Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just great music, October 12, 2003
A livelier and equally genuine follow-up to their almost perfect album, South San Gabriel, Love You Just the Same is another piece of strong song-writing, singing, and good old rock and roll. Blends bitterness with country laziness, a sense that however angry any of this might make you, none of that will matter anyway. It will remind you of Uncle Tuppelo or the best Wilco, without being at all derivative. These guys are too good to be unknown, but they're probably not packaged commercially enough to get the kind of distribution their talent deserves. Centro-matic's strength is just great music.
|
|
|
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible release, September 10, 2003
Centro-Matic certainly makes their own mark on American music. The first time I had heard centro-matic I was completely floored by their emotive sense of timing. The band members play well together, and their live performances show a sense of thoughfulness and maturity. Traces of these elements are exemplified on "Love You Just the Same". This is a very solid collection of songs and it merits many listens. The first month I had this album I listened to it almost every single day driving to and from work. In conclusion: buy it!
|
|
|
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lozenges for everyone!, February 1, 2007
The singer of this band has one of those voices, ragged and damaged (can you say 'polyps'?), that makes MY throat hurt.
Listening and relistening to this album conjures up the image of a sprawling dinner party thrown jointly by the Replacements and Uncle Tupelo. Soul Asylum is there, Red Red Meat is there. Centro-Matic is there. Many, many other bands are there. This is a popular indie-rock party.
Centro-Matic, though, gets to sit near the head of the table, closer to Westerberg and Tweedy than many of their contemporaries. Not too close, though, because there's something a little off-putting about Centro-Matic... like its flannel thrift-store shirt is clean and pressed while the Replacements t-shirt is torn with beer stains on it.
Make no mistake, though, these guys do rock pretty hard and do have some good riffs, some of these songs could even be considered "anthemic". But their music doesn't come off as loose and fun as it seems like it should. When you get to track 6, "All the Lightning Rods", suddenly you have a singer-songwriter ballad and an awkward quiet falls over the party. Someone calls R.E.M.'s "Wendell Gee" to come down to show them how it's done.... similar melody, better arrangement...
Okay, well, you get the idea. If you like what folks call "alt-country", this album is a worthy participant in that genre, although it's not very heavy on the "country". Were the Replacements alt-country? Not really. By the way, "Spiraling Sideways" on this record conjures up PLEASED TO MEET ME in many different ways. It's a good song, it doesn't try for Springsteen back-row histrionics and it's over in just over 3 minutes. It and "Biology Tricks" are the real standouts here, indie rock gems you don't hear too much of these days. You do hear the thick distorted guitars, the strained and earnest delivery, the cymbals crashing, and so on, but there's something charming here, worth hearing.
I hope the singer gives his throat the proper care as he may not want to spend his 40s and beyond talking in a whisper... I've seen it happen.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Centro-Matic
~ Centro-matic
~ Centro-Matic
~ Will Johnson
~ South San Gabriel
by Centro-matic 
