Customer Reviews

Major General

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4 star:		(0)
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Franz Nicolay was opening for a band I went to see and I liked him much more than the band I went to see in the first place. They have many more albums available at their shows, now the regret sets in for not buying them. This one is awesome and I love it!

Every music fan has an album close to their heart that they want the world to hear. Sometimes the world shows up to listen. It might be the year it's released, it might be a decade or more later, but the acclaim grows and everyone pretends they always loved it. Major General is that album. I don't want you to wait to hear it, I want you to join me in loving it now.

To say this is a side project from the keyboardist of The Hold Steady wouldn't be entirely accurate. There is so much music in Franz Nicolay that the multiple bands he plays with can't hold it all. If you told me he'd recently put together an album of prog / country / acid jazz fusion, I'd believe you. In fact, I was a little afraid that's what Major General would be. It isn't. It's a toe tapper, a breath stealer, a masterpiece of indie rock that offers something different around every corner. Clever lyrics bounce through complex compositions. A song about the Dead Kennedys slides in next to a jazz influenced lounge piece. It's eclectic, but in the good way.

If you listen to only one track, try Confessions of an Ineffective Casanova, a rollicking ride through failed relationships with the truthful lines "Sometimes I ain't quite right / It's not the same as being wrong"

Track Listing
Jeff Penalty
Hey Dad!
World/Inferno vs The End Of The Evening
Dead Sailors
Do We Not Live In Dreams?
Confessions of an Ineffective Casanova
Note on a Subway Wall
Quiet Where I Lie
Nightrasong
X-Games
This World Is An Open Door
Cease-Fire, or, Mrs. Norman Maine
I'm Done Singing