Eternal Nightcap [Import]

The Whitlams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Vicio
• ASIN: B00003IQJU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #431,026 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The Multi ARIA award winning album that shot THE WHITLAMS to the height of public awareness. Features the breakout hit NO APHRODISIAC

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story In Every Song, August 28, 2005

By 

Prince Saxonius III "Saxy" (Adelaide, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eternal Nightcap (Audio CD)

If you do one thing today, buy this album.

The Whitlams have been together since 1992, and started out as a 3-piece and released their first album, a ten-song collection including two ballads, two short and odd songs, a few masterful jazz/rock pieces and even a 25 second hillbilly song about lighting your mother on fire.

After this, they only got better, with Undeniably, an album released in 1995. It contained numerous fan favourites including the singles I Make Hamburgers and Met My Match/Following My Own Tracks.

Unfortunately, in 1996, lead singer and guitarist Stevie Plunder (real name: Anthony Hayes) was found dead at the bottom of a cliff in New South Wales.

After four months, Tim Freedman got himself together with an assortment of musicians, Including Louis Burdett, Ben Fink, and original Whitlams member Andy Lewis (who went on to commit suicide in 2000).

This album, released in late 1996, is the result of all that history.

It opens with No Aphrodisiac, one of the most famous and influential songs in Australian music in the 90s. Tim Freedman wrote the entire song in one night with a keyboard and a bottle of scotch, with the obviously un-Whitlams like bridge written by friends Machine Gun Fellatio.

The next song, Charlie No. 2 (buy now pay later) is totally touching, and even better live, as it is played faster, with more rock.

Love Is Everywhere is a great jazzy little interlude that is only really there to give you a break before the next masterpiece -

You Sound Like Louis Burdett - an ingenious rock song, played with heavy piano and bass. This is one of my favourite songs of all time, and with good reason.

Melbourne, the original single off the album is a bittersweet love song, and is beautifully orchestrated.

Where's The Enemy and Life's A Beach are great, but not up to par with the rest of the album, but wedged in between them is Charlie No. 3, the final song in the Charlie trilogy, and probably the best.

Tangled Up In Blue is up there with No Aph, Louis, and Melbourne as the best songs on this album. An old Bob Dylan song about love and seperation, a favourite of mine.

Of the remainder of the album (Laugh In Their Faces, Charlie No. 1, Up Against The Wall, Band On Every Corner), you cannot find a single fault. Especially with Up Against The Wall - a song about seduction, lies, and betrayal.

Overall, this is a must have for anybody who likes any album of the Whitlams, as it bridges the gap between Introducing and Undeniably to Love This City and Torch The Moon.

But it. Buy it now. You won't regret it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WORLD! listen to this band., November 5, 2001

By 

J. Snyder "jupitercow" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eternal Nightcap (Audio CD)

this band is incredible. the lyrics go from fun and funny to tragic and ponderous. They blow me away. but the vocals... so natural and flowing. And I am an American. I wish these guys could get out of Australia... don't get me wrong if I was in Australia I'd probably stay too, but the rest of the world needs to hear these guys. if you buy it, i'd love to hear what you think.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragic masterpiece, May 28, 2001

By 

Jeremy Young (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eternal Nightcap (Audio CD)

This album, recorded in the aftermath of Plunder's death, sees Tim Freedman coping with the loss of his fellow band member and best friend. The album is haunted with a melancholy sound (especially in the "Charlie" trilogy of songs, dedicated to Plunder), but this only hits home after comparing it to their earlier recordings with Plunder. We still have classic pop songs, like "You Sound Like Louis Burdett", but the album is dominated with traditional Tim Freedman ballads, like hit single "No aphrodisiac", "Laugh in their faces" and "Life's a beach".

I almost put "Undeniably" here instead of this. It is an excellent retrospective of the early half of their career, with a perfect combination of Freedman and Plunder numbers. It shows the Whitlams at their nutty best, and they sound unlike any Australian band you have heard before.

But this was the album that got me into the Whitlams, and I still consider it their greatest musical accomplishment. It's tragic that this album, dedicated to Stevie Plunder, made the Whitlams big.

But like all struggling artists, sometimes tragedy is all it takes.