Customer Reviews

Fitzgerald

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

 

 

The Fitzgerald is a collection of haunting yet beautiful songs that portray life at some of it's lowest and bleakest moments. The chilling vocals make you personally feel the characters desperation. Right at that moment when it seems that all is lost, it becomes apparent that there may be hope. Hope is all that desperate people have. Sounds best when listened to in the early hours of the morning when the mind starts to wander and you can't quite tell what's real and when you are dreaming. Fans of Bonnie "Prince" Billy or Townes Van Zandt should love this album.

Desolation of the heart with all the painful details illuminated, haunting minimalistic melodies, these are almost more short story than song.....one gets the feeling that this is what Springsteen was going for with "Nebraska", the difference being that Springsteen did it through metaphor and imagination whereas Richmond Fontaine feels like they lived it.....in short this makes "Nebraska" seem like the Backstreet Boys....once it gets a hold of you, this album doesn't let go......

I can't fathom how it's possible that no one has yet reviewed this album. For me, it's easily one of the top 2-3 discs of 2005. A series of portraits of deperation - people living lives haunted by ghosts, in and around the casino town of Reno. Unlike RF's previous albums, there's no pedal steel here, but the musicians do such a wonderful job of offsetting Willy Vlautin's vocals with small touches - the acoustic guitar accompaniment on "Welhorn Yards", the brushes and judicious use of strings on "Disappeared" just to name two. It's an immensely moving album that may draw comparisons to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska", but I feel that over the long run I may love this one even more than the Boss' masterwork.

I don't know why this hasn't been released in the US yet but for you lot across the water i can reveal that it's a damn classic !
It's truly the record that this band have been building towards over the last few years and they just seem to get better and better.Mostly acoustic , beautifully played ,lyrically superb.It's got the feel of a late - night record ,full of beautiful losers and sad luck dames !!
I feel that it's their most cohesive effort yet , it all hangs together so well and this band will do for me. Sadly i missed em in Glasgow last week as i had to work but ilook forward to future gigs and more magnificent records like this.
PS it's raining here in Scotland (again).......

Richmond Fontaine sings short stories focusing (in this installment) on the emotional nuances of marginal situations, settings and characters. The insights feel authentic and it's classic alt-country minimalist music here. Evocative, emotional and terse, this (and other RF cds) is really really good.

Like no other band, Richmond Fontaine has a way of getting at the essence of lives lived on the narrow margins. This is their most stripped back and spare set of songs to date.
Listen to this album in a dark quiet room - it's an unnerving experience; you'll begin to sense the presence of the ghosts-of-lives-half-lived.
Subdued, stark, sadly beautiful.

Richmond Fontaine's last album Post To Wire must have felt like a real hard-won success for the group following several years of releasing fine alt.country/americana records to little or no notice. Championed by respected UK music magazine Uncut among others, Post To Wire was a gritty, spirited, kick-ass recording that finally saw the group start to get the recognition they deserve.

With one proven masterpiece under their belts, principal singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin has looked inward for their latest effort The Fitzgerald, delivering a spare, accoustic set in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen's classic album Nebraska.

World domination probably not to follow, but that's just fine with me - The Fitzgerald sounds like the kind of album they've probably always wanted to make. Even moreso than previous albums, the hushed and haunted soundscapes of songs like 'The Warehouse Life' and 'Casino Lights' prove chillingly effective in reflecting the desolation, despair and hopelessness of the downtrodden folks that Richmond Fontaine have consistently written about.

It mightn't contain the fireworks that Post To Wire did, but as far as storytelling and late-night listening goes, The Fitzgerald excels. Chalk it up as another masterpiece for this excellent band.