Customer Reviews

Moonflower Plastic (Welcome To My Wigwam)

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

 

 

This is a fantastic underappreciated CD. It is as good as the best Guided By Voices CDs (Allien Lanes & Do the Collapse). Tobin shows that he has grown as a singer and songwriter. If you life melodic pop music, buy this CD.

The reviews for this album were good, but I still think it's an underrated pop masterpiece very nearly on a par with such classics as Nick Lowe's "Pure Pop For Now People" and Don Dixon's "Most of the Girls Like to Dance But Only Some of the Boys Do." Though it lacks some of the charm and engagingly enigmatic atmosphere of "Carnival Boy," "Moonflower Plastic" more than makes up for it with a consistently excellent and varied set of songs. And dig the incredible production on "Angels Hang their Socks on the Moon"! You need to have this.

but to the guy below, all of the beatles stuff was done on 8 tracks or less, and rubber soul and revolver were done on four tracks.

..this would be a double-platinum #1 hit. Infectious and addictive, there isn't a weak track on this disc. Great pop music! The music here is a little different from Guided By Voices (Tobin's previous band), with a little more time, care and arrangement afforded the tunes. A few spins and you won't be able to get these songs out of your head.

Its not often that a secondary song writer from a band releases an album that surpasses anything that his former band did. For far to long Tobin was limited to adding two maybe three songs to each Guided by Voices cd...always the best songs in my opinion. With 1996's excellent lp "Carnival Boy" Tobin proved to everyone that he was indeed a song writer up to par with his ex-band mate Robert Pollard. However, I do not think anyone could have seen what was going to come next...When first listening to "Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to my Wigwam)" one gets the feeling that he has stumbled upon something amazing. Tobin Sprout is what the Beatles would have been if they had only recorded on an 8-track. I would highly recomend this cd to anyone who loves classic pop songs in the heart of british invasion era Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones...

3 1/2 stars. I am a fan of Tobin Sprout, have his first record and most of the GBV stuff. The nice thing about GBV with Sprout is that since he only got a few chances, his best stuff probably got showcased--not to mention it was a great complement to Bob Pollard's material, standing out as a brighter contrast. Now that he has branched out, Sprout is growing as a songwriter and performer, and his material is consistently good. Not great. I've listened to both his solo records for quite some time, and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I like the plaintive melancholy of his sound, and his forays on piano. I just can't think of a memorable moment a la "14 Cheerleader Coldfront," "Little Whirl," "To Remake the Young Flyer." Hey, I'm not saying this stuff is bad--but I think Toby still needs to prove a little more depth to his writing; maybe more instrumentation instead of just going through the piano and guitar chord changes. Looking forward to his new work.

About as good as his first effort, "Carnival Boy", which is to say it is pretty darn good. It's more melodious than "Carnival Boy". I wish Tobin would sing about things that really mean something to him, rather than random things off the top of his head (the same complaint I have against GBV: stop trying to be the Picassos of music or something--it's lame), but the lyrics are quirky enough to be at least semi-cool, and music is lovely--Tobin is peppier than Goddard. Peppy, catchy, Tobin is always good to listen to, whatever he does.

I am a student of music. I like to follow different styles and trends and write about them from an intellectual point of view, maybe shed some light in a way that few people have- offer a NEW perception, if you will.

I've been listening to GBV for about the last six months after a girlfriend left a tape in my car. Since then I have been collecting quite a few of their albums.

The music is rough and unpolished, like a jewel that's been buried in the desert for a few years. But once you pick it up and blow some of the dust off (hope I'm not getting TOO symbolic here) you'll find a shiny ruby!

A lot of people are labeling this music "home recording" or low fidelity music. It's not done in big studios with big budgets. I assume they got record deals for writing good songs, not for slick productions and glossy engineering.

So, where does that leave us?

Well, my grand impression or opinion is that you could actually compare Guided by Voices to the Beatles. (OK, stretch your imagination a little, I'm not saying they're as good). But what you get is a band like the Beatles. And if you use your imagination, well, wouldn't Robert Pollard be Paul McCartney and Tobin Sprout be John Lennon?

It's kind of neat, because they're making solo albums just like the Beatles did.

The nice part about this album, is it sounds like John Lennon in a way. Maybe not as perfect. But listen to John Lennon's Anthology CD's of his demos and rougher recordings. Then listen to this album. They're very similar.

Great pop hooks that are prettier than orange blossom trees and drinking a cool soda in the shade with the one you love.

I hope that someone will realize the talents of these songwriters and get them to a proper studio. Maybe we've yet to hear a Band on the Run or and Imagine from these potentially good singer/songwriters.

Hope to be reviewing some more Guided By Voices, so keep checking back! I hope I can steer everybody on to some great overlooked music in a time when music is not all that good anyways.