Customer Reviews

Let You Down

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My music tastes recently lean heavily towards downtempo, dub, and IDM. I find much indie music as tired and too esoteric for its own good. However, walking into Kims Video last week and hearing this superb album renewed my faith that sometimes the simplest songs can leave you breathless. This is a sublime album, much like the first time I hear Galaxie 500 On Fire, Boards of Canada's Music Has A Right To Children, or Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate. The songs are haunting, possessing a dreamlike quality that is both nostalgic and beautiful. Literally, these songs will drive you to tears, for no apparent reason. I'm eager to buy Kingsbury Manx's first release, I've heard it's equally amazing.

I hope this review is put right under the guy who only gave this record 2 stars. What an ...!! This record is great. It has elements of everything that is good and unpretentious in indie rock. All of you Romulans out there, you know who you are- black hair, cut shaggy, short pants, bad skin, etc... Don't expect a flashy, stylish, hip mod looking group of guys creating this music, those dudes can't create this kind of music, they are too concerned with creating an image, not a sound. I like this band because it's so much different than all of the above. Real music, real warmth, real sadness, real emotion (no emo, no freakn' screaming here). Read the other reviews of this album, those people seem to have a pretty good grasp on it.

This record is great. It has elements of everything that is good and unpretentious in indie rock. All of you Romulans out there, you know who you are- black hair, cut shaggy, short pants, bad skin, etc... Don't expect a flashy, stylish, hip mod looking group of guys creating this music, those dudes can't create this kind of music, they are too concerned with creating an image, not a sound. I like this band because it's so much different than all of the above. Real music, real warmth, real sadness, real emotion (no emo, no freakn' screaming here). Read the other reviews of this album, those people seem to have a pretty good grasp on it.

For more on the Kingsbury Manx, you can check out my review of their first album, The Kingsbury Manx (self-titled). This album is very true to that previous work. It is beautiful music. In fact, I actually like this one a little better, I think, because the CD as a whole is a much more solid piece of work. With the first CD, there were some songs I just didn't listen to very often. But this CD is one that I will usually listen to in its entirety without skipping songs. (with that said, however, let me just emphasize that I like them BOTH and wouldn't want to choose between either of them!)

My Bottom Line: If you're a Kingsbury Manx fan already, you definitely need to buy this CD. If you're new to the Kingsbury Manx, I would listen to the first 5 songs on their previous CD to see if you like them before buying this one. Both of these CDs have a special place in my music collection.

I am amazed that anyone could not like this album. I understand not being a huge fan, but not liking it? c'mon. The best way I can describe it as sort of proggy-country. Lush and mellow, a brilliant album to listen to on a rainy day. One of its biggests strengths is its overlooked hooks. Too often this type of music lacks command of structure and tries to reach to far and strays from the song's intention. The beauty of this album is that it floats out there, but constrains itself at the same time. I found this album better than the previous and latter albums, but I am excited by what I've heard on the newest album. I've given a lot of abstract descriptions to describe this album, but what it comes down to is that you'll like this if you like:

belle and sebastian

crooken fingers

high llamas

kings of convenience

sea and cake (the quieter songs)

KM's first release was a nice change on the indie scene, very mellow simple guitars and sleepy lyrics. Their second effort shows a more developed style of guitars and some better rhythms. I found it a little easier to listen to from beginning to end, a nice overall consistant mellow disc. If you liked their first release, you will almost certainly like this one more, not a huge improvement but a quality steady improvement.

I ordered The Kingsbury Manx CD, Let You Down and wasn't let down by the experience. The like new CD and prompt service will keep me coming back.

Wow! I get pretty cynical over this whole indie rock thing...that is, until I hear the actual music again. KM create a soft-volume masterpiece, one that pulls you in with chrystalline harmonies and stretches the imagination with pretty soundscapes. This outdoes their debut by a longshot, which I feel had great sounds but not great songs. Now, they've got the whole pop thing, and if you're willing to give these guys a good listen, you'll find that there is a great deal of intensity underscoring compositions.

The cover of this album simply states "The Kingsbury Manx let you down," as if it were a sentence. It turns out to be a pretty accurate statement about the album.

I bought this album on a whim because I liked the name of the band, the cover image looked cool, and I'd heard that they are somewhat 60's-influenced.

What I got was a snore-fest. Are these guys all overdosing on Valium? Every song plods along in the same incredibly slow, hushed, deliberate manner. This includes the vocals, most of which are sung in harmony rather than by a solo vocalist. However, don't think Byrds or Simon & Garfunkel-quality harmonies here. There is nothing warm or even soaring about this music. These guys sound like they are bored to tears, or at least are aiming to bore everyone else.

I don't mind slow, mellow music, as long as it has some warmth or at least a catchy melody. These songs have neither. Everything sounds very cold and detached, even though some of the songs use major-key chords throughout. This has no heart.

With most of the songs, I kept wanting them to take off at some point -- to break free of their drone-a-thon shackles and blossom into the songs that they *could* be, the potentially good songs that are lingering just below the surface of all of this snooze-inducing stuff. But it never happens. The songs just drone on and on (most of them for too long), and it just ends up being extremely repetitive and monotonous.