Great Day for the Race [Import]

Cities of Foam (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 6, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Dorado
• ASIN: B0007S67TS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,547 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Day For The Race, May 12, 2005

By 

Andy Slayter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Day for the Race (Audio CD)

Clocking in at just over an hour, Cities of Foam's debut long player is like an evening at a really excellent Lebanese restaurant. Generous platters of spicy nutritious food, heaped cushions, and a wide-hipped belly dancer who rubs your bald head and makes you dance. Each dish is piled high and, though the basic ingredients are familiar (beats , floaty guitars, languid vocals), judicious use of rare herbs and spices leave you feeling like you've been on a musical journey. Or a musical one. And what was in that hookah?

Some standout tracks - "Last Man Standing". Echoing guitars, space-cocktail keyboards and zero-gravity scatting, and all somehow evocative of a glittering sun hitting the sea. Midway through a heavy-lidded saxophone sidles its way into the mix, while a French starlet stares petulantly at said sunset and shrugs her perfect shoulders. "Barry Can't Do Flat Tops", a dubby hashish-fuelled jaunt through a Kasbah, announces itself with a reverb drenched snare roll, before shifting gear several times. Horns stab and shudder and noodle. Real horns, that is. "Without You": smoky vocals full of yearning and regret. "Under Stars" starts out American dustbowl and veers off into African savannah, courtesy of some exquisite singing from one Chartwell Dutiro (great name!). And finally, "Picking Up Tin Cans": slide guitars, ghostly insect sounds, a mournful cello, Satie-esque piano. Walking around a strange city at 4am, thinking.

Cities of Foam - Sam Menter and Todd Wills - write lovely, sad, joyful music that meanders and wanders about, but is never less than tuneful. Hold a gun to my head and I'd say their album reminds me of Air, The Orb, Röyksopp, Beth Orton and, it must be said, U2. If U2 replaced Bono with Lee Scratch Perry and moved to the French Riviera. And opened up a really excellent Lebanese restaurant.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great find!, July 13, 2005

By 

Music Fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Day for the Race (Audio CD)

I downloaded this CD from iTunes on whim and wow! I'd never heard of Cities of Foam before and was just looking for something new. Very impressed - this is a great find if you are a fan of upbeat progressive/instrumental/electronic music.

"Last Man Standing" will probably show up in a commercial or in a movie somewhere. That's not a slam at all, just one of those tunes like "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas that slips through the cracks until one day when it's everywhere. My other favorite is "Out of Reach."

5-stars!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars solid album, June 21, 2006

By 

Mark Wehrenberg (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Day for the Race (Audio CD)

This, their debut album, is a solid piece of chillout musica. Not every song is a knockout, of course, but at worst the songs are repetitively pleasant. At best, they're infectious and gorgeous! The layered instrumentation is nicely varied, with acoustic instruments and understated vocals appearing often, but also spiced up with plenty of electronic warbles and synth buzzing.

They won't win any awards for originality, but I give 5 stars for immense enjoyability.