Customer Reviews

Modern Life

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

 

 

OUTSTANDING! Of all the CD's this incredibly gifted artist has produced, 'MODERN LIFE' has to be the crown jewel! High in vitality and emotion! 'Tomorrow's World','Out of the Mist',and 'Take me home to You' WILL leave a very good impression in your memory! This guy sets the benchmark of top shelf, jet-set cool professionalism! Do yourself a big favor. Buy this CD, fire it up,turn out the lights and go on a musical vacation!

Only a year after Brian Culbertson came out with quite a good debut CD "Long Night Out", he gets even better with this one. His keyboard playing is top notch along with his arrangements that just make his music flow. And there is a good combination of fast upbeat songs and slower songs. The first 6 selections and the last one are the best ones with the selections in between being a little less exciting but still very listenable. The only ho-hum selection was his rendition of the Vanessa Williams song "Save the Best for Last".

If you enjoy a good smooth jazz keyboard player who is smooth and melodic and have grown sick and tired of all the Kenny G. alto sax soundalikes, pick up this CD. I own 4 out of his 5 CD's and would still rate this his best.

I own a few Brian Culbertson CD's. This is the best that I have heard from him. Most CD's are front-loaded with the best songs at the beginning of the CD. That isn't the case with this one. They are throughout it. My favorites are Come To Me, Modern Life, And Take Me Home To You. If you don't own anything from Brian...start with this one. You will be glad you did!

Modern Life is a breath of fresh air after a chili-bean eating contest. I give it 2 thumbs up... and a toenail!

HR

When I recently heard "Come To Me" on the radio, I was taken away. I didn't know the artist was Brian Culbertson and that this recording was from 1995! I HAD to add this to my collection. The entire disc is a journey into the genius of this artist. My ears and my soul have enjoyed this refreshing escape. "Take Me Home To You" is slammin'! Gerald Albright kills the sax solo. This is a great 'chill out' CD. I have all of his newer recordings and I am going to order "Long Night Out" and "After Hours"!!! You NEED this in your collectin! "D"

A very good CD, although I think Brian made some better ones later. It does feature a good cover of "Save the Best For Last", and "Come To Me" is a very good up-tempo song, but no others really stand out. That's not bad because it's a very good start-to-finish listen.

Brian Culbertson's sophomore release "Modern Life" follows upon his excellent debut "Long Night Out" from a year before but also changes in atmosphere and even has a more sophisticated, and must I say, atmospheric production quality to it. This album improves upon its predecessor and as of this writing, remains Culbertsons best album he has released to date. In fact, this is one of the rare albums that never suffers a `second-half slump' and actually is equally great from the opening of "Tomorrow's World" to the outro ambience of "Midnight Sun".

"Tomorrows World" begins the album with a New Jack Swing-influenced production and edgy saxophone and piano all bunched together onto one epic opener. "Tu Te Moi" has a softer, and much smoother feel but also a very groovy mix of jazz, pop, and even R&Bish production to it. "Without The Rain" is among the best songs on here with a beautiful, soulful, acoustic arrangement that could easily be the soundtrack to a long pleasant walk along the lakefront on a summer evening. "Out of The Mist" is another really nice track with an uplifting mood. "Come To Me" WAS the song that made me forever a Brian Culbertson fan. This particular song even as I write this ranks among the greatest Smooth Jazz songs ever composed of the last 15 years with a very haunting atmosphere reminiscent of thunderstorms in the evening and a head-bopping beat. The 'huffing' sound effects that begin the tracks give the song a lot of edge. The title track to this CD is in many ways the musical successor to the title track to the previous album except with more live-sounding drums and actually sounding superior in my opinion. A very pleasant surprise is Culbertson's treatment of Vanessa Williams classic "Save The Best For Last". I've always loved the original but Culbertson's version in my opinion rivals it and yet it gives the song a much different but equally enjoyable perspective. "Take Me Home To You" could very well have been a carry-over from the debut album and is another wonderful track. "In Her Eyes" is a relaxing song with a style that to my ears, seems to harken back to the classic 1950s era of jazz but having mid-1990s atmospheric production quality. It's odd but these almost contrasting sounds come together quite well. It is followed by a haunting and ominous interlude called "Prelude to Midnight" which has a rather ominous rumbling New Age ambience like a storm coming but instead suddenly gives away to a much more upbeat song called "Midnight Sun". "The Midnight Sun" brings the album to an epic close with a mix of haunting organ ambience and a sort of Tropical-sounding jazz rhythm that only Culbertson can create. Culbertson could have even made a dance video to this track and might have even made the pop charts with it but that's just my imagination.

Culbertson has definitely released numerous albums since "Modern Life" and lots of great songs as well but despite even something like his 1999 opus "Something About Love" or "Come On Up", Brian has yet to match the heights that he scaled with Modern Life. This is a must have album even for those who despise Smooth Jazz as elevator muzak which a sizable fraction of it is. Not "Modern Life" though. This album is a must have. I'm ending it here. :)

It's perhaps most poignant when we consider how Modern Life began as a testbed for Culbertson, do we realize the magnitude of his genius. Modern Life, for all intents and purposes, personafies this young virtuoso.

Music is for a large part, an avenue to explore one's feelings and emotions; and Brian Culbertson is a master at that. His compositions never fail to evoke a sense escapism for me. It's both beautiful and tragic, within the context of the story being told by the music.

Modern Life will remain my favorite for personal reasons, and for anyone wanting to discover Culbertson as it was meant to be, there is no better way.

this is by far Brian Culbertson's best CD! There is no way of describing why until you hear it for yourself. Simple yet complex, funky yet smooth, Real, Honest, True, young, fun, ... I just can't say enough about the music on this CD! Track 2 is one of the sexiest tunes in contemporary jazz, he's got a urbany slick big city vibe/ Bluesy country all at the same time feel, on "Out of the Mist", "Modern Life" is one of my all time favorite pieces by a keyboard player, Its simplicity just blows me away because of the ability it has to make me feel good, like watching the end to the best love story ever! "Midnight Sun" has such a great groove, I just can't sit in my chair when it comes on!! Get this CD, you will be happy you did!

If you like the newer releases of this artists, but wish he was less funky, then this is the cd to buy. I play "come to me" over and over and over and..