Customer Reviews

Gravitational Forces

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lost Highway, the new MCA-Universal imprint championing alt.country music, better get its act together. Or, it will get a reputation of being the label where alt.country acts go to die.

Lucinda Williams's debut for the label was a disappointment, and I hear Ryan Adams's new one isn't much better. Like those two CDs, GRAVITATIONAL FORCES does not represent Mr. Keen's finest moments on disk. Despite the fact that it's been more than 3 years since his last CD, Robert Earl manages to come up with only five new songs here. (I'm not counting the title track, which has neither lyrics or a discernable turn, as a song.) The lack of fresh originals ain't a good sign for a singer-songwriter who's more the latter than the former.

What's good here: Actually, the cover of "Hall of Fame" is very nice -- it sounds like a REK song. "Hello New Orleans" is a good addition the Keen catalog, and Townes Van Zandt's "Snowing on Raton" is just flat one of the best songs ever written.

What's not so good: The cover of "I Still Miss Someone" is bad, bad, bad. What is Keen doing with his voice, why does he sound so stiff? And, couldn't he find some sheet music for this so he could at least get the lyrics right? "Gravitational Forces" is an unfunny monologue describing boredom at a sound check. Dude, when it takes you three years to come up with a "song" about how sound checks take too long, it's time to buy either a book or a clue.

What's mysterious: Why include yet another version of "The Road Goes on Forever"? This is the third time Keen has committed this song to disk. It's a great song, mind you, but the other versions are still available. And, the arrangement here is a carbon copy from 1996's Number 2 Live Dinner.

We're treading on dangerous ground here. Robert Earl Keen can make a nice living playing the fratboy/ex-Texas circuit and never write another decent song again. I'm afraid with GRAVITATIONAL FORCES, we're seeing hints that this just might be what he's fixing to do.

Robert Earl Keen's Gravitational Forces is a very good CD, but it is a bit uneven, sounding as if the idea for the album was perhaps conceived during brief pauses between relentless nights on the road the REK band is famous for. Gravitational Forces shows the Earth is slightly off axis when Robert puts his spin on it. Overall, the down sides of this album are; 1)Probably not the best effort REK could have given us. 2) The drums are mixed too LOUD. 3) No Duckworth. 4) Could have used a live recording of any one of the thousand times the band has performed The Road Goes On Forever, and it would have sounded better than the remake on this album. The upsides are: 1)Unique and crafty songwriting 2)Good choices for cover songs, as always. 3) Rich Brotherton provides super guitar licks, as always. 4)The song "Wild Wind" alone makes this CD worth buying. 5) Hey it's Robert Earl..... And as a side note, you ain't lived until you've seen a live Robert Earl Keen show.

REK - you've spoiled us. You put out those first 5-6 albums where every song is killer. Just put it on random and listen all day. Now with these last two you give 3-4 cuts that are the best yet, by far (Feelin' Good Again, Hall of Fame, Wild Wind, Not A Drop, Down That Dusty Road) but start pluggin' in the filler for the other cuts. I guess that's to be expected - can't be absolutely brilliant each and every cut. Problem is - you used to be. I'll still buy everything you ever do and see you live every place you go ('ceptin Billy Bob's fight club) but the total package has gone downhill. And I'm not one of those Road Goes On, Merry Christmas, Copenhagen, Pissin' In The Wind guys, either.

By the way, Roger Craeger is doin' a hell of an imitation of you on his latest CD. Everclear and Fun All Wrong shoulda been yours.

When we love an artist we all hope that each new album will be as good as their debut, or at least, better than their last. Unfortunately, sometimes they just aren't. Gravitational Forces is a good album. It is much better than most country music coming out of Nashville these days. It is not Robert Earl's best. I knew it wouldn't be when I saw it had yet another version of his signature song, The Road Goes on Forever.

Standouts: Wild Wind will become a Keen standard.

This album does not exemplify his best writing, but he always seems to have a knack for finding great songs and covering them so well you'd think he wrote them, i.e., Terry Allen's Amarillo Highway, James McMurtry's Levelland, and on this album, Townes Van Zandt's Snowin' on Raton (the one reason to by this album).

Not the best, but enjoyable. Hey, support the guy, he'll do better next time.

A singular Artist who both defines and defies country music, Robert Earl Keen is his truth telling and introspective self on his latest CD, Gravitational Forces. Keen's legendary wit and crackerjack songwriting, along with his superb taste in cover tunes, shine on this album.
The opening grooves of "Hall of Fame" are a hint of what's to come in this 12 song CD, with Keen answering the question (before it's asked), "What do you think of the state of crappy, prefabricated country music?" In this obscure cover, REK seems to make his declaration (not his concession) that real music is what he's about and to heck with the pop princes and princesses on Top-40 country radio today. That sentiment will be shared happily by the legions of fans that have either grown up listening to Keen, or by those recent converts driven away from Top-40 country radio by sugarcoated playlists and insipid DJ's.
Introspective originals ("Hello New Orleans" and "Goin' Nowhere Blues") demonstrate Keen's songwriting prowess and his God-given ability to turn a phrase as deftly as forefathers Guy Clark, TownesVan Zandt, and yes, even Bob Dylan. His gift of writing about the down-and-outers and losers in life, while making them momentary heroes is astonishing. This is a trait that Keen has displayed before, and one that he delivers once again. For instance, "Wild Wind" is the CD's defining moment and will no doubt be heard blaring from car stereos and screamed as a request by live audiences for years to come. With a bouncy rhthym section and a to-die-for hook (resplendant with perfect harmony vocals and flawless harmonica accompaniament), the song tells the story of a group of down and outers in (presumably) Texas whose lives are not guided by ambition, but by their own predestined fates and their ideas that change like the wind. The song is classic REK and will stand as one of his best, both live and on this CD.
Keen is a rare gift to country music, and not because he's aping it up in videos (South 65, etc, etc, etc, ad nausea) or because he's the self-proclaimed savior of country music (Charlie Robison). Keen's gift is his ability to freeze a moment or an emotion from life, put it to music, and show us the not-so-pretty people and their situations that are strangely familiar to us, somehow making them beautiful and sympathetic. He has done that for nearly 20 years, and continues his steady ascension to the country music lovers' Hall of Fame with this near-perfect CD.

Not one of Robert Earl's best, but certainly not one of the worst. One of those CDs where you really like a few of the songs (Snowin' on Raton, Going Nowhere Blues, Wild Wind), some are worth listening to, and a few are just not really necessary (re-make of "Road" with bad singing). Worth buying if you REALLY dig REK, but would not recommend if you are looking for a starting point. For that I would purchase West Textures, Gringo Honeymoon for a start. Those are A+ albums.

All the initial signs showed this album to be the one to prove REK was losing it: an unusual reliance on cover tunes ("Hall of Fame", "High Plains Jamboree", "Snowing on Raton"), an early single which was far from Keen's best work ("Walking Cane"), and worst of all, a remake his own most popular tune, "The Road Goes On Forever". Well, these initial impressions aren't entirely offbase (hence only four stars) but they point to a more dire forecast than what a seasoned listen to the album over the course of a few spins will eventually obviate.

First of all, let's get the criticism out of the way since it's already been broached. The re-do of "Road..." is imminently competent, but is a virtually note-by-note re-recording and there is absolutely no reason to prefer it to the original. Similarly, the title cut, which precedes the re-recording, the two of which close out the album, is a bizarre tone poem which to some degree indicates a certain kind of literary pretension which is otherwise alien to Keen's work (aside, perhaps, from "The Armadillo Jackal" off his first album, but that song worked; this one doesn't). Since those two tracks close out the album they are single handedly responsible for docking this CD at least a half-a-star, although without those two songs and in place of them perhaps another solid Keen original, I'd have been more inclined to give it a full five stars, something I've done with other of his albums which had a few lackluster songs but were redeemed by the excellence of their peers. In this light, the third from last tune, "Snowing on Raton", could also be considered the start of the album's decline, at least if you're familiar with the Townes Van Zandt original, which one can't help but prefer. Upon letting it set in, it's really not that bad a rendition, even if it is fairly predictable and, once again, inferior to some degree.

That "Walking Cane" also falls in the latter half of the CD only confirms the mediocrity of the second half, but fortunately there is enough on side one to stake some sort of claim to greatness. The covers of "Hall of Fame" and "High Plains Jamboree" succeed primarily because they have no legendary original renditions to compete with (although "Jamboree" did appear on Terry Allen's must-have "Lubbock (On Everything)" LP, Allen's writing is better than his singing [subnote: despite all this, Allen's version of "Amarillo Highway" is arguably better than Keen's, primarily due to the more laidback, self assured pacing]). "Not a Drop of Rain" disappoints initially as it sounds like a virtual rewrite of Keen's earlier "Feeling Good Again", but subsequent listens embue it with an identity of it's own, and "Hello New Orleans" is just the kind of wistful antidote to invoke some sort of reckoning of brilliance between the two. Ultimately, Keen has had albums like this with just a few brilliant tunes and a number of misfires, and he's had albums that were consistent throughout but with no truly excellent songs, and for my money I'll take the former over the latter. "Gravitational Forces", while not the best REK album, places somewhat higher than "Pieces of the Sky" and "Farm Fresh Onions" for just that reason.

Longtime Robert Earl Keen fans may not need any encouragement from this johnny-come-lately reviewer. But if you're just discovering the band and sampling discs, I'd listen to Picnic first, then Gravitational Forces. High points here for me were Walkin Cane, Snowin on Raton, and Goin Nowhere Blues. I won't get into comparing this version of "Road goes on Forever" with the original...its different, and worth a listen.

I was introduced to REK's music by a friend about two years ago and have been an avid fan every since. Needless to say I now own every REK CD and have been fortunate enough to attend five of his concerts over the past two years.

I have listened to this CD numerous times and have literally tried to force myself to like the music as I am such a big REK fan but this one is a little hard to swallow. There are a couple of great tracks on the CD but in my opinion collectively this is his worst effort since No Kinda Dancer. With this being the case I hope we don't have to wait another three years to listen to REK's next effort which I am sure will be much, much better.

Revised 27-Oct-01: I have to say, as I take my foot out of my mouth, that the more I listen to this CD the more I am beginning to really enjoy it. It took a little while for the music to win me over but I will have to say that tracks 2-9 are as good as anything REK has put out in a while.

In this album, Keen delves deeper than ever before into the music that really makes him shine... the soft, acoustic-style songs that tell stories and hit you with emotion. This album will be huge for the Keen fans who prefer "Mariano" over "Corpus Christi Bay." These aren't songs to scream along to with a co-ed sitting on your shoulders spilling Shiner Bock on your straw cowboy hat... these are songs to listen to in silence. It's not bad as some reviews suggest, it's just a different side of Keen, one that he's showed hints of, but never so fully exposed until this album.