extraordinary closing track. Everything about this track is top-notch, especially the vocal work. It reminds me of Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks".

To sum it up, if you liked their first album, I highly recommend this one. If you didn't, I'd still give "Far Away", "Caroline" and "Violence Of The Sun" a listen; you might like them. The Deluxe Edition has four extra tracks, and I think they're worth it, however the best tracks from the album are all on the standard edition. So all in all, a great sophomore effort that's worth checking out!

Just downloaded it and gave it a listen...I got the "deluxe" edition - a double album, sixteen songs, same price as the regular version here on Amazon - good value. I was/am a big fan of the original Wolfmother lineup, so I was a little skeptical about the effect the new guys would have and what they would bring. At this point I am pleasantly surprised, and now realize that the "Wolfmother sound" is pretty much all Andrew Stockdale - his singing, songwriting and guitar playing are all very distinctive. He has said this album would be heavier, and it is, which I like. Overall the sound is slightly more polished and maybe even a little tighter than the first album. If you liked the first album I don't thihk you'll be disappointed.

The heaviosity flows freely on this new Wolfmother album. (Or is it heavitude?) But I like the fact that this is hard rock as opposed to Heavy Metal. In other words, it's filled with loud and heavy electric guitars and high-register lead vocals, but the songs don't bludgeon listeners into submission. For one thing, there's a variety in tempos on the Egg -- it's not all freight train, sometimes it's a limo. I hear some of what one of the other reviewers described as "more Sabbath than Zep" on the album, in songs like "10000 Feet," but I still hear some Zeppelin in several of the songs too. My take on these homages to past "rock gods" is that Wolfmother maintains its originality while incorporating elements that worked so well for great genre bands in previous decades. It's something I liked about Wolfmother before, and I'm still enjoying it with this new incarnation.

Regarding the Deluxe Edition, it's interesting to me that the one-CD version has 12 songs on the disc, but when they added the 4 extra tracks for the Deluxe set, they decided to split up the songs 8 and 8 (eight tracks on each CD). And the extra tracks are not just stuck on at the end, they are integrated into the song sequence with the original 12 cuts. So maybe the band is just presenting two different versions of the album? "Shorter" and "Longer?" I'm interested to learn more about that situation. Anyway, I'm glad I went for the Deluxe - the four extra songs sound just as good to me as the other twelve!

I made sure I listened to this album twice through before I gave my review. I really do like this album. The songs don't jump out at you the way the first album did, but if you are a fan of Wolfmother's first album I think you will like this one as well. Andrew Stockdale is an extremly talented song writer and musician and his vocals sound so much like the late Ron Goddard of the early 70's glam band "Whitewitch" it's uncanny. I think the more I hear this album the more I will like it. Great songs, great musicians...it's nice to hear new heavy rock and roll.

My friend came up to me one morning and asked me if I knew about Wolfmother. No, I did not? What? I hadn't heard about Woldmother? Apparently, until the night before, he hadn't either. So he let me listen to a few snippets of tunes on his i-Pod. Yup. Sounds good. Sure. Another hard rock band I should be into, eh? Uh-huh.

Then I heard the guitar riff for 'Sundial'. What the heck was that? That's cool. So, I ordered the delux-edition of the album, hoping for lots of Sundial riffs. What I got wasn't disappointing at all.

I gave CD 1 a spin in my car while driving and when it was done it spun a second time before CD 2 went in for a double run through. The album ended up on my MD player as well and stayed in it for two weeks before the debut album took over. What can I say? I love the music.

Only a couple of months ago I was thinking that music these days has stagnated. Once there was a time when you could date a song to the year just by the sound and style. Now 2009 sounds almost like 1999. I gave up hope and spent most of my time in my 1968 to 1978 music collection. Wolfmother not only revive that sound and style of composing and playing but give it a shot to wake up the dead rock stars of the classic days of hard rock and metal.

What I particularly like about this second album is the appearance of some mother heavy riffs that would leave Tony Iommi wondering why he hadn't thought of them. The riff and sound is so heavy sometimes it seems even the distortion is weighed down and sluggish, and an image of a glacier bulldozing it's way into downtown comes to mind.

But it's not all about knocking you senseless on your ass with heavy riffs. There's plenty of straight out hard rock and ease back acoustic and piano in the very best of the classic sense. For a band whose front man talks about a rock show that's just "bang, bang, bang, bang," one song after another (see their web site for the interview with Andrew Stockdale), they put a lot of effort into creativity and mood. The album is a rich menu of flavours.

One other thing I appreciate on this album is that there is less of a Jack White vocal style (though still prominent in some songs). At times I find myself thinking that Stockdale's vocals resemble a young Ozzy in tone but with power coming closer to (but not equivalent to) a young Robert Plant.

Overall, this album is a high four stars for me. And that's because I am being very critical in my opinion.

WOW, not sure how this record was gonna be. Loved the self titled for what it was, lumped in with the rest of the retro rockers when it came out, kinda same old same old but there were some good songs, but DAMN this record kicks A$$! so many great tracks. real maturity and POWER to these songs sorley lacking in today's modern rock. If you love 70's rock with a bit of a modern edge....you will love this record. Get the deluxe version, the extra tracks are worth it. you won't be sorry! finally a real ROCK record that has the balance of hard rockers and mellow yet powerful ballads that swirl and uplift. Give this a whirl and expand your mind..Rhianna won't mind kiddies.

I came to really like Wolfmother, after buying their self titled album on whim one day.. I really liked the song 'Woman', and I liked what I heard when I sampled the other tracks... but when I popped it in my cd player in my car after buying it - I was blown away - absolutely BLOWN AWAY.. I was instantly hooked with the crunchy and catchy guitar riffs and Andrew Stockdale's 'Plant-esque' vocals..

Cosmic Egg - while not only sounding like an awesome name for a rock album, expounds on everything great with their self titled album.. Usually on every album, there is at least 1 or 2 songs I will skip by - or 1 or 2 songs that I feel should be omitted from the album, because they sound like filler.. that is not the case with this album. This deluxe version is 16 tracks of pure heaven juice..

If your of the belief that rock today isn't the same - that it lacks the same feel, sound, and soul of it's predecessors - I would highly recommend this album, and band to you... It's Zeppelin, Sabbath and Hendrix all rolled into one.

And what a way to close out the first ten years. At first I hated Wolfmother. I bought their first album on a whim after watching a video and for the first several times I listened to it I cringed. It did sound like rehashed music. But I truly wasn't getting it. This wasn't a band trying to sound like a band from the 70's, this is probably the only band that comes closest to sounding like the genuine article, like a band that could have legitmately come from the era.

Ok, look at it this way, if you like that sound, and you want something NEW to listen to, this is about the best game in town. I started just giving the album a chance (the one previous to Cosmic Egg, "Wolfmother"), and I really came to like the raw vocals and rowdy bawdy troublemaker lyrics and delivery as well as the fantastic guitar work and songwriting. Great stuff.

So finally broke down and bought Cosmic Egg Deluxe edition. People, you [i]need[/i] the extra songs on the deluxe version; it really is like having a double album, the second disc is legit, pretty much a full length standalone album on that stands on its own. Great songs on there too. All of them.

In fact, both discs on Cosmic Egg Deluxe edition are incredibly addictive and replayable. The sound production is just beyond amazing, and Stockdale is a [i]hell[/i] of a songwriter, [i]and[/i] lead guitarist. He's plays a variety of vibro-bladed styles, and even enters metal territory on some tracks, just heavy stuff. Fun, aggressive, raw, bold. Like a great 70's rock band.

What's not to love? Crank it. Five stars. I simply cannot wait for the follow up to this, I will preorder for sure.

This sounds as if they've absorbed every Led Zep and Sabs riff; but still, this is consistently entertaining from start to finish. I borrowed the regular single disc from my library and gave it a listen to try it out; so, arriving here today I noticed the deluxe edition, and that's likely what I'll put my money on. I have the first self titled album, and that to me wasn't as good as this. Somewhat uneven by comparison. Hopefully they will continue to release this sort of quality, and grow as musicians, instead of quoting previous band's work. (Note; as of 6/25/'10 I've had a chance to listen to the whole of the second disc. Peculiarly, I find it's much better than the single disc release! It's almost as if they've suddenly dropped the Classic Rock riff quotations--I didn't note too many--and become their own brand. Very very good!)

This album is excelent! One of the most powerful bands of this decade, Wolfmother is a suprise for who listen to their music! Their style is a condensed sound of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and The Beatles!!! One of my favorite bands, one of my favorite album!