Damascus

Yazbek | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 7, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: What Are Records
• ASIN: B00005LW0G
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,862 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHY LISTEN TO ANYTHING ELSE?, August 10, 2001

By 

David Yazbek (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Damascus (Audio CD)

This album cost me many thousands of dollars but it was worth it. I love it more than I love obsessively pleasuring myself in public places and that's a whole damn lot. I think each of you should buy a baker's dozen of the record and then we'll all be happy and I can buy an original Lucien Freud portrait to look at to help inspire my next album that we can all enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fall at his feet and worship him now!, August 17, 2001

By 

"steven801" (Seattle, WA USofA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Damascus (Audio CD)

Yazbek is the best pop songwriter to come along in quite some time. The music is top notch, the lyrics bite with sardonic wit, and the production as a whole is beautifully realized. Buy this album, play it for your friends and show them why your taste in music is way better than the crud they're listening to.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars you want it you want it you want it you want it now, August 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Damascus (Audio CD)

PROLOGUE (He'll Give You Everything You Want)
David Yazbek's songwriting has always been top-notch, and his last two albums were a record of his changing style: "Tock" abandoned the grand instrumentation of "The Laughing Man" in favor of a great stripped-down rock sound. In "Damascus," we find a perfect blend of the two ideals. These songs are polished gems, but they have a rawness to them, an energy. The cover art's oddly appropriate: that's a beautiful little bird, but then look at those claws, man! They'll scratch your cheek right up. And that's my point: "Damascus" should appeal to all but the stubbornest of genre extremists. That bird won't cut you unless you want it to.

CHAPTER ONE (Your Tune Contains the Hooks, So You're Justified, Justified)
A little about me. I'm ready, willing, and able to bite the hand that's fed me, if it comes a-knockin' with a lemon in its palm. I'm not a firm believer in genius: even the best sometimes churn out a stinker. And Yazbek's given some incredible concerts, but I don't have any Yazbek posters I'd have to tear down if I didn't like one of his albums. I had heard him perform the songs on this one, so I knew I liked them; but I also knew just where on the shelf I'd stick the CD once I'd listened to it a few times. But so I got it in the mail seven weeks ago and it's been in my CD player ever since. The CD player is broken; I can't get it out. Just kidding -- it's stayed in because I listen to it all the time. All the time. "Damascus" is one of THOSE; that's what I'm saying.

CHAPTER TWO (Is It Love? Is It Gas?)
There was a New York Times review of one of Yazbek's shows that said something about his deeply nihilistic view of the world and made him sound like some sort of monk whipping himself and weeping -- which is odd because that's just about the opposite of what Yazbek's music is all about. Sure, the music is dark, but its darkly hilarious. It's not for nothing that David Yazbek won an Emmy as a Letterman writer. What we've got is literary lyrics with a sharp and witty twist -- like maybe if Samuel Beckett got into the Beatles and then decided to start a rock group with Nathanael West. "Is it difficult to feel the thunder under patio gravel and the plastic grapes, novelty soaps in assorted shapes?"

EPILOGUE (Why Me?) "And I don't move on until I've sold a pint to every stupid cowboy."