Friends & Lovers

Bernard Butler | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2000)
• Original Release Date: February 1, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00004C4LQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,317 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Can't Believe It's Butler!, February 4, 2000

By 

Andisheh Nouraee "cyrusnewray" (Decatur, Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friends & Lovers (Audio CD)

Bernard Butler is easily one of the finest songwriter/arrangers/producers working in rock music. The breadth and depth of his musical vocabulary is astounding (from the stomping-riffery of Suede's "The Drowners" to the soaring pop-soul of McAlmont & Butler's "Yes" to the Nick Drake-ish intimacy of "You Light The Fire" on his first solo album "People Move On").

"Friends and Lovers" replaces the lush, string-drenched sound of "People Move On" with louder, riff-based arrangements. The endearing "just discovered my voice" quality of his singing on "People Move On" is gone, replaced with a confidence that he no doubt gained by touring his last album. Listen to the the sample of "I'd Do It Again If I Could" to hear what I mean. His melodies, both instrumental and vocal, put him in a league above and beyond that of other modern guitar driven rock (ex. Wallflowers, Counting Crows, Matchbox 20 etc). I defy any of those bands to come up with a song as epic and exuberant as "Cocoon."

Obviously, I'm a fan. There is nothing on modern rock radio that comes close to what he does.

If you liked "You Just Know," "A Change of Heart," "Autograph," or "When You Grow," from BB's first album, you'll like this.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow: the man's hit 2 for 2 (both home runs) post-Suede, February 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Friends & Lovers (Audio CD)

Alright, he's matched the brilliance of his first release with this one. If he keeps up this sort of quality output, he's going to attract a lot of attention from fanatic fans like myself who demand rich melody and eloquent playing in new cutting edge retro rock and roll music. Heard Johnny Marr is releasing his first true solo record, 13 years after the Smiths broke up. Love your style, Johhny, it doesn't get much better than your work with the Smiths. But Bernard's set two solo album benchmarks you'll have to break a serious sweat to match. The "New Music Guitar Wunderkind" mantle is no longer yours alone. Bernard's legit. He's no knockoff trudging in anyone's footsteps--he's blazing a brilliant trail that's all his own.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This CD has really grown on me., January 14, 2003

By 

Denmark Jensen (Carson City, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friends & Lovers (Audio CD)

Ok, obviosly this CD is not considered all the great by many people, as one might surmise from the price that it is available for used. I'll admit that after I had owned if for about a year or so I was ready to sell it as well. But I didn't, and now it has really grown on me. This CD has a unique overall feel to it that I find fascinating. The songs are actually of fairly high quality too, though not many of them are as immediatly catchy as the singles from "People Move On". For example, I probably listend to this CD 15 times before I started to even like "Smile" at all, but now I really like it. My favorite track is probably "No Easy Way Out". Now I am really wishing that this album had been more popular so that Bernard would have followed it up with a third solo album (I really don't care for his collaboration with McAlmont). Perhaps he still will someday. In the meantime, this is definitely worth checking out.