Customer Reviews

Fast

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alright. First off I want to say that it is impossible for one to like this album just because they like the melodically good but greatly over-played "Hey Miser." This album is NOT about Hey Mister! Think more along the lines of Incubus really, really baked and a little pissed. (though Custom cannot beat Brandon's harmoniously blissful voice) This guy also brings to mind the music of Smashing Pumpkins, but his voice sounds nothing like Billy's whine. It is, however, very difficult to compare Custom to any other bands, because for one, he is a solo artist and therefore has a very unique but non-compilation sound (since he doesn't have band members to please, just himself). Don't get me wrong; each one of his songs is very different. He sounds like a cover artist almost, because he has so many different kinds of songs, but they all keep his own steady element to them. So here's and idea, if you don't have a good enough one yet:
"Beat Me" is melodic and catchy with the "woo woo, uh huh" in there, but with super crack charged lyrics; all I can say is that its good! Its similar to "Pepper" by Butthole Surfers (without the monotone voice) or "Loser" by Beck (but a little more powerful).
"Streets" is a great song because it starts out very mellow and all of a sudden breaks into rage. That sounds weird and really tacky, but he pulls it off quite well with some good old-fashioned power chords.
"Morning Spank" is probably the best song on this album, only rivaled by "Mess". Not only is this song a damn good piece of advice, it is also really catchy and just GREAT! There some weird parts where acts like the guy he's yellin at, but it totally works and its funny. The only down a part toward the end where he sounds like he is going into seizures; it reminds me of Jason from Korn, really. But that part is over soon enough and then it busts back into great Cake-esque drone with killer drums and good background horn.
"May" is my third favorite song mostly because it is a beautifully packaged song with a lot to say. Its the kind of song you think of when you are sitting in a dark, shady room, escaping the summer heat and stress. It's got a spot on up and down rhythm to it.
"Mess" is good! This is like ear candy. How can you go wrong with "but i bet they're not all super jinxed, black cloud, bad lucked sh**, magna psycho mood swing lunatics like me." all squeezed into 6 seconds. This song is addicting!

"Daddy" is one of those songs that you have to listen to all the way through to really like. It has a great chorus in it that I have found myself jumpin around to in public grins. It's just great! You sorta start with a "Night at the Roxbury" head bang and it builds from there! There is a part where all the music stops and a choir just starts singin and it sounds like a southern hymn, minus the religious part!
"Like You" is also really good and very similar to "May." It gets a bit boring after you've heard it a few times, but its something you can always come back to because its just an overall melodramatic song. There is some good instrumental in it and he muted his voice a bit so that its very monotoned but the overall effect is very cool. It's like a calm, dreary rainstorm.
I'm not going to say anything about "Hey Mister" because that song is so overplayed that I have just started skipping over the track. If you haven't already heard it, you live in a hole.
All I really want to say is that this CD cannot be judged "Hey Mister." Do not buy it because you like that song. Listen to a few of the above mentioned tracks and if you like them, buy it. Everything on here is listenable. Its one of the few CDs that you can just put on repeat and listen to all the way through. It's a real emotion trip and it goes up and down a lot, but it's still a really good ride. I must say, however, and ever so bluntly, that you have no taste in rock music if you do not at least like one song on here. This is not poppy, R&B style crap, nor is it the "pop-punk" (punk music, by definition, cannot be "pop" so that is therefore an oxymoron and completely stupid) that's splattered all over MTV. It's grungy, with some alternative theory, a bit of metal, and a slight bit of hard emo. This album is an exceptional use of instrumental harmony (electric, acoustic, horns, symphony, synthesizer, great bass, etc.) and vocal variety (monotone, spastic, gospel choir, acapella, screaming, everything else). And hey, guess what, I'm gonna repeat again, ITS NOT HEY MISTER!

My husband had been humming the words to 'Hey Mister' at least a week, so I thought I would check the album out. I decided to purchase it after reading the online reviews. The reviews are right on: this is a great CD but it does try to cover too much ground stylistically.

The strongest songs on the CD are the ones that have their own unique flavor. Definitely NOT the ones that reminds you of imitation Cure or Eels take off. However, I'll still listen to the album and love it because what's good is so very, very wickedly good. Even if 'Hey Mister' became popular by being banned, the lyrics are just a riot. 'Beat Me' is good and 'Morning Spank' is best at full volume, anytime.

It the whole album could follow those harder lines instead of deviating so much, the album would never leave my CD player.

Custom bursts out with clever lyrics on views ranging from sex to love and anger to hate.With help from Duncan Shiek,the music hits hard from begining to end with an abundance of diversity.I highly recommend this album to put you in a rockin' mood.Peace, love and brown rice.Yeah,Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't remember when I first heard "Hey Mister". It was probably 2 am, being underplayed as great music often is (there's a whole reason for this phenomenon in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink). Anyway, the CD is best described as an experience. For those of you think iTunes, I'm sure you jump around from song to song. This CD practically eliminates that type of behavior, because every song is followed by another classic. Listening to it straight goes through a whole range of songwriting, lyrical ability, and musical talent. Give it a shot.

This CD is brilliant. The music is catchy and the lyrics are intelligent -- and at times even funny. It takes a special kind of talent to get away with a gospel choir singing "who's your daddy?" as backup lyrics without the songs getting cheesy. There isn't a bad track on this disc. It's a "must own" for any music lover.

While 'hey mister' gave him a certain degree of notriety in the mtv teeny-bopper mainstream it actually proves to be one of the lesser songs on the album, growing a bit obnoxious after a couple dozen listens. My personal favorite would be 'Like you' which is about a hitman falling in love with his mark. The verses outline the 'romance through a scope' if you will and the choruses show the other side of him saying "Step up, don't think about thinking about what you're gonna do, step up, step up, step up no way some dimple's gonna take you back to school"

This is one of the best cd's I've ever bought. Drop the $15 and pay the shipping, it's worth it.

Exciting, changing and stimulating are the best words to describe the debut album 'FAST' from Custom. It is filled with clever lyrics, catchy hooks and complex song structures. The diversity of influences and orginal sound lead to a very satisfying listening experience and one that is sure to be long-lived.

The lyrics are cool. The music is cool. The band is cool. It's a good cd. The lyrics are explicit,so if you can't handle that,buy the clean version. :) Buy this cd asap!

This is one of those CDs that you look at in the record store, and don't really give
it any credit because of it's first raunchy single. "This can't be good... why would they
make something like this?" That's what everyone told me before and after I purchased
Custom's Fast.

Guess what? This album is actually one of the best CDs I've listened to from 2002.
It became a total sleeper hit that fills in the voids in all the right places. I can say that
every track on the album is fantastic in it's own way.

1. Beat Me - The first track on the CD is a good introduction for the album. It mixes
Hip-hop beats, with catchy classical rhytm. The song is about observational moments in
an unsure world. Letting the world somp you to the ground, only to rise again and continue.
"...you know you have to make it, if it's not broken; break it, if it's stolen; take it, answer
with a bayonet..."

2. Hey Mister - I don't know why this song was choosen for the first single. It has to be the
worst song on the entire album. I'm not exactly saying the song is awful, but compared to the rest
of the tracks, a better single could have been picked. The song deals with a guy that has an
obsession with a "hottie" and likes to really upset her father... blah
"...Hey Mister, I really like your daughter... when I'm horny like thristy, she's a bottle of water..."

3. Streets - Add raw punk with a touch of thrash rap, and you have the heavy riff-loaded
Streets. The bridge of the song is quite soothing while the solo acoustic guitar tears into the chorus.
"...but this is not the time... it's not the time to feel, you have your instructions, now you better
close the deal..."

4. Like You - A slow song with a strong message about loneliness. I believe this song was the second
single, but I'm not 100% sure. The song is almost hypnotic in a way. Makes loss feel even worse then
it already is. You almost feel like you are in that empty house with him....
"...sitting in an empty house, on a simple chair, in the corner, of an empty room..."

5. Mess - I really like this song. It's about a dysfunctioal youth warning a potential love-interest about his
flaws and imperfections. A very catchy song that makes honesty seem like a thing of the past.
"...if you want something totaled, just give me the key..."

6. Morning Spank - Now, this is a very offbeat song. It involves a guy that allows a friend of his to have
a affair with another friend's girlfriend. Sound complicated? Not when you listen to the song. I love the rap
segment at the end of the song.
"...there is no piece of [...] worth a friendship, dumb enough to go there, nothing will mend it..."

7. Skate - This track is very slow and only has one acoustic guitar. Nice little intermission... the eintire
thrity-seven seconds of it.
"...melodies don't die, our song will be heard..."

8. May 26 - When does casual friendship become more than just friendship? Does love determine who
you enjoy spending time with? Do you even have to be nice to the person you love? Why the hell do we
love at all?
"...it's been weeks since I've seen you, months since I've been nice... I never brought you flowers, you
never came twice..."

9. Give - This track has to be one of my favorites. It deals with compromise of sorts in a relationship.. kind of.
In the song, Custom just asks for a piece of someone's love, not asking for it all yet...

"...give me something to hold on to... give me something keep... you don't have to give it all, just enough
to let me sleep.. you don't have to give it all up..."

10. Daddy - I believe this song is about a sort of rebel. A loner that wants to tell the world he's alone and that he
does everything he wants. Nothing gets in his way. He mentions pimps in the song... Ha!
"...I want to be eccentric in the Hughsian sense of the word, I want to be cooked up and filleted never to be served..."

11. One Day - Now this is my favorite song on the whole CD. He sings about his life and how he knows its passing
and it probably will never slow down so he can catch up with it. It's a great song, and the highlight of the entire album.
"...is one day the only way, one day's not yesterday, it's only a day away, does one day even matter, do you think
I'll be ok, what would you do if you gave me just one.... thought... cross your fingers... untie the knot... one... pulse...

a shiver... pull the trigger..."

12. Crawl - Life's hard, and it only gets harder. That's the theme for this song. People have to realize that life is hard and
not take anything for granted. Also, not to let life drag you down, that's not it's prupose... You have to be ready for
everything that comes and not dwell on the past.
"...are you ready to scratch the scars not yet healed..."

13. 120 - This is my second favorite song on the CD. It's also the last song and a pefect choice to round up the album.
This song basically asks the "what ifs" of life. Life is pretty uncertain, and I think it will always stay that way no matter
what. The arrangement of the song is the best from any track on the CD.
"...if I stay up late enough, something might happen, and if I drink just enough, I may be happy... if I think just enough,
I'll see that nothing really matters, if I stay up late enough, something might happen..."

When I was only 12, I heard Hey Mister by Custom, and for some odd reason I loved it. I had to have his cd. I convinced my parents to buy it for me. And eventually they read the lyrics. They took it away from me and my mom hid it in her car. But I HAD to have it. I stole it out of her car and copied it onto a casset. I've had it ever since then. The funny thing is, I only have tracks 1-9. I played the tape over and over again, and now it won't even play. I'm now 17, and I finally was able to buy the cd, and I have to say, it's the BEST cd ever. Over the past 5 years I've been non-stop listening to him. All his songs are awsome! Some of them are daring, but that's what I love about Duane's lyrics. They're bold, daring, but most of all truthful. He taught me to love the inner me, the messed up me. So if you do anything tonight, BUY THIS CD! Support him.