Customer Reviews

Feeling Strangely Fine

5 star:		(107)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This CD is definitely worth buying. I bought it after hearing "Secret Smile" and "Closing Time", and as soon as I listened to the album I realised that Semisonic are not one of those bands who just has a couple of really good songs and the rest are almost identical. No, not at all! All of the songs are individual and special in their own way; I especially like the strings in "Gone To The Movies", and my favourite song of theirs, "Singing in my Sleep" is fantastic! This CD is really great because it doesn't attempt to be really "deep and meaningful" or "dark" in any way, it's just really open and uplifting! Dan Wilson's vocals are fabulous, and the lyrics and melodies are all catchy and fun! The only reason the CD doesn't get five stars is because a few of the songs in the middle aren't completely up to scratch, but they're good nevertheless. In fact, this CD inspired me to learn to play guitar! A must buy!

This band had the huge hit "Closing Time" on this CD, and right so, it's an awesome track. But I feel the band has been largely misunderstood and overlooked. At the heart they are kind of a goofy (like the Bare Naked Ladies), prep boy driven, pop band. This CD contains some other great tracks even though they aren't totally in line with the Closing Time sound. Singing in my Sleep and Secret Smile are outstanding songs, and worthy of an album purchase without Closing Time at all. However, most of this bands works have been hit and miss for me, and I believe many people. Of the two CD's I own I find I like half the tracks and skip the other half most of the time. I think they could really be a leading band in the pop field if they could become more consistent; however, I still believe they are an innovative part of the music scene today.

I have owned this album since it came out, and I still listen to it regularly. This has to be one of the best purchases I have ever made, not to mention one of the most influential in my life. Whatever mood I'm in, this CD has something to offer for me. Semisonic is easily one of my favorite bands of all time, and I recommend them to anyone who likes alternative rock, '90s music, or just music in general. Check out their other albums, which don't quite live up to the standard set by Feeling Strangely Fine, but are quite good too.

Semisonic is a rare band doing something different in the era of modern generic rock, although you might not know it just from hearing Closing Time (a good song in its own right, but not ground-breaking). The song-writing here is far more complex than you would expect and the instrumentation is fresh on virtually every track. As a result, this album grows quite nicely on you. It also occupies a very different niche from their debut, Great Divide, which is a fantastic album that was critically acclaimed but a commercial failure; FSF is less electric and raucous, but it finds a very satisfying intimacy after a few listens. It is no coincidence that the most thoughtful (and recent) reviews are overwhelmingly positive; this is a great album and will grow on you.

When I first heard "Closing Time" It was merely by accident. It was around 3:00am on a Sunday morning & I couldn't go to sleep. I decided that I should, so I got under the covers and sat in my bed. Then the video came on. I sat there & watched it, enchanted not only by Dan Wilson's hip-swinging, but by the music. I went out the very next day & bought the cd. I listen to it non-stop. It's a great cd. All the songs were so well written, and they are so romantic. My personal favorite is "Gone To The Movies." It's such an excellent. An excellent ending to a great cd. Also, since I was a fan & went back & bought "Pleasure" and "Great Divide". Both of those cd's are really great & if you are as big a fan as me you should go out and get those cd's too. Semisonic's sound is the best I've heard in a long time & know that they are Grammy material for sometime in the near future. Email me what you think!!!

Something you have to understand about this reviewer is I like to dabble a lot in weird types of music; psychedelic, prog rock, indie rock, jam bands, Southern Rock. I consider bands like Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Porcupine Tree, and The Shins to be some of the best bands of the 2000's. It's also interesting to note that above everything else, I'm a pop-rock fan. I grew up with 90's music. If it's not catchy, I'm not interested. For my money, the 90's was the best decade for music; Toad the Wet Sprocket, REM, Live, etc.

I'm not a huge Semisonic fan, and I don't need to be. I don't really have any interest to be, since the amount of money I spend on music is limited. However, the band's "Feeling Strangely Fine" reminds me of how simple life was in high school. People bought Tonic's "Lemon Parade." No one cared about their politics, about whether or not Rolling Stone considered them cool. People liked them because *gasp* they actually liked their music, because it was good. Nowadays, no band's played on the radio that doesn't consider middle American states bigots and inbred. "Music fans" have to ensure that a band disapproves of the War in Iraq, and gets an "okay" from Pitchfork and other pretentious internet music critics before buying a CD. It's ruined our media, morals, and music.

I love this CD. Because they don't layer the songs with pretention. They just wrote good pop songs and people got that. The songs were for entertainment, to enrich the listener's life, not to completely define it. "Closing Time," of course, got the airplay, but "Singing in my Sleep" was twice the single. "Never You Mind" and "DND" had great melodies. And "Gone to the Movies" sold me on the CD. It defined EXACTLY how I felt during break-ups in high school. It remains one of the most meloncholie (spelling?) songs of the 90's. The CD is also on the of the decade's best; because of its simplicity and remeniscent qualities. How ironic that I listen to it all the time on my iPod.

Overall: 8 out of 10.

Semisonic's radio hit "Closing Time" had me expecting run-of-the-mill geek rock (which I love anyway), but the CD in its entirety was a pleasant surprise. Semisonic not only have their share of sharp, clever lyrics (check out the ode to mix-tapes "Singing in my Sleep") and catchy hooks, they also are accomplished musicians.

There's a lot of musical ground covered here -- Ben Folds Five style piano boogie on "Never you mind," hushed lullaby harmony on "She spreads her wings," seventies funk-rock on "Completely pleased." Elsewhere the sound is more mainstream pop-rock, but the best of that genre. One soaring, heart-fluttering home run like "Singing in my Sleep" would be enough, here there are several.

The only caveat is that the lead singer's voice can grate after awhile. Although capable of effortless falsetto, the midrange has a whiny edge to it. But the great songwriting, melodies, and varied musical styles more than make up for that one quibble.

This CD is a classic! A must-have! I bought it for "Closing Time" and "Secret Smile" (I don't really like "Singing in My Sleep"-it's ok, but not a favorite of mine) and was just blown away by the quailty of the rest of the album. I listened to this album for the first time (when I bought it back in '98) and thought it might be ok, but that even if the only good songs were the ones I mentioned above-the singles-that would really be ok too, and worth the price of the album. Turned out EVERY song was good, and several were great! I don't have their first album yet-Great Divide-but plan to get it soon, as I anxiously await their new album coming out soon! This is a band that will be around for a long time, and should be. They are somewhere between pop and alternative, in a class by themselves. I hope to hear a lot more of them in the future. Do yourself a flavor, if you don't already have this album, go out and get it!

"Feeling Strangely Fine" is an incredible album by a great band. Semisonic delivers a snappy cd with lots of addictive tunes, and radio hits. Who can forget the infectious "Closing Time"? But this album is anything but a pop manufature. It is an album full of spunk, but character. The album spans a spectrum of musical styles, from the poppy "Singing in my Sleep", to the absolutely funky "Never you Mind" (God is that a great song! ) to the lilty road song anthem "California". There is even a song to fall asleep to "She Spreads her Wings". The songs are incredible, and there is practically something for everyone. But it's not just the music, but the lyrics. Semisonic just has this way of saying things, that you really have to sample first hand from the songs. So get "Feeling Strangely Fine", and I guarentee you'll be feeling just fine!

...that is the memory I associate with "Feeling Strangely Fine". Everyone has an album or two to plug into this particular teenage rite, and seeing as I was about four years too late for grunge, Semisonic and their contemporaries, for better or worse, became "my music".

I was a freshman in high school in 1998, awkward and geeky, with emotions crackling inside of me like Pop Rocks dumped into a can of Diet Coke. Hackneyed similes aside, this record became a part of my life and was the soundtrack for all of those nights spent staring up at the ceiling of my room thinking "deep thoughts" or driving around aimlessly in my crappy car with friends. In some respects I may have moved on from the likes of "Closing Time" or "Made To Last", but I'll always drag them around in my head and on my cd shelf.

These songs are not the edgiest, but rarely are they too saccharine or fluffy. Some might call Semisonic's music bland, but Feeling Strangely Fine's tracks are too multi-layered and thoughtful to deserve that harsh adjective. I would argue it's quite the opposite.

I choose to offer this album up as the epitome of 90s pop rock. It is the mid-est of mid-tempo and damned proud of it! Perhaps "Feeling Strangely Fine" never quite took hold of the music-buying public because it walked the line a bit too well: a song like "Singing In My Sleep", for example, is too rockin' to be adult contemporary and not quite heavy enough to be considered alt. rock. Semisonic never quite found a home, I guess you could say.

In spite of my crackpot pop music theories and naked sentimentality, though, you should give this album another listen. These guys are talented musicians who know how write and perform some great songs. Maybe I'm a bit too close to this album to ever speak ill of it, but I dare you to completely trash any album that your 16-year old self listened to late at night, wondering if that girl sitting in front of you in biology would go out with you.