Eureka

Jim O'Rourke, Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 8, 1999)
• Original Release Date: March 2, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Drag City
• ASIN: B00000I406
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,335 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #30 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > American Alternative
  • #51 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo Fi

Track Listings

1. Prelude to 110 or 220/Women of the World

2. Ghost Ship in a Storm

3. Movie on the Way Down

4. Through the Night Softly

5. Please Patronize Are Sponsers

6. Something Big

7. Eureka

8. Happy Holidays

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

Take one genius experimental guitar player well versed in the making of arty found-sound music and angular postrock. Cut him loose from his band, introduce him to fingerpicked guitar stylings and lush, orchestral pop production, and then leave him alone to create his masterpiece. The result? Jim O'Rourke's Eureka, an unabashedly beautiful work. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

Another feather in the headdress of avant-rock's leading prolific chieftain Jimbo O, as he takes a cue from some of the many artists he's produced lately (SMOG, STEPHEN PRINA, FAUST, FAHEY, et al), and tries his hand at experimental pop music. Of course it's not like any other pop band you've heard before - that wouldn't be Jim's style, but it does have all the required catchy hooks, pleasant melodies and good-time sounds you demand from your down-time musical diversions. Includes a Bacharach cover that finally puts him on par with folks on the Tzadik label and Elvis Costello. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Recording., April 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eureka (Audio CD)

Jim O'Rourke's direction with Eureka is rather unprecedented. The album can be quite kitschy at times but overall is very multi-dimensional for the following several reasons. A Burt Bacharach cover ("Something Big") is delightful indeed. Instrumental tracks contain interesting guitar work that can be a little drawn out but at the same time is capable of resolving itself well and being very dramatic. Vocal tracks from O'Rourke such as "Prelude To 110 Or 120/Women Of The World" and "Ghost Ship In A Storm" are good even though his singing is not the best. At times I venture to compare this release to the Beach Boys classic Pet Sounds because of its use of interesting instrumentation, its 'materpieceness,' and the new directions that it implies for the artist. Eureka is superb and is recommended.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worlds apart from Radio Ga-Ga...Thankfully!, January 17, 2000

By 

Richard W. Williams (Glastonbury, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eureka (Audio CD)

From the Very First Notes in the opening anthem "Prelude to 110 or 120 Women of the World" you will know that you're in for something different. This Guy makes every note his own. The Guitars are Crisp & Brilliant, and the orchestration lets itself in and out with such a profound gentleness that you will get Goosebumps in very unexpected places. Don't let the length of the first piece, or the mere 5 song playlist deter you. These "mere" 5 Pieces are all welcome musical Tours of Force. The Second and Stunning piece "Ghost Ship in a Storm" will have you humming parts that you might not have even thought you heard the first time around. Keep Listening! By the time "Something Big" starts spinning, you will be certain that you are listening to the future of Pop Music. This is NO Chamber Fluff. Just when the Flaming Lips have proved that you can Re-Invent Rock, along comes this gorgeous Re-invention of Something Else. This is one that Amazon recommended and I thank their computer profiling software for the advice. But it! Something Big Indeed!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most daring composers in modern music, January 26, 2001

By 

Papa Smerv-B'Gard (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eureka (Audio CD)

What I love about Jim O'Rourke's recent solo material is the risks he takes. He not only takes risks for the traditional music listener, but takes risks for the standard "experimental" music listener. It is challenging music from any perspective, it follows no preconceived "sound". I know many people who love his other work in brise-glace and gastr del sol, and cannot stand this stuff. It just shows you that O'Rourke is not out to please anybody. He's gonna do whatever the hell he wants to do and he doesn't care one way or the other what the public thinks of it. For example, in the fourth song, it starts out with an almost gastr style solo piano part, brings in some beautifull steel drums and vibes, then a few minutes into it, all of a sudden it busts into a wailing saxophone solo that sounds like the ending of Saturday Night Live. I read he spent about 2 hours trying to get the saxophonist to play it cheezier and cheezier. Too much to handle for a lot of people, Eureka is constantly coming at you out of left feild. The album is an amazingly orchestrated album of slightly demented artistic-pop music kind of in the tradition of Van Dyke Parks. I recommend this to anyone looking for music that adheres to nobody else's standards whatsoever, and never fails to push the listener's limits.