Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creeps Up On You, January 8, 2000
I picked this one up because of all of the positive press it was receiving (a method of musical exploration lending itself to embarrassing defeatism as much as anything). A month into it, I find myself going back to it with increasing frequency. At times it seems like a bucolic and more upbeat Seam, like these guy are so locked into what they're doing that they aren't afraid of sticking it out there a little more than that great Chicago band. The biggest test of any new music I come across is how it plays out at work with all of the Third Eye Blind and Better Than Ezra fans, and I have gotten some pretty positive feedback. Today, one of my co-workers asked me if "this is the song that makes you cry when you hear it ("Don't I Love You")." His quote: "I'm starting to dig this. You're still pathetic" Yep. This is emotional (not emo-core by any stretch) and visceral music. It's definately guitar based, but with songs like the aforementioned "Don't I Love You", the kind of technology which usually puts off the real "alternative music" (read: Pavement, Seam) listener (a lttle sequencing) only add to well composed, heart-on-the-sleeve songs. It never gets overbearing (read: "twee"), and with Dave Friedman's production never gets too far into the stratosphere to be inaccessible. If Mercury Rev were a nifty little pop band, they might sound a little bit like this. A fine record for breakups, missed opportunity, and days spent worrying about what might have been. Great stuff.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The single most beautiful album ever recorded, June 2, 2001
I am not a person given to superlatives or dishing out five stars to every Tom, Dick and Harry with a Strat and an eight track, but this album deserves all the praise that can be lavished upon it. Comparisons to other artists would be demeaning, but in order to get those who have not heard this to understand, it is something like Pavement with a healthy dose of Radiohead, and that is a poor approximation at best.The classy opener "This Wheat" serves as an introduction to the uninitiated, this is indeed wheat: a quirky little instrumental which says more than a thousand comparisons to other artists about what the next thirteen tracks will reveal. "Don't I Hold You" is an exquisite and powerful track which is brilliant in its simplicity and originality, and probably should have been the first single. It has been getting a bit of airplay ahead of anything else on the album, and deserves this. It may be the best song of last year. The album then entrances you with the brilliant Raised Ranch Revolution and San Diego, which are fantastic. The end of San Diego may be a little too experimental and dischordant for some, and if you were scared by Kid A you may find it difficult to deal with this track. The first single "Off the Pedestal" is great and bravely understated, and is indeed a worthy first cut, if not my pick of the bunch. The "Body Talk" songs, and the brilliant "Rail the Road" complete what is an unbelievable musical journey. Ultimately, this is (like Radiohead) not about songs, but about an album. Wheat converse over an hour, not five minutes, and it is compulsory listening to anyone with an open mind. Buy this. if you buy nothing else this year, buy this.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Understated elegance, December 25, 1999
By A Customer
It's the kind of music that doesn't assault you headfirst but sort of creeps all around you and covers you. Sublime and entirely satisfying. I heard it in a store in San Francisco while on holiday and had to badger the annoyed sales clerk to give me the name of the album. This one is a must-buy.
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