Customer Reviews

If'n

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Man, oh man. This is one swell chunk of music. I have been searching [...] for all my old 80s favorites, and when I found this, I just about fell out of my seat with excitement. I would have been a hardcore fan if I hadn't had to sell my albums during one of those bleak "I need money BAD" episodes years ago...to my great misfortune, they kind of fell by the wayside for me. I am going to buy this album right away; I can't live without it for another minute!! Well, to sum up, these guys have a great way of tweaking rythyms, playing with words and managing to sound like a jam session but with real polish and humor. They're sassy, they're funny, they're smart, and they just write great music. Thought-provoking and listenable as all heck, they are like Camper Van but with a little more intellect and well, I guess I like their lyrics better. I liked this album better than Flyin' the Flannel; it has a more life and diversity. Firehose are one of the best bands that ever got overlooked by the mainstream. Ever. But doesn't that make all of us fans happy in a [strange] way?

If'n, a great cd. fIREHOSE is so, well, fIREHOSE. there is no other way to put it. if you like funky jammy tunes that are creative and unconventional, you should pick up some fIREHOSE, it will change the very fabric of your reality.

This is a great, great record. fIREHOSE took me some time to get used to, as I suppose is probably the case with a lot of people. I think it's the very strange hooks and unconventional song structures. But a little patience goes a long way here. These guys don't get nearly the credit they deserve. My heart broke when they broke up. I also recommend "Mr. Machinery Operator" (out of print, I think) and the live "Totem Pole" EP (also out of print, I think).

Yip, we're all 30 something now, but we saw the start of what is still an evolving thang (the Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr, Pixies are taken as read). Mike Watt am de man. fIREHOSE were an incredible band, live they were like whatching your mates shamble around then shock you into listening.

You've heard it before, but hooks count and fIREHOSE had them sussed and blurted hooky tunes with ease. Watt's hooky bass under pinned Ed's great vocals. mmmm, hooky+bass......Joy Division+guitars, get the drift? Hey kids, it's bass and drum with guitar except it all makes sense.

Buy it, buy it, but it and keep on keeping on.

Don't know why such negative vibes always seems to surround this band, like those "in the know" thought Watt was wasting his time after the Minutemen. Was it just me to pick up on this... could be. Well, this is a nifty album. It rocks, has an incredible bass solo on From One Cums One, dang, getting bored quantifying, this is a great feel good album. I see this appealing to many, from crunchy Phish types and Deadheads to Fugazi/Nomeansno hardcore types. I think this is the best of fIREHOSE, though many say the first is best. Either way I would go there, have gone there, and you should also. Mike Watt is legend and this is up to the legacy... go next to Engine Room and Double Nickels, if ya havn't been already.

I can't believe fIREHOSE'S "If'n" has, as of June 27, 2011, 6 reviews!!! "Mo Ritmo" by Gerrardo (Rico Suave) has MORE reviews. Gerardo?!?!

I came of age musically (high school) during the reign of fIREHOSE, and saw them a few times in the early 90s. This album, I always felt, was superior to their other awesome albums. The songs are melodic, songwriting witty and Watt's bass CRUNCHY!

Highlights:

Sometimes - An anthemic, positive, melodic song that takes 1 listen to form a mental impression
Honey Please - The opening mirrors the opening of Bitchin' Camaro, but then evolves into a funky early 60s pop gem
In Memory of Elizabeth Cotten - Beautiful moving acoustic tribute to Liz Cotten who died shortly before If'n's release
For the Singer of REM - Sounds like if could have come off of Murmur
Windmilling - Uplifting positive swagger with econo jams!

This album sounds just as fresh to me today as it did the first time I laid needle to vinyl back in 1986 and heard it for the first time. I grew up in the 1980's, so unlike the youth of today who are having the 80's repackaged to them as something "cool," I'm actually old enough to know better. The vast majority of everything from the 1980's was so incredibly lame and the only reason anyone my age would tell you different is because they're nostalgic. (And, yes, I'm consciously mirroring Watt's song "Against the 70s")

Maybe I'm not an exception. But I listen to this album (or fROM OHIO or Ragin' Full On) and I just think "Here are three guys that really understood song structure, who wrote compelling lyrics, who knew how to play with the guitar being all high and jangly and keeping the bass/drums grumbling along. They wrote music that seems timeless." mike wa

Their influence on the next generation of early 1990's rock is unmistakable and I'm sure that as time goes on, their cult status will continue to grow.