Customer Reviews

Horsebreaker Star

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a perfect pop/rock record. There's not a bad cut. McLennan is a fine lyricist and writes great hooks. The appearance of Syd Straw provides a welcome jolt. I have a huge CD collection, yet return to this disc regularly.

Each one of these 19 songs are beautiful, melodic, well crafted and well-written pop rock tunes. And I must say that it's very rare that I buy an album where EVERY song makes a connection with me. "Keep My Word," "Call You Wild," the title track, and "Open Invitation" are just awesome tunes. Some of the songs' messages ("Ice in Heaven," "What Went Wrong") are fascinatingly profound, and some of them ("Girl in a Beret") are just plain fun with nothing deep. This is a VASTLY overlooked album. It is certainly one of the best albums I've ever heard. Buy this one.

After soaking up all the wonderful Go Betweens records and starting on my discovery of the subsequent solo careers with Grant's warm and excellent "In Your Bright Ray," nothing could prepare me for this masterpiece.

The first thrill was to hear the immediately recognizable voice of another favorite, Syd Straw, on the very first track. Ignoring the odd grafting on of "Lighting Fires" from the previous album, this record strings together 18 masterful songs. The consistency and intensity of their quality is so great that sometimes I have to stop listening just so that I can absorb the song I've just heard before I move on to another.

The production and backing is perfection itself--the Athens, Georgia crowd really do Grant proud. Syd features all over the disc.

I am sure that there will be many more moments of joy that Grant McLennan will donate to my life, but it is hard to imagine that he will ever match this high water mark.

If you only keep 20 albums, this will be one of them.

This album is one of the greatest pop/rock cds ever recorded--and I am not exaggerating. Just one listen to any of the 19 songs on this brilliant cd will have you hooked (and the hooks are aplenty). Grant McLennan, of Go-Betweens' fame (if you can call it that) has put out four masterful solo cds, and Horsebreaker Star is the cream of that excellent crop. The album is largely acoustic based (recorded with musicians from Athens, GA including producer John Keane) with excellent use of strings and subdued keyboards and the melodies flow throughout. The lyrics are both intellectual and playful and almost every song leaves its mark. I cannot recommend this album highly enough.

The former Go-Betweens wonderkind's third solo effort perfectly blends folk, power-pop.,and country sounds as a framework for some of the most tuneful ballads you'll ever hear. Recorded at John Keane's Athens, GA studio, McLennan supposedly hadn't met any of the session players until the actual recording of the record. Hard to believe, since the finished product showcases a highly polished group of musicians who manage to retain an organic feeling--as if each player has a special insight into what the other's doing. Not to mention the pure poetry McLennan is noted for--each song drips with pure emotion while never becoming sentimental or, dare we say, "arty". In a class by iteslf, the record's 18+ tracks never seem too much for the listener, as each one is like opening another well-planned present that could have passed as an impulse item. A gem. Check it out. You won't be sorry.

Goodnight, Grant. we'll try to keep playing that jazz called rock n' roll.

...I rate this as equal to anything in the GBs catalog. Grant was completely firing on all six when he wrote and recorded this down in Austin, TX, with a select cadre of hot sh-t alt-country musos...brilliant, toppermost of the poppermost songwriting, just impeccably played and sung...The showstopper here is the many versed, bordering on 10 minutes long epic, "What Went Wrong". McLennan really shows off his lyric writing ability on that one...

Aside from that, the highlights are, typically, way too numerous to mention, though the title track and "Open Invitation" stand out.

Get the import if you can find it - it's a double, instead of a single, and has 5 more tracks on it....

This a cd that you should, if you are a serious popmusic lover, at least check out. One gem after another comes along! This collection contains songs that could rang among the best songs of the '90 Pop ("Coming Up for Air", "All her Songs" an "Put you down")It's a combination of clearry McCartney-ballads, melancholie Byrds-pop and Country-folk. Try it and you definitely won't regret it!

Get the 2-CD import, not the edited single US CD. It's rare that a CD has all excellent songs, never mind a double-CD release! His old band the Go-Betweens released some amazing stuff but it was more like gems in the rough. Grant McLennan really hit a grand slam with this one, and his subsequent 'In Your Bright Ray' is no slacker either. But exactly like Van Morisson's 'Astral Weeks', this CD was recorded in a short period time with musicians he never met and the results are somehow breathtaking.
Good on ya, Grant!

If there was any justice in the world Horsebreaker Star would have sold in the millions and this album would have made the late Grant McLennan rich and famous. But the fact of the matter is McLennan was just too much of a genius and too far above the ordinary, bland dreck that is popular music. Horsebreaker Star, released in 1994, is the work of one of the greatest songwriters ever. 18 songs, all amazing! McLennan knew melody; his songs are a lovely, gauzy tapestry of sound and sage experience. This music is autumnal in its richness. Add the stunning voice of Syd Straw on harmony vocals and the absolute perfect production work of John Keene at his studio in Georgia and you have a classic for the ages. Grant goes all out for Horsebreaker Star playing acoustic and electric guitars, and vibes and singing his heart out. The terrific backing band features Straw, Joel Morris, Andy Carlson, Tim White, Bill Holmes, Dwight Manning, John Keane. Horsebreaker Star is a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll, a lot of folk. It's actually difficult to categorize, or pidgeon-hole; it's just great music. Brilliant songs like Ice In Heaven, What Went Wrong, Coming Up For Air, Dropping you, Girl in a Beret, I'll Call You Wild etc. should be required listening for young, aspiring musicians and songwriters. It's enough to make a grown man weap to see that this beautiful album is now out-of-print. How was that allowed to happen? If you don't have Horsebreaker Star, by hook or by crook you need to get yourself a copy. AMAZING!!!!