Customer Reviews

Nice Talking to Me (W/Dvd)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The reaction to this record in the press and on pompous music blogs is predictably lukewarm in some places. The Spin Doctors, they say, "don't know their 15 minutes are up." The CD is "irrelevent." They should just "quit." It's hard to tell why there is so much animosity towards the Spin Doctors amongst these people when the band's early-1990s success did not involve them breaking into people's houses and forcing them to listen to "Two Princes" thousands of times in a row at gunpoint (at least according to the federal judges who cleared the band of any wrongdoing in a 1993 case), but actually only occurred because the public enjoyed their hit singles and album "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" enough to catapult it to multi-platinum status.
For those who are actually interested in listening to the album rather than making jokes at its expense, it's actually really good. Though my first impression is that, quality-wise, it sits right below the first two albums and above the second two in terms of overall quality, it also combines some of the better elements of both the "original" era Spin Doctors and the "dark ages" when they lost Eric Schenkman and Mark White and added assorted members along the way. There is slight experimentation, as on the latter albums, but it is mostly reined in to conform to what the Spin Doctors do best, bass-slapping, guitar-shredding, catchy pop-funk music that defies the "jam" definition because, no matter how much old bandwagon fans may be loathe to admit it, the songs are full of hooks and accessible to an audience that might not be interested in going to see Phish or The String Cheese Incident.
Each band member has certain moments where they shine -- drummer Aaron Comess on "I'd Like To Love You, But I Think You Might Be Crazy," Schenkman on "Genuine" and at the end of "Can't Kick The Habit," Mark White on "Sugar" and "Safety Pin," and Chris Barron pretty much all over the place, singing with the most non-contrived sentiment since "PFOK," probably due to the long layover in terms of years and life experience (he went through vocal chord paralysis) since the last album.
Overall, this CD is a very good release from The Spin Doctors that captures the feel-good nostalgia of a reunion tour without being a redundant addition to their catalogue, even if the hook to "Genuine" sounds suspiciously like "Off My Line."
My only criticism here is that the Doctors, or their record labels, seem to have an uncanny knack for choosing singles that are virtually guaranteed to bomb on the airwaves. In the tradition of "Cleopatra's Cat," "Can't Kick The Habit" is a good song that just doesn't make sense on the radio. On a CD where nine songs can be mostly categorized as "pop," there isn't a good reason that an eight-minute contemplative ballad needs to be chosen as the "hit." The radio edit, furthermore, cuts out half of the song to make it short enough to be played, and as a result eliminates the ridiculous extended guitar solos at the end that help to make it a stand-out track in the first place.
That said, it is unlikely the band is releasing this CD to unleash a renewed torrent of "Spin Doctors-Mania" upon the nation; so perhaps it's best that it will only end up in the hands of the fans who have stuck by the band even as they have become a joke in the eyes of the mainstream.

Wow, who knew?

This album just plain rocks... superior songwriting, humor, great musicianship (who plays drums better than Aaron Comess? WHO?), wicked guitar playing, utterly distinctive bass playing, and the beautiful humanity of Chris Barron's voice singing some of his coolest lyrics ever.

Some people are lucky to know how good the Spin Doctors are and were...others have yet to find out. If you liked Pocket Full of Kryptonite, you will really like this record..I'm not sure I could say that about any other Spin Doctors studio album. All of the qualities that made that a for-the-ages album: catchy songs, hard rockingness, humanity, funk, are here, too, but with a decade of life experience (not just for the musicians but for us listeners). Give this album a try...

Awesome new album by the Spin Doctors - the first new album since 1999 (Here Comes The Bride), but the first album by the original line up since 1994 (Turn It Upside Down)!

Ten songs in between funk, rock and pop - unforgettable hooklines (Margarita, My Problem Now, Nice Talking To Me) and great jams (Can't Kick The Habit, Genuine, I'd like to love you).
Definitely the best SD album since "Turn It Upside Down" - check it out, you won't regret it.

And the additional DVD is a nice treat as well: including a 10-minutes documentary and 4 live tracks. Great!

This is a little different than I remember the Spin Doctors being but that's not bad. It's slick sounding but still "edgy" enough to be interesting. If you dig the old stuff you'll probably dig this too. There should be a bit more jamming to it but hey what can you do. This album is still a nice progression. Good to see the boys back.

i have been fan since pfok and lost interest when eric left the band after tiud, when i was just surfing one day on the internet i thought id see what happended to the spin doctors a fav band back in the day, ended up checking out there website and found the free download of "can't kick the habit".....the song imediatly grabbed my attention, then found SD on myspace and saw they had "Nice Talking To Me" ( the song! ) for a stream ....another Great song! then soon after i ordered the album from the bands site in which i recieved 4 months ago.I am still listening to it almost everyday, it is one of those albums that your fav songs change from listen to listen as there really isnt a weak track on the cd, the production style is great too.. do yourself a favour a buy this cd for great songwriting, musicianship, production etc, "Nice Talking To Me" is a cd you wont regret getting your hands on, it totally kicks in every way a great album should, the spin doctors are back in a big big way, oh yeah and one more thing.....MARGARITA!, MARGARITA!, MARGARITA!!!!!, check it out today!!

The Spin Doctors' tale is enough to make any aspiring band think twice. After achieving explosive highs with their multiplatinum funk-rock-pop infused record "Pocket Full of Kryptonite," the band collapsed, producing two more albums that flopped miserably, losing their guitarist due to serious in-fighting, and then losing their lead singer to a rare form of vocal-paralysis.

Yeah, it was THAT bad. However, sitting atop such a disaster is a delightful comeback story that comes to us in the form of "Nice Talking to Me."

The Doctors' last album, "Here Comes the Bride", was quite a departure from their earlier fare, transforming them from funk-pop jammers to a studio-heavy, pastiche-minded straight up rock band. Though admirable in its own right, it certainly didn't provide the same high as 'Pocket Full of Kryptonite' did, much to the dismay of the band's fans.

"Nice Talking To Me" sees the band returning to its roots, and in high form. Never bogged down by the sloppiness of their 'Pocket Full of Kryptonite' follow-up, 'Turn It Upside Down' or by the strangeness and studio-reliance of 'Here Comes the Bride,' the album romps through 10 tracks of pure funk-pop.

This is no massive musical revolution, so picky listeners and snooty critics look elsewhere; 'Nice Talking To Me's strengths are the strengths of pop-rock at its best: catchiness, conciseness, and approachability. None of the tracks, save for "Can't Kick the Habit" extends to jam-band lengths, nor do any of them ever fail to entice the listener to sing along. But, for all their popiness, they never seem to fall prey to the copycat syndrome to such an extent that you feel like you might as well tack the tracks onto a Matchbox 20 album; for all their similarity, one instantly knows by the hard-driving funkiness of the title track to the warm upbeat clap-your-hands "Candy" to the soft, even thoughtful "Can't Break the Habit" to the happy, incisive, and revenge-driven "Margarita" that this is ear candy that won't make you nauseous.

Plus, the lyrics aren't the standard tiringly over-serious, over-written Matchbox 20 fare--they fit their tunes with a bit of goofy wit and straight-forward poetics. Chris Barron's voice fits in well in the funk grooves, carries the melody lines in the pop fills satisfactorily, and is agile enough to produce the occassional mile-a-minute vocal without butchering words or losing momentum.

Though it won't win any words for ingenuity, "Nice Talking to Me" delivers the goods; Spin Doctors fans can rejoice, as they've just received the album they've always wanted, and everyone else can bob their heads and tap their feet to the delightful pop melodies that stay in your head without making you sick to your stomach.

Pretty good comeback from the Doctors . . . saw them live in August 2005 before buying the album, and they are tight as a 4 piece on stage. Songs come off better on the album since Schenkman can double-track his guitars for rhythm and lead. Standout tracks are the openers -- Nice Talking To Me (great energy), Sugar (awesome lyrics and groove), Margarita (very cool vibe) . . . then a bit of a mellow out until some more standout tracks including Genuine (as a prev. poster noted, similar hook to "Off My Line"), Safety Pin, and funny lyrics in many songs.

Probably won't get the airplay it deserves. Well worth picking up.

I found this CD by accident at a music store. I was a big Spin Doctors fan around the time of their debut CD when I was in college. I used to play it at my college radio station before it caught on commercial stations. This CD later got played to death and I think anything the Spin Doctors came out with thereafter (good or not so good) was ignored by the public. This CD is great and has the freshness of their first success. My two favorite songs are Safety Pin and Candy, but there are so many others. I have no idea why mainstream radio stations aren't picking this up, but I forget that most FM stations are crap anyway these days no matter where you are. I guess it's time to get satelite radio and an Ipod. I hope the Spin Doctors stay together and make more releases like "Nice Talking to Me". They deserve another look by everyone. This is one of my prized CDs.

Seriously, I don't understand why this group isn't more popular. This CD is up-tempo and fun to listen to. It isn't angsty, 'edgy,' or sound like the empty pop you hear on the radio. Man their guitars sound sooo cool!

Favorite Song: Safety Pin

I was a dedicated Spin Doctors fan back in the day, but lost track of them over their 10-year sabbatical. I was pleasantly surprised to find a new album sitting on the shelves while I was Christmas shopping. I snatched it up right away and have never looked back.

This is their best album. Insanely clever lyrics wrapped in a much more mature, funk-blues-folk package. A great deal of fun.