Customer Reviews

Looking for Leonard

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This is a completely instrumental album (with the exception of one track which is a clip from part of the movie its based on), just to warn everyone before they purchase it blind. As far as music goes, I'm usually much more fond of lyrics than with the actual music behind the lyrics. When I hear a song with a long instrumental bit I usually wish they'd get on with it and get to the singing part again. Even on the other Portastatic albums, I was less than impressed with the somewhat monotonous feel of the instrumental tracks. Having the other 3 major Portastatic releases, I was pretty slow at getting this one, not really expecting too much from it. But based on the fact I thoroughly enjoy all the previous material and think Mac is a brilliant songwriter, I finally caved in and picked this one up.

I was pleasantly surprised by the album and finding myself liking it very much. Most of the tracks are interesting enough to enjoy even without lyrics and have enough variation within them that they don't become tedious to listen to. The different tracks create different moods and have the necessary catchiness to keep you coming back for more. On quite a few I wish that they had been a bit longer in length, as they are all quite short. That brings me to my only real complaint with the album, I believe it clocks in at only about half an hour or so in length. I wish it was a bit longer, as its over before I can even finish my commute to/from work each day.

So overall I really enjoyed this album. I'd still tend to gravitate more towards the previous releases in the long term, as they have a bit more staying power. But this is a great effort especially when you just want some excellent background music while you do your thing.

This is pretty sunny instrumental stuff from Mac. Melodies are really catchy, production has that homespun veritas. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect an instrumental Portastatic disc to sound like. With some surprises and dark moments that you may not expect.

This is fun to play back-to-back with Go Back Snowball, the project he recorded in 2002 with Robert Pollard as part of Pollard's "Fading Captain" series.