Customer Reviews

Deluxe

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of those albums that haunted my CD player all through high school and that still refuses to go away. The sound is mellow though energetic, and the lyrics are interesting and worth thinking about.
The song "Good" was a well-justified high-energy/feel-good radio hit back in the day, "The Killer Inside" features well-articulated and clear electric guitar that feels acoustic and a sort of a Spaghetti Western feel, "Rosealia" and especially "Coyote" feel like perfect songs to play on long drives through the American West, and the whole album feels like a well-assembled time capsule of the best of 1990s alternative music.
I've listened to it since 1993, and will almost certainly continue to. It's good stuff.

I enjoyed this album when it was released in '95. Now that the band has resurfaced onto the music scene, I find myself listening to this classic album all the time. This album has a mix of a southern tone, and modern rock. Uncomparable to artists of it's day, but artists of today have been influenced by Better Than Ezra's unique sound. If you pick up any albums from this band, this should be your first stop.

Okay. They are a one-hit wonder in most people's eyes, at least anyone who only knows them by name. However, if you own this CD, you know why i disagree.
Good was an awesome song, the foundation of their success, but Rosealia is another awesome song. A true opportunity for a #1 on the billboard charts, but it was never given a chance. Coyote also rocked, and the hidden ending is quite the rocker in itself (Sorry to spoil the 'surprise' for any of you who dont know)...You cant help but love Better than Ezra after listening to this CD. It made me go outa and buy their other two albums which also rocked!
*****/*****

I have had this CD since it came out in 1994 -- in fact, I have had three of them. Every song on the disc is a winner. Griffin's vocals are outstanding and highlight the truly magically songwriting ability of the entire band. There is a song for every mood, and it is a perfect match for any emotion you may be feeling. I listen to this CD at least once a week, and have been doing so for the past six years -- and I will never grow tired of hearing its songs. Summer Gurl is perfect for driving, This Time of Year is perfect for relaxation and reflection, Teenager is a great rock song with lyrical credibility, and In the Blood shows the dynamics of the band well. This is a must for any CD collection -- even if it is the only one. Also, check them out live if they are in your area. I PROMISE you will not regret it -- AMAZING live show.

This album's worth more to me than all my others put together. The songs are unique and influential, the lyrics actually have (gasp) meaning, and the lead singer can actually sing---unlike most of the stuff I hear on the radio. This is also one of the very few CD's that I can listen to all the way through . . . no song is a dud.

This is Better Than Ezra's best album. Princiable songwriter Kevin Griffin pulls off some terrific guitar pop on this album. The album is divided in two parts. An electric first half and an acoustic based second half. Although this album was recorded during the wake of grunge and Better Than Ezra is considered a post-grunge band, the songs on "Deluxe" are cathy, some what jangly, southern tinged pop songs. Better Than Ezra reminds me a bit of R. E. M. and even Hootie and the Blowfish. Though some people may find the second half of the disk inconsistent since it is acoustic based, this does not orode Kevin Griffin's ability to write great pop songs. Highlights of the disk include "In The Blood", "Good", "Southern Girl", "Roselia", "Cry In the Sun" and "This Time of Year".

From the guitar driven powerful pop/rock songs like good that lead off the album to the completle different feel at the end of the album it gets better and better as the album moves into the acoustic addictive songs like porcelin this time of year and coyote. A truly great album.

I like this CD. It's pretty safe music, yet there's something about it. I recently reviewed "Dosage" by Collective Soul, and called it safety pop because the music was so mellow and broke little new ground. While it would be easy to say the same of "Deluxe", it wouldn't be completely fair or true.

While this group may be classified by some as country-rock, I would put the emphasis on rock for this album. "In the Blood" sounds more like a fast rock or alternative than country rock, as an example. The next cut after, "Good", sounds a little like Smashing Pumpkins with a heavy bass back beat, but not much like country.

"Southern Gurl" has good harmonies and backing vocals that flavor this song with more alternative. Once again, though the title sounds like it could be country, this is really a rock song.

"The Killer Inside" has what can truly be said to be soulful guitars. While the phrase sounds a bit cliche, you have to listen to this song to appreciate how soulful the guitars are; really mellow, with a hint of 50s music.

"Rosealia" is the first song that has a country flavor; a straight-forward song, simple, solid music backing. "Cry in the Sun" follows with an even deeper country flavor, but still closer to rock than to country. Occasionally the organ jumps into the front and for just a moment I'm reminded of Tommy James and the Shondells. "Teenager" starts off like a country-rock song, and you start to wonder whether the CD is going to transition from a rock beginning to a country finish. Even though the song starts country-rock, there is a grunge guitar in this song that strains to make this a grunge-rock song.

Track 8 is a hoot. It almost sounds like one of the bonus tracks on the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" CD. It's an instrumental, with lots of echo; quiet, with humming for vocals, and guitars taking the lead. This track leads into "Summerhouse" with a bass guitar providing a "Peter Gunn"-like intro. The drums come crashing in with a lead guitar to direct the CD back to rock.

"Porcelain" starts out like blues, flavored by country. There are pretty harmonies on this song, mellow and middle-of-the-road. There are points on this song where I'm reminded a bit of "Tumbleweed Connection" by Elton John. The next song, "Heaven", also has a small amount of country flavor, but it's more of a pop song. Not filler, but also not a signature or breakout song.

The next song, "This Time of Year", starts of like a John Denver song with an acoustic guitar accompanied by a vocal. About a minute into the song the rest of the group jumps in, but the flavor is still John Denver, though John wasn't much for the bass that is clearly in the background.

The last song, "Coyote", makes its orientation known immediately. This song is country-rock. No pretensions to anything else. I almost have to laugh when Better than Ezra harmonizes on the word "Coyote", as they sound nearly like a coyote. But if you wait a while, you find that "Coyote" harbors a surprise. "Coyote" is actually two songs, one a country-rock song, the other a parody of European techno-rock, using German lyrics. Like track 8, this song is funny.

This CD is interesting. There is a lot of country flavor on the last half of the CD, but there are a lot of other influences as well. Several of the songs show heavy influence by other artists, and yet Better than Ezra have made those influences their own. Good music, well created and performed. The group does not try to add elements that don't belong. Their music is full without being overblown, sparse without being inadequate. Furthermore, I like a group that doesn't take itself over-seriously. This is a solid CD for a broad range of music collections.

Okay, so it has a few decades to go to prove its as enduring as the Beatles or Beethoven. But I suspect, that in the realm of pop music, BTE will become more than just a footnote in a long and cluttered history. I bought this CD in 1995, when I was first beginning to listen to music seriously, and I'm giving it a perfect review in the fall of 2003. Through all my ups and downs, both in life and in musical taste, this band has not dropped in appeal once.

Why do I continue to like it so much? Why is it that even as I listen to bands like Morbid Angel or Earth Crisis, I can still come back to this and enjoy it as much as I did when I was 12 years old? Everything just falls into place with this band. Kevin Griffin is a lyrical master, giving his songs the earnest feeling of truth and the personal-touch narrative quality that can make you feel like the song was written just for you. The band is the best band to listen to in the car, on the road, bar none. Incidentally, driving is a subject that turns up often in their songs. Not to mention, Griffin's vocal range almost exactly matches my own, making it easy to sing along to.

Of BTE's four albums, I would rate this one their second best (with the most recent, Closer, being the best). What holds it back was that they were simply still searching for their niche at this point, and the fact that this is actually a mass-released demo, and the production quality is somewhat less.

If you're a musician type, you probably think of most pop music was trite and easy fare; but I had serious trouble with some of BTE's guitar licks. While they are not virtuosos, neither are they content to simply chug away at your generic power chords.

This CD (and pretty much all of them) is available cheap used right here at amazon! If you don't own this, please please please do yourself an enormous favor and order it.

OK, on some songs there's a strong tinge of grunge, and very well played. But there's also what used to be called 'progressive rock'; there's a Mexican sounding tune, a country rock song ["Coyote"] that gives me chills when I hear it, plus plenty of other dark as well as pleasant surprises.

The arrangements, the playing/singing [they are well-rehearsed] and the production are all first rate.

The lyrics are revealing without ever being trite, and mesh so well within each musical setting that the songs simply glow, though not always with sweetness: there is alot of emotional and metaphorical diversity. Psychological spaces are hinted at and/or opened up and explored. There's no meaningless artifice anywhere: every song tells a story, and there is metaphor being generated even when it seems only the simplest statements are being offered. They may be even better at feeding original symbols into their story-songs than early Spirit [the pre-70's stuff], and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

Also, this is one of those CD's that doesn't stop when you think it's over. There's a couple minutes of silence, and then a song starts playing that isn't listed. It sounds like some [militant] German ambient punk band . . . very strident sounding . . . and totally out of character with everything else on the album, but done very, very well. Check it out.

I'd almost have to give every song here a 5 star rating.