Customer Reviews

Design for Living

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4 star:		(1)
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DESIGN FOR LIVING is the 1999 release from former Australian Crawl frontman James Reyne, one of Australia's most original artists. The original release in Australia contained a bonus disc of previously-unreleased live material, which may explain why Amazon.com calls this a "box set."

James Reyne's style of rock music has generally been pop-flavored beach party music - Australian style - but DESIGN FOR LIVING goes in new directions and delves into some deep territory, musically speaking. From the raucous opening track, "Wonderful Today," with its almost-unbelievably catchy melody, to the closing track, "Stranger than Fiction," which looks at the incredibly odd Baptist boycott of the Walt Disney Company, this CD covers a huge spectrum of musical styles.

This CD is difficult to locate in the U.S., but I would strongly advise any James Reyne fan to seek this one out. The bonus disc is nice, but it's the album itself that is so spectacular, so don't be upset if you can't find the 2-CD version. Personally, I think this is James Reyne's best work ever.

ANOTHER TRIUMPH FROM JAMES REYNE. MIXING ROCK (POETRY IN MOTION, NOT WAVING, DROWNING), HIPPY CHICK SOUNDING (DESIGN FOR LIVING) AND PLAINTIF LOVE SONGS (AFTER YOUR'E GONE) THIS ALBUM IS ANOTHER MESMERIC ADDITION TO THE SUPERB CATALOUGE OF REYNE MUSIC. LISTEN TO IT TWICE, AND YOU'LL LOVE IT !!

Another cracking Reyne offering with a good mix of raucous (a la Aussie Crawl) rock and soulful balladeering! Some of the tracks 'borrow' a bit from previous numbers , but for James Reyne fans this is certainly worth adding to the collection! It would be great to see JR produce an album of ballads/love songs...as when he 'reins back'(excuse the pun) and goes for the softer vocals he can sing a really 'sweet' tune (like Reckless! )