Customer Reviews

Green Sparrow

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...this is an entirely forgettable, albeit thoroughly pleasant listen. The studio lends a cleanliness to each of The Green Sparrow's crisp rock ditties. And yes, that's precisely what they are. It's at once strange, amusing, and placating to hear Mike sing so much. His voice is smooth, inoffensive, and not without a certain dreamy quality. The songs are mostly inane, but there are some nuggets of distinctly rich lyricism to be gleaned. Tracks like Another Door, Traveled Too Far, and Andelmans' Yard offer clever, catchy wordplay and are clearly highlights of this generally well-received album. It offers little in the way of jamming, but that's not necessarily a knock.

Mike recently launched a lengthy tour in support of The Green Sparrow. While his band is admittedly mediocre, the humility and intimacy of these shows are refreshing and provide an easy context for a good time. Get there early and you're bound to bump into the man - just like the good old days! Seriously, go support Cactus.

While I wanted to like this album more, I certainly wasn't disappointed. Gordo will always hold a special place in my heart. Dude just makes me smile. I trust I'm not alone.

The Green Sparrow is the album that every phish phan knew Mike Gordon had within himself to make. Every song is beautifully written with the complex textures and originality that has not been apparrent since Phish gave the world the beautifully composed albums such as A Picture of Nectar, Rift and The Story of The Ghost. Not one track stands out as the best on the album, but make sure to take a listen to "Traveled Too Far" which includes Phish bandmates Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell, and the absolutely amazing one man show that Mike Gordon displays on "Andelman's Yard".

This album represents a tour de force of every ability Mike Gordon posesses from his virtuosity on the electric and stand-up bass to the banjo, the guitar, the drums, and his incredibly original melodic and harmonic vocal abilities.

Ok, first of all let me say I usually don't write these reviews at all, so forgive me if this sounds stupid or something! I just recieved this album on Friday night(today is Monday morning), and I can tell you allready this is a good one. Some albums just dig a hook into you and don't let go for a long time, they latch onto something in your brain that picks up on a certain sound or a certain groove and keep feeding it until the album ends and I think Mike has really achieved that with this record.
I personally loved Inside In and think it is one of the best Phish side projects ever (what I refer to as really good "haunted house music"), and Mike had sort of flipped it over with "The Green Sparrow".
The record has a very light hearted and very upbeat sound with songs that are extremely catchy and fun, too "poppy"?...... maybe, if you are very anti "pop" sound, but not any more then previous Phish member albums such as "Shine" and the Page Mconnell S/T.
Mike really delivers a feel-good album with a sence that he is ready to start on a new path or make a fresh start with his solo music, and as usual gives the impression that he is not even really trying too hard to do so (his voice always gave me that impression and it's no different on this LP) and getting the job done just fine.
Don't look for any extended jams or ground breaking "Guyute" style anthems or anything, but if you are a Phish fan or enjoyed "Inside In" check this one out for sure. Mike proves that he is more then capable of writing, aranging, and recording truly unique and yet catchy tunes once again with a feeling of relaxed confidence.

While Mike hasn't been as prolific as Trey in the post-Phish years, his work has been more consistent. Trey has scored some highs ("Trey Anastasio" "Plasma") and lows ("Bar 17") as Mike's output has been smaller but more consistently good. Quality examples include "Clone" and "Inside In," both of which were fantastic albums. Unfortunately, there never was a GRAB (Gordon, Russo, Anastasio and Benevento) release. In any case, "the Green Sparrow" is Mike Gordon's first clunker. All of the good PR in Relix Magazine can't makeup for what's lacking from this album. It's not that there's anything wrong with this release, there's just nothing compelling about it. The songs are okay, but there are no highlights. It's enjoyable to hear Mike sing so much, but when the tunes themselves are so bland, the satisfaction is limited. It's hard to believe that Mike had a reputation as the weird guy in Phish when considering how stock this effort sounds. Improvisationally speaking, this material has been opened up on tour, but the album is very song oriented. At the end of the day, "the Green Sparrow" isn't a bad album, it's just mediocre. You win some and you lose some. Let's hope that after the current shows, Mike will recharge his batteries and get back in the saddle.

All the wacky originality that earlier Phish albums have that Joy lacks is abundant on The Green Sparrow. Other solo projects from Gordon have let his goofy experimental tendencies get the better of him resulting in ablums that are difficult to digest, but this one hits the mark just right. Feels more like Picture of Nectar than anything Phish has put out since before the hiatus. Next time Trey needs to check his ego at the door and let Mike contribute his brand of silliness that was once a Phish trademark.

This album - even more than "Inside In" - is a great display of Mike Gordon's unique songwriting and bassplaying style. It contains quirky songs, features a great band, nice artwork, and never gets boring ...

Now if only Phish would play more of Mike's songs ...

As mentioned in other reviews, Mike Gordon is performing more mainstream music on this album than on his previous solo release. What really stands out on this album, however, is his bass playing. I would argue that Mike Gordon is one of the more creative, talented contemporary bassists, and this album does a great job of displaying that fact.

Look, Mike did something incredible with this album-5 STARS.

I don't recommend this response for every experience in life (see below), but, in the case of evaluating an experience of this album: Open yourself to it, feel it, like your heart / gut / intuition / spirit: you've gotta follow it to find out what it is trying to tell you here.

(Again, do not open yourself to everyone and everything, they'll attempt to influence, persuade, and potentially abuse/use you. Not good, exercise discernment, move slowly.)
This is not about your wants here, its deeper than that. So, lets leave the surface, and go deeper ppl. Past the noise, past the impulses of instant gratification, fear, ambition. Get into the meat of it. This album is a revelation, something extraordinary, looking at it with an open mind will leave all possibilities on the table.

Same way Blitzen Trapper is doing something incredible with indie rock in Portland. This album is about moving fwd. All these evaluations I've read on here so far are quite past referenced and real preferential towards the authors' wishes and thoughts about what the music 'SHOULD' be; therefore they're all past based, and in a sense, not relevant to the present, or looking ahead to the future.

Call me biased, but this is hands down one of the best albums I have heard in the past 3-4 years, easy. Another one I loved at first listen was Peter Gabriel's UP for its uplifting lyrics, its encouragement of emotional/spiritual healing, and its overall spiritual seeking nature or direction. Same thing here, let me tell you why. This album like M. Night Shyamalan's movies is not just meant for your surface mind, or your socially-conditioned personal mind of thoughts, ideas, fears, and goals. This is meant to hit you at your heart, at your soul, to MOVE you, to wake and shake you, to inspire and spiritually remind you are greater than your personal mind, and most important, that you're here, on this planet, in this vehicle of a mind and body, for a purpose, to fulfill.

Andelman's Yard, talks about: "rearranging things, below the surface, of the Andelman's Yard" and
"People seem similar everywhere you walk....to cut beneath those layers like a glass shard, come with me beneath the dirt, of the Andelman's Yard."

The lyrics on this album are the start of what I love. They all look FORWARD, they're about what Gordo feels like, what he seems to see other people saying they're feeling like, and what he's hoping to open YOU to feeling like, at some point, if you, as the listener, are willing to follow him on the journey. I also love the grooves on this album. This has funk, this has rock, this has genre crossing rock/fusion/jazz, this has complexity in lyrics and performance, this has well thought out imprinting of the listener, which, unlike a lot of popular, mass produced crap-usic, it has a beneficial effect on you, not a negative one. I love this album. My bud gave it to me last Sept. and I haven't stopped listening to it yet. Gordon has really nailed it on this album. I am thrilled he worked so hard on it, it is perfect.

If you are a real person, experiencing real thresholds of spiritual significance, and facing challenges, adversities, and loss/disappointment that is helping to open you to who you are and why you are really here, this is an album that to me lends itself naturally to that. Furr by Blitzen Trapper is another, UP is another, and anything by Axiom of Choice is yet another place to start.

He is a guy who has gone through some changes, as we're all intended to from birth, therefore, he's not the same guy he was coming out of college and touring, he's a different person, therefore his music reflects the new things he's facing, the new questions he's asking, the new answers he's gradually trying to open himself to receiving.

I'm reading into him sure, from the album, but the point is: like all beings he is not the same, what about you? In the end, its about you, you're the only one that can change you.
Are you open to considering the relevance of who you're trying to be in relationship to a world that is profoundly changing? What about a world that is undergoing the Great Waves of Change?

How does your sports addiction fit in with facing resource depletion (Peak Oil & Natural Gas among others). Are you really facing catastrophic climate change and a planet with a changing entire landscape? How does your partying and purchasing habits jive with a growing political and economic instability and the growing risk of competition, conflict, and war that they will produce? Are you helping to support a planet in decline or helping to destroy it, quicker whilst only concerned with what you want to get out of it? Are you really looking at the inevitable loss of arable land and in some places, loss of fresh water? How do you feel about the future given the growing risk of pandemic disease and growing challenges to human civilization?

Many people are feeling uneasy about the future, many sense great change coming to the world. Are you watching the waves on the horizon, facing them and what they mean for you? Or are you turning your back to the Great Waves of Change your heart is warning you of, urging you to face and research, and immersed in your preoccupations and fantasies again? Check this out, like this album it has the potential to change your life, as quickly as you allow it to do so. The Great Waves of Change: Navigating the Difficult Times Ahead And once you do, check out Summer's Spiritual Book of the Year for 2000, Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing. Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing : Spiritual Preparation for an Emerging World (New Knowledge Library) it will change your life, as it has changed mine, people of all religious/non-religious affiliations need to study this, because it will teach you to live and direct your life from inside, with certainty, and help you find the real relationships and purpose you have been searching for your entire life thus far.