Fort Recovery

Centro-Matic (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 2006)
• Original Release Date: March 7, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Misra Records
• ASIN: B000E6GBWG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,840 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It's Will Johnson's voice that makes Centro-Matic so irresistible: He's gruff and hidden in the guitar fuzz. You strain to hear what he's saying--and that's the hallmark of his success--you keep straining. Fort Recovery marks a decade or so since Johnson formed the outfit, and he dives in with guitars blurry and brimming with sound, his voice curling around the strums like shadows, as on the relatively cleanly-played "Patience for the Ride." Centro-Matic is a couple steps away from the acclaim that the Drive-by Truckers pull down, partially because Johnson's songs are unyielding. They feedback and go slow and feature broken-flow guitar parts (to wit: "Calling Thermatico") and never are just a backdrop for lyrics. Johnson's a bit like Neil Young in that it takes several personas to figure him out: South San Gabriel is weirdly folk-pop and Centro goes for the jugular with guitars getting gritty. Perhaps he's exasperated by his music, pulling him and pushing him with a jostling rock storm of ideas until he relents and makes a killer album like Fort Recovery. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description
"Centro-matic's music comes on like a sound from a distant dream, something new, yet unmistakably familiar" - Patterson Hood, Drive-By Truckers. "What makes (Will Johnson) such a phenomenal lyricist is that he opts for the simplest language when painting an abstract picture" - Ben Gibbard, Death Cab For Cutie, in the NY Times. "These resonant fables of half-loved underdogs, essentially preposterous scenarios reported with apocalyptic seriousness, call to mind the last two Flaming Lips discs...the band hugely rawks here in an unprecedented approximation of their live show, often summoning the moldy hearts of Mould and Hart. Hell, a harnessed Cobain twang even surfaces" - Pitchforkmedia.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff, June 7, 2006

By	Antiquity (USA) - See all my reviews

This is a fantastic album, the best I have heard in a while. The sound is something of a mix between Son Volt and Drive by Truckers, but completely unique and better than anything those two have done recently. I really like the sound; it is not "poppy" at all like some of Wilco's stuff, or like the Band of Horses new album that is over-hyped. The songs are real and of high quality throughout, not a clunker on the album. This is one that will hold up over the years.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best album i've heard in a while, September 12, 2006

By	A. Volz (los angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

pretty melodies, hard rocking guitars and drums, evocative lyrics. centro-matic songs get stuck in your head pretty quickly. they remind me of REM songs played in the style of crazy horse or pavement. this is probably my favorite of their albums. you can throw it on and listen start to finish without wanting to skip a song.

buy this CD and you'll achieve maximum sonic sweetness.

also, see the band live if you get the chance. they bring a bunch of extra rock to the songs when they play 'em live.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2006's best album, September 11, 2006

By	M. Rea "mikerea" (Drayton Parslow, Bucks) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There may be a finer band on the planet, and there may be a finer songwriter, but if there is, I haven't heard it. Centro-matic are one of Will Johnson's outlets, where the rock is turned up to full Neil Young Crazy Horse, alongside the more contemplative, new-Americana, South San Gabriel and his beautiful solo work. This, the band's seventh album, may just be their best work, opening with the glorious Covered Up In Mines, and proceeding through songs that, at turns, display crunching fuzz rock, and then sweeping beauty. In fact, it is difficult not to use the word 'masterpiece' in any review. The core of the work is Will Johnson - his songs work so well on acoustic guitar that, worked up into full band versions, and accentuated with rock solid instrumentation and the great feeling of studio improvisation, they can't help but dig their way in, until repeated listening is not just desirable, but essential. Easily the best album of the year, so far.