Falling Off the Sky

dB's | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bar None Records
• ASIN: B007V1VTTW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,021 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. That Time Is Gone

2. Before We Were Born

3. The Wonder Of Love

4. Write Back

5. Far Away And Long Ago

6. Send Me Something Real

7. World To Cry

8. The Adventures Of Albatross And Doggerel

9. I Didn't Mean To Say That

10. Collide-oOo-Scope

11. She Won't Drive In The Rain Anymore

12. Remember (Falling Off The Sky)

Editorial Reviews

Falling Off the Sky is the first new dB's album in a quarter-century. It's been three decades since the original lineup of Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Gene Holder and Will Rigby recorded the beloved early-'80s classics Stands for deciBels and Repercussion. The North Carolina-via-New York foursome's vintage releases are now widely revered as alt-pop landmarks. Falling Off the Sky embodies the same combination of infectious melodic craft, playful sonic experimentalism and barbed lyrical insight that established the dB's as key progenitors of the Southern indie-rock explosion of the '80s.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars After 30 Years, A Triumphant Return! June 22, 2012

By John Werner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Though I'm sure someone will call me on this I can only think of one other band other than the dBs that got together after over 30 years to do a new album. An album that is very good thus in no way an embarassment. I'm referring to The Raspberries' Live On The Sunset Strip, but that album was entirely a different animal as it was all old material redone live. Live On The Sunset Strip corrected a big wrong in my book as it was, mostly, superlative pop that we never got to hear in full-fidelity prior to that album as the originals were, supposedly, mixed for AM car radios of the day which couldn't resolve the top or bottom ends. So, what my point is that this kind of thing seems to never happen because of all the endless ways such a reunion can be a big fiasco.

Well, fear not fans of The dBs because "Falling Off The Sky" is definitely all new material that will stand up against the fact that this band never made a weak, or worse bad, album. In fact this is triumphant. I'm sure it helps that Holsapple and Stamey kept playing together and, in fact, made two albums in the last decade that were true gems if they were not quite dBs albums. And, the fact that dBs have been playing sporadically together with increasing frequency in the past, say, seven years must be a very wonderful and "germy" gestation period for the birth of what we have here.

"Falling Off The Sky" rocks from the opening tune "That Time Is Gone" and while it signals that everyone is aware we've all aged there is still some serious rockin' to be done within that knowledge. Every cut is more than just listenable, they're all good and many either nail or nudge greatness.... The sound is recognizable, the harmonies maybe the best ever, and there is a the real feal of total democracy even if Holsapple and Stamey anchor the songwriting. This is so like REM's strongest period with great guitars, haromonies, and a mix of joyous and introspective song craft. If you're a fan you must have this and if you never got on-board this is an excellent place to start and work backwards discovering melodious pop with Beatle-esque nods, but with just the right added touch of earthy alternative (Americana) leanings. This is at least a 4.5 star album and IMHO the surprise of it pushes it to a full 5 rating! Excellent and pure enjoyment, pop music doesn't get much better. Read more ›

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Return of a Great Band June 13, 2012

By JD

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Great to see the dBs deliver another great album! They are one of the most overlooked bands in rock history. Like The Shoes, The Beat, The Records, Guadalcanal Diary, The Connells and a few others, the dB's have stayed true to their craft. Hopefully, they will sell enough music to keep recording. It's such a pleasure to listen to them.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Stunning. June 12, 2012

By Paul Rock

Format:Audio CD

Exhilarating, catchy, and poignant new record by the band that inspired R.E.M. and kept the spirit of classic Big Star alive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Great, Buy it! June 20, 2012

By William A. Kimbrough

Format:MP3 Music

The dBs are great. The write, sing, play and produce wonderful music. They haven't done it in a while. This record is really really superb. Get it and play it loud in your car.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterwork July 14, 2012

By Mr. Chips

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Okay; since I can review this album under an alias here on Amazon, now I can say what I REALLY think...

Had I bought "Stands for Decibels" and "Repercussion" in the 1980s and become exiled to Saturn in the intervening 32 years to return to hear "Falling off the Sky," this is just the mature dB's album that I might expect & hope to hear from that younger, earnest, vigorous & inventive 1980s band. In other words, the dB's' new album is not an attempt to sound like the young band, but neither is it a tired collection of material from musicians who no longer have anything to say.

On the contrary: they have a LOT to say! A lot has been blogged about the various songs, and the standouts seem to be Rigby's "Write Back," a current topic written with (hate to be cliche!) an IRRESISTIBLE hook and an execution reminiscent of Gary Lewis & the Playboys; Holsapple's "Wonder of Love," a gem in its own right -- like the authoritative "Living a Lie" of 30 years ago, further embellished with horns; Holsapple's "World to Cry," "I Didn't Mean to Say That," and his heartfelt & personal "She Won't Drive in the Rain Anymore," based on his family's experience after Hurricane Katrina; also, "World to Cry," which while certainly catchy, to me is a throwback to Holsapple's 1980s material.

Why did I not mention any of Stamey's songs? Hmmm... well, perhaps it's because Stamey's songs somehow all run together. Unlike Holsapple's tunes, all of them about the topics itemized in the titles above, Stamey's are all of a kind... when I ponder on them, I can't distinguish one from the other; he doesn't seem to have uncovered any new ground since his excellent (2004) "Travels in the South...." All of the Stamey tunes concern some ethereal longing, some lost or desired love or connection; they are about "what it meant" or "the words I sing."

And yet, and yet... Stamey's work here has something to recommend it, and all of it belongs. The eerie fadeout of "Collide-oOo-Scope; the captivating twang of "Remember," the latter like a challenge to REM's entire "jangle rock" career, as if to say: "REMEMBER? We did this first!" Stamey's work here may not veer far from wistful loving & longing, but all of it has the unpredictable chord substitutions, compelling motifs, and inventive execution one might expect from a songwriter who referenced Charles Ives in his early 20's. While his territorial claims may be familiar to followers, he stakes them with an authority both impressive to old fans and captivating for the new. And in the context of the whole album, their nature provides an ethereal contrast to Holsapple's concrete concerns.

Holsapple, on the other hand, remains an American master. No American songwriter over the past decades has had the ability to take otherwise cliched titles like "Change with the Changing Times" or "Love is for Lovers" or "Home for the Holidays" or "Child in You" and make them iconic. When I hear these, I often consider them like unfound Beatles or Bacharach songs: "why didn't someone write these before?!?" I wonder, and soon after: "why aren't these songs on everyone's lips?" When I hear a song like "Early in the Morning" from the criminally-neglected "hERE aND nOW," I think: "wait... wasn't this an Everly Brothers song? A Beatles tune? What?!? YOU MEAN IT WAS NEVER A HIT?" Well... the industry's failure to take risks with little-known musicians and the failure of the public to support them has been ongoing since Big Star and is a topic for another rant! er, another review! Here, Holsapple's "Wonder of Love" is another one of these; a song you should already know, a thing out there under the rocks that was waiting to be uncovered; a "This Land is Your Land" or a "Friday on My Mind" or a "Walk on By" or an "In the Streets" just waiting for you to hum along.

And hum along you will! I'm not sure what to say other than "Falling Off the Sky" is a true dB's album worthy of the inheritors of Big Star and the Beatles -- a mature work by full grown masters of the American pop canon. Read more ›

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An older, wiser dB's return to canny pop action July 2, 2012

By hyperbolium

Format:Audio CD

Way back in the early 1980s, when only graduate students and industrial researchers had access to the Internet, information about bands spread much more slowly. And so the dB's first two albums, originally released on the London-based Albion label and imported back to the group's native U.S. shores, were difficult to learn about, harder to find, and even trickier to put into context. Bits and pieces of the group's background eventually circulated, with Chris Stamey's tenure as Alex Chilton's bassist providing a tantalizingly obscure connection to the ultimate cult pop band, Big Star. Stamey, Gene Holder and Will Rigby's earlier work as Sneakers also resurfaced, providing a link to Mitch Easter, and thus to REM, and eventually scenes in Georgia, North Carolina, New York and beyond.

A special edition of the group's second album, Repercussions, was accompanied by a bonus cassette of their debut, but even this promotion couldn't push the records from great reviews to great sales. Stamey left the band to pursue a solo career, and Peter Holsapple led the band on albums for Bearsville and IRS. College radio managed to launch REM into the mainstream, but the dB's (despite an opening tour slot for their Athens-based comrades) couldn't convert cult popularity into commercial success.... The group disbanded in 1988, spinning off solo careers, occasional collaborations (particularly between Stamey and Holsapple) and eventually a new edition of the band for 1994's IRS-released Paris Avenue.

Thirty years Chris Stamey left the original quartet, they've rejoined for Falling off the Sky. Three decades on, their voices are still easily recognized and their musical ideas still combine easily, but the result is something different as fifty-somethings than it was as twenty-somethings. Their fans have aged as well, growing from college students into parents, witnessing the group members' various pursuits, and seeing what was once considered alternative co-opted by the mainstream. So while the album doesn't crackle with the reinvention of the group's original debut, the musical affinities - the interlacing of vocals, the rhythm section's play against the guitars - are still full of life, and connect strongly to the dB's origins.

Peter Holsapple's aptly-titled opener, "That Time is Gone," suggests the group was acutely aware that a reunion could easily slide into limp nostalgia. With a rhythm guitar that touches on the Gun Club, a twist of Sir Douglas in the organ and a maddeningly insistent guitar figure, the lyric of middle-age awakening is like a weary postard from a well-traveled musician. Holsapple neither celebrates nor laments the passing of time, but notes it as an inexorable fact and moves on. Stamey deploys his nostalgia more abstractly, writing wistfully of lovers whose flame has flickered out, and matching Holsapple's mood of disappointment without disillusion. The bitterness of the songwriters' early years has mellowed appreciably, though Holsapple's "World to Cry" offers some pointedly snarky recrimination.

The album closes with its title song, also the set's most nostalgic, with vocal harmonies and counterpoints that twine around a lyric full of memories. The band's off-kilter craft is as fine as ever, with Stamey's love of psych-era Beatles threaded deeply into "The Adventures of Albatross and Doggerel," drummer Will Rigby's "Write Back" offering up his first song on a dB's record, and Holsapple's high, yearning vocal on "I Didn't Mean to Say That" adding a particularly riveting performance. The foursome doesn't imitate their earlier selves, as many reunions are wont to do, but their current-day selves prove sufficiently vital to carry the legacy, creating in an album that stands nicely alongside their first pair. [©2012 Hyperbolium] Read more ›