Customer Reviews

Funeral Music

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4 star:		(3)
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I am going to have all three reviews here beat. I have been listening to Tim Seely since the Actual Tigers were known as Willis. I still have their self titled debut and listen to it regularly, turning friends on to it constantly.

It took me until recently to spend time with "Funeral Music" and I can't stop listening to it. That is not to say that I am blindly giving lip service to a singer for nostalgic reasons. When I heard tracks early on on his web site and caught the slower tone, I harbored feelings of an artist who I feared might be crushed by the "music machine." What I didn't hear until I listened to it cover to cover was what we miss whenever we pass over albums like "Sea Change" by Beck and Radiohead records for the first time, not sure what to make of something without a pep intro, the kind of record you can't stop listening to.

And beyond albums like "Sea Change," that I admit, I have to be in the mood for, the melody and underlying "cheer beneath the wreckage" nature of what lies in Seely's most impressive album to date, is a kind of cleverness that is not born from an attempt at being smart, but earnestness inventing intellegence. And, as in all of Seely's music, their is an air of playfulness even in it's most serious moments. The title of this review being a perfect example.

For the readers who gave up a long time ago and are skimming for favorite tracks and itemized information, you might not be this records audience, but here...enjoy the list-o-fun. The most obviously broad track and still one of it's finest is the title track. The next two, "Trucker's Lullaby" and "Pleasant Valley State Prison" compliment it perfectly. You will be suprised by how much you like "Telephone" the second or third time you hear it. I must say though, if you like these, there is not a weak track in the album. "Hell Rules" is not the most prolific, and not suprisingly, it is not of Seely's own pen. I am told it is a reworking of a Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 song. I know, I'm not familiar either.

I look forward to Seely's next album and hope the buzz from this one gives the man the confidence to stick his neck into the music machine once more, he's sorely needed there.

I like Lady Luck the best, followed by 6ft Bong, I mean Crest...

I bought this album 4 years ago and I still cannot stop listening to it.
That year I bought 10 copies to give out as presents on Xmas. I think I'll do that again this year.
Go buy it, or befriend me by Xmas.

If you want to discover a great new indie singer/songwriter, check out Tim Seely's mellow and lovely "Funeral Music." He used to be a member of one of my favorite smart pop bands "The Actual Tigers," but left the piercingly pleasurable harmonies of that group's sound behind for this album's more stripped-down, rusty shed vibe. Interesting instrumentation and a charmingly unaffected, yearning voice. Good stuff.

I really wanted to like this album, I like the actual tigers. I listened to it over and over, just hoping it would grow on me. This album just creeps me out. I fell asleep while listening to it and had terrible dreams. Usually I'm a fan of the tragic ballads, but this lives up to it's name in a very negative way. I actually threw it in the trash. And what I assume are real bird feathers inside the case? to creepy!