Customer Reviews

Moldy Peaches

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

 

 

The one song that many will be familiar with now is the one from Juno. ANYONE ELSE BUT YOU, I think it's called. The female half of the Peaches is Kimya Dawson, and she now does alot more solo work, that is in more of the realm of this one song. But I was first introduced to The Moldy Peaches via a song called WHO'S GOT THE CRACK. The song is pretty ridiculous. The lyrics are juvenile, and possibly somewhat offensive to some. Whooo-oooo-ooo's got the CRACK!?
Alot more of this CD follows suit with this song. Juvenile, pointless, offensive... but something about the drawl and mundane characteristics of the two members seems to work. It's very alterna-folk, with a couple of garage punk moments. Kimya Dawson has that flat, unemotional tone to her voice. But with the male half, they sound like a couple lost inside a world of grey, and they pull off some great harmonies. Completely lo-fi like sound. I think they did one more album after this one, and were pretty much a cult underground thing, until that movie came out.
I can see why some people may find this thing to be pointless, but if you dig it, you will realize that those people miss the point.

Or maybe you won't, I don't care.

I enjoy this CD. I highly recommend! I enjoyed all the cute simple songs that I don't hear very often in radio lyrics....

but the people who enjoy this album will probably REALLY enjoy it and will be glad they found it. I can't think of an album that's like this. The highlights to me are "Lucky Number Nine," "Jorge Regula," "Nothing Came Out," "Steak for Chicken," "Ballad of Hellenkeller..." and "Lazy Confessions." All the other songs are good too, but they kind of require listening to the rest of the album.

Oh, and just because you like the Juno soundtrack doesn't mean you will like this album. The Juno soundtrack sounds more polished and, well, listenable for everyone. This album is lo-fi, on purpose obviously, and has a completely different feel than the soundtrack.

This album is a good one to attatch a memory to. So if something is coming up, like a friend visiting, then you might want to listen to this album. Just a suggestion.

I saw the Moldy Peaches in concert five years ago when they opened for Tenacious D and I quickly went out and bought their CD. Yeah the songs were recorded in their apartment but they are simple, catchy, different and fun to sing along to. Listen to it with an open mind and enjoy.

A Great CD if you like this style of music, I didn't remove from my player for several weeks...

I first heard this act in the terrific movie "Juno". When the lead actress in that movie, Elaine Page, was asked by the creator what musical act Juno would listen to, Page responded "Moldy Peaches". And so it was the Moldy Peaches came to appear on the soundtrack for that movie. Bought the "Juno" soundtrack...didn't mind it...a bit lukewarm about it. However, I did really like the song "Vampire" by Antsy Pants, which is a band Kimya Dawson, from The Moldy Peaches, has been involved with.

Can't say that I like anything as much as "Vampire" on this album, but it is nonetheless a likeable collection of songs. Whilst the songs are mostly folk in style (accoustic guitar, gentle vocals), there are some aberrations, like rock/rap fusions, alt-rock and punk style adventures.

If you have a sound system which costs more than the average house, you won't like the production values of this album. It has a sound akin to scratchy vinyl records or those old cheap stereo cassette players. In fact, it seems you can hear the band members turning recording equipment on and off throughout the albums. I'm assuming also that the Peaches recorded their material in-house...literally. On one song, you can hear a telephone ringing, which makes Kimya laugh whilst performing (on "Nothing came out". Some songs don't even sound properly stereo ("Little Bunny Foo Foo"). Perhaps these variations in sound quality can be explained by them being taken at different points in time. So, be prepared for a lo-fi experience listening to this album, though some tracks do sound good, audio-wise. Perhaps the worst sounding song is "Lazy confessions".

Anyway, to the music: Kimya Dawson and Adam Green are the female and male vocalists in this act. Their music is folk-sounding but the lyrics often are amusingly childishly vulgar. Their best known song, from the movie "Juno" exemplifies this: "Anyone else but you". It's not favourite track from this album and other song with childishly vulgar lyrics can make me laugh.

Even though the music may be labelled "simple", it does have complexity of arrangements at times and witty lyrics. My favourite song is "The goodbye song". It's an accoustic track where Kimya and Adam sing at the same time but with different lyrics. It's that kind of complexity which I find appealing. In other songs you might get them singing the same lyrics together, or alternating lyrics, or have Kimya echoing what Adam is singing.

Other songs I liked from this album were:

What went wrong - a very hissy, very raw/primal garage rock song. Raucous voices and might feature a flute or some such instrument.

Nothing came out - has a cleaner audio sound than the above; has a gentle, Pink Floyd style lead guitar sound for the intro and through-out. Later on there is a Queen style heavy rock lead guitar sound. Kimya's singing is pretty in this song.

These burgers - has a psychedelic folk music feel. Lyrics are sort of hip poetry. Features a strange keyboard type sound. The drums get heavier towards the end of the song.

Steak for chicken - another folky type song, poetic lyrics (like "Beat" poetry?). A good example of childishly vulgar lyrics being utilised...they amused me. The dual vocals are very cool and they sing different lyrics at times, which is always interesting.

On top - very raw audio quality, very raw rock/grunge guitar sound. The only rap type song on this album and the only song which doesn't feature either Kimya or Adam.

Greyhound bus - another very raw sounding song...garage music (of the weird sort)...has a bit of a blues/rock feel to it. Has simple lyrics.

Anyone else but you - The closing song from the movie "Juno". A witty and at time childishly vulgar song. Has a pleasant, accoustic sound. The one lapse into vulgarity might spoil it for some people, but not me.

The ballad of Helen Keller... - has a pretty, accoustic melody and gentle, alternating vocals between Kimya and Adam. There is an electric buzzing sound throughout this song. Intended?

Lucky charms - has a hymnal feel to it and military style drum sounds.

I forgot - very nice banjo introduction, with accoustic guitar, includes a violin, "Creep" style vocals (the Radiohead song, I mean) and a Beatle-esque outro.

New York City's like a graveyard - a very raw, punk/grunge (grunk?) sounding song due to the very raw electric guitar sound/riff. When I looked up this band on Wikipedia just now, I see that this album was released on the day of attacks on the Twin Towers in New York. An unfortunate co-incidence for a song with this title.

Goodbye song - my favourite from this album. Has Adam singing one set of lyrics in the left speaker and Kimya singing different lyrics in the right speaker.

This is an interesting an likeable debut album. Just don't compare it to top 40 music-it's good that acts like Moldy Peaches are out there doing things their own way and on their own. Really, I find it astonishing that this act is know at all. How did Ellen Page find out about them? Were they a band that had their own cottage industry of selling cassettes of their music or something? HOW did they get noticed?

I like this album better than the Juno soundtrack. The latter didn't have a great deal of Moldy Peaches songs on them, and this album is diverse enough to pique the interest of people with different tastes in music.

I bought this for a friend who joins me in just loving the "Juno" soundtrack which includes the one listenable cut from this cd. Unfortunatley, the cd contains 10 or so more songs when one is enough. The Peaches aren't moldly at all - they aren't even ripe. Immature lyrics, poor musicality, oh, its just awful.

greatest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the lucky charms in all its forms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also love the spin doctors guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!