Customer Reviews

Eureka

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

Every once in a while an album comes along that twists things so completely that it defies any sort of category. Yes there is a lot that is familiar here. Some of it almost an eerie, pre-natal familiarity. But the peculiar perspectives with which Jim O'Rourke combines these disparate images leaves the head swimming. Take, for example, the opening track "Women of the World." This is the kind of song that practically from the first note, like it or not, is instantly lasered into the grey matter of the listener. The implications of the anthemic lyrics leave one punch drunk with possiblities. Is he being sincere? Is he being ironic? My only impotent conclusion is probably a little bit of both. I am left thinking that perhaps, just by accident, Jim has summed up the attitude of an entire generation in 21 words repeated to the point of absurdity. I'm also left thinking that I am almost certainly missing the entire point of the song by saying something like that. Confusing? Yes. But in the most preciously soothing way. What really blows me away about this album is how broad an appeal something so freakin' weird could have. I have played this album for countless people with the most varied music tastes (a calculated experiment by the way). Literally every single one of them likes it. Not only do they like it, they feel compelled to say so. Usually they are so tongue-tied though that "woah" is the only semi-intelligible thing they are able to utter.

It's hard to know what to expect from a Jim O'Rourke record. Recently, his output has been soft and sweet, as evidenced by his latest project, Eureka. While O'Rourke's past output has embraced minimalism, art noise, abstract pop, and the Leo Kottke-Ry Cooder-John Fahey-esque school of guitar americana, his new record, Eureka, brings it all together for a disparate family reunion. The result is far from an uncomfortable gathering, though. The elements assembled on this record are fused with great care and sophistication, and everyone gets along. Eureka is truly an expression of triumph. The discovery? An increasingly accessible sound, I think. Coming soon to a Sam Goody near you. . . Maybe not.

I bought this album after hearing "Ghost Ship In A Storm" on the Zero 7 anotherlatenight and it must be one of the best purchases I've made in a long, long time. The whole album is just so quirky and beautiful in its own way that I couldn't give it any less than 5 stars. I love his lyrics that on casual listening sound happy, but upon a closer inspection are on the most part very haunting and sad. My favorite line is at the begining of "Ghost Ship", when he sings:
"Nothing makes me/want to dissapear/as when someone opens their mouth"
All in all an incredible album I wish I knew about sooner. So much music, such few money.

Forget the music (which is great), or the production values (which are great) . . . buy this for its wonderfully twisted cover art! Blow it up, put it on your ceiling above your bed, and laugh yourself to sleep every night!

Jim O'Rourke could arguably be considered someone that has had a hand in the many aspects of music, (solo artist, producer, re-mixer), and having dabbled in everything from: Experimental music avant-garde, Jazz, Rock & ambient. He's a musician that produces music as it takes him and doesn't seem to be restricted by genres. His solo work is a collection of albums with fairly short running times that mix up styles like Post-rock, Experimental, Electronic, Chamber Pop, Rock, Indie Rock, Acoustic & Alternative sounds in a generally Lo-Fi surrounding.

"Prelude to 110 or 220/ Women of the World" may initially seem like a repetitive song, with the light acoustic guitars and lyrics that repeat endlessly the course of the track, but its a track that you can really let yourself settle into, with it's lounge pop approach and lyrics that suggest the world would be in far better shape that it is now if Women took over the world, can't help but raise a smile. "Through the Night Softly", is a particular favourite for me. Imagine a soft and pastoral delicate acoustic arrangement playing unassumingly in the background for several minutes, not building up to anything in particular, just merely coasting along on it own trajectory, but suddenly after 2 1/2 minutes an almost 'John Coltrane' screeching Sax bursts out of nowhere and provides a sharp short euphoric rush, that simply needs to be heard. Or even a track like "Movie on the Way Down," which initially starts off with a the first couple of minutes of the track with nothing much more than spare, abstract guitar and atmospheric brass drones, yet feels deeply elaborate and ambitious in a decidedly low key kind of way.

But, If your a generally impatient person when it comes to your music, preferring that tracks that actually go somewhere, then you find that you'll have problems with the generally laid back pace of this track (in fact the whole album will frustrate), as "Eureka" is an largely acoustic sounding album, with a mellow, almost understated, feel that never outstays it welcome, with the guitars and gentle embellishments of horns and piano making it presence felt on the majority of tracks, its easily accessible, yet retain it's own individualist path, and you may find (like me) that it's a stunningly original mish-mash of styles with a decidedly free-from, free-spirited approach. With any harsh edges smoothed off, in favour of laid-back and hypnotically repetitious arrangements. It's probably not a album for everyone, as occasionally its a little bit too inward looking and cerebral for mass appeal, instead probably sitting (slightly uncomfortably) between the classical minimalism, Post-Rock, Experimental indie & understated guitar chords, of acts such as "Tortoise" & "The Sea and Cake", "Pajo" or "Papa M", but with a slightly more experimental bent. And if any of those artists that I mentioned interest you greatly, than you simply must investigate this album. As it one of the most nicest recent surprises I've heard musically, and has become something of a new musical romance for me to latch onto.

The previous reviewer is correct, there really aren't any songs, in the classic sense, on Eureka: it is primarily catchy parts strung together by brief interludes, a quality that links it to earlier efforts like Bad Timing.
Along with sardonic lyrics and lush arrangements supporting overtly cheesy solos, the link to his previous work is a clue to an ironic subtext: Eureka is another step in O'Rourke's deconstruction of popular music and his attempt to cobble high concept with "low" musical forms.
He does what he wants, for sure, but this is not as much as a departure as would seem upon first listen.
As for what it actually sounds like, the genius of Eureka is that it is true ear candy, unless you are really dogmatic about what constitutes a "tune," and like pulpy fiction, it can be appreciated for pleasurable listening alone.

on both the back and front covers of this record sits a pudgy and naked asian man, vigorously masturbating with a bunny. this is awfully intriguing, as o'rourke's wistfulness and eccentric sense of humor combine to form a similar atmosphere. in a way, the sounds on this record are an aural form of masturbation in themselves, a floaty netherland in which the listener feels just as ecstatic as the asian man on the cover, with no ties to the earth at all. sure it has its ups and downs...perhaps the bunny will wake up and try to take a bite at you...perhaps you'll be hit by a car while carrying a cake...but in the end the invisible world of bubbles and happiness will prevail, and you continue to cartwheel into a morning of pure joy. quite simply put, this is a euphoric record which everyone should own.