Customer Reviews

Up Off the Floor

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

 

 

This album is actually a collection of songs made 4 years before the album's release as they were slated for a previous album but the rocard label they were on went out of business before the new album was finished. So while GLU's previous album was in 1997 (7 years since this album), song wise, there was only a 2-3 year gap after the previous album.

The songs are really great and are finished but there are two major flaws with this album. The first is splitting hairs (or whinning) but the album only has 10 songs where I always see 12 as a minimum. The second problem, and a very big one at that, is that the recording quality is HORRIBLE. The songs are muddy sounding and are not clear. You can hear that the last track was created well after the other 9 tracks as it is much clearer although not perfect. I was very tempted to give this album 3 stars because of the recording quality is really poor, but the songs are pretty good so I figured 4 was a reasonable score.

Song per song ratings on a 5 star scale...
1. White Noise - 4 stars
2. Tricked - 4 stars
3. 1% (The Long Way Down) - 4 stars
4. Whatever You've Got - 4 stars
5. No Way (You Must Understand - 4 stars
6. Slip to Fall - 5.5 stars (possibly one of my fav GLU tracks)
7. History - 4.5 stars
8. 72 Hours - 3 stars
9. Miss You More Than Anything - 4.5 stars
10. Positivity - 4.25 stars

God Lives Underwater are back! Although, they really aren't. Up Off The Floor serves as a fitting epitaph for one of the more underrated Hard Rock/Industrial bands of the mid to late nineties. I was a big follower and proponent of the band, catching them at 5 shows in my area, as well as getting to play on stage at one of the shows with them. Turzo and Reilly were, in my opinion, masters of melding strong melodic hard rock with intelligent industrial stylings. Their first two CD's, the self titled EP and Empty were strong examples of industrial laced hard rock with accessible pop hooks. 98's release 'Life in the so called Space Age' found GLU focusing more on the electronics as well as garnering them some MTV exposure. While in my opinion, it wasn't their strongest effort, it was a success, and showed the band's breadth of talent. 'Up Off the Floor' feels more like a companion to their first two discs. Going back to the hard rock guitar and drums that were the 'norm' for them. All the songs have a catchy appeal to them, and if this CD were released during the band's 'heyday', it would have been a big success. Unfortunately this CD serves as a reminder of what could have been. Musically, it is one of their best efforts. However, the CD recording quality is average, with the levels being on the somewhat lower and muffled side. I can only imagine how this CD would have sounded like with the financial resources and production quality of a major label backing it. Nevertheless, the CD is a must have for any fan of industrial based hard rock and of course any God Lives Underwater fan. I'm glad they finally got the disc out, warts and all... and it serves as a reminder to me of a fun time in my life where GLU would take the stage of the cramped Coney Island High in NYC and rock out with the best of them.

As many of you may or may not have heard, former lead singer of God Lives Underwater and what would have been future solo artist David Reilly has passed away from stomach complications. A sad and tragic fate for a great performer. He will be sorely missed.

In the interim, the final album from God Lives Underwater does not come close to matching EMPTY and their self-titled debut, both of which had more of the hard-charging techno-rock embrace that domintated GLU's early material. LIFE IN THE SO CALLED SPACE AGE was flawed, but still strong and leaned more towards the techno edge. UP OFF THE FLOOR is the album that tries to return GLU to the hard rock/techno mix that EMPTY succeeded...they come up somewhat short. First off, the sound is kind of muddled on a few songs, although "White Noise" and "1%" are very good, strong rock songs and come as close to the rock of EMPTY as you're likely to hear. Secondly, they had originally planned 12 tracks and the two left off were good tracks, and the 10 we are left with are mostly good, but undermined by the flawed mastering job. It's ashame that the album turned out this way, because it could have been so much more than it is...a solid rock/techno album with a strong collection of songs, but a flawed sound.

UP OFF THE FLOOR is probably the weakest GLU album, but it still has its share of good moments and it's memorable enough to make it an essential to any hardcore GLU fan's collection. But sadly, it is not the masterpiece that it could have been had more time been put into the mastering and, some, the music. Listen if you want to hear the last notes of GLU. (May you rest in peace, David Reilly)

GLU was once called by Spin magazine to be the best band you've never heard.
`Up Off the Floor" has taken 5 years to come out. When GLU's record label 1500 records collapsed the album was shelved and the tracks could be downloaded from the bands website until that too went down!
Then GLU broke up, David Reilly formed Fluzee and released an e.p. called the `7 e.p.'
In the meantime David Reilly-vocalist recorded his 1st solo CD called `David Reilly-INSIDE e.p.' and Jeff Turzo continued to form a new project titled `WIRED ALL WRONG'.
`Up Off the Floor' is a masterpiece of an album; it is GLU's `In Utero'.
The songs are much darker and heavier, the lyrics deal with drug addiction, death, and well some positivity!
David Reilly is currently working on a full length solo LP on corporate punishment records.

After much speculation, 'Up off the Floor' finally makes it's way into stores after about a 4 year delay. I recall downloading all the tracks off the website they were hosted maybe 2 or 3 years ago and thinking it was a real good effort. The album was a nice mix of 'Empty' riffs with '...Space Age' electronics. After getting tired of hearing when this would be released, I lost track of GLU until I stumbled upon this in a store a few weeks strictly by accident. I was of course exited, but once I listened to this, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

First off...the production is atrocious. Simple as that. The songs could easily be mistaken for early demos. It sounds as if the already decent qualtiy songs were downloaded from the website a while back, had the bitrate lowered, then rerecorded through several layers of towels. Back in '99 I spent several bucks on a 1500 records sampler which had a slightly shorter version of '1% [The Long Way Down]', and that version sounds aeons better than what this album provides. There's no impact to the instruments or bass murdering drum beats that we were spoiled with on the previous GLU records. The album just feels dirty. Any 2 bit local band can release a cleaner sounding CD. This could easily be 3 1/2 stars had we gotten a decent mixing effort.

I would assume that the band breaking up had a hand in the record getting released like this, but still, there's obviously better versions of these tracks out there. Why the album was released in this state just confuses the hell out of me.

Anyways, there IS a semi-decent album underneath the muffled instruments. There just aren't any real phenominal tracks. 'Miss you more' is the best song, followed by '1%' and 'White Noise'. Their cover of Bowie's 'Fame' from the 15 Minutes soundtrack would have been a nice addition to the album, as well as their most excellent cover of 'Flies on the Windscreen'.

Overall, this isn't really a good place to start with if you're new to GLU. Start with the EP, then 'Emtpy', then this, then track down all their B-Sides and end it all with their uber awesome 'Life in the So Called Space Age'. As for the fans...you've been warned.

I was very happy to learn that God Lives Underwater was finally releasing their long awaited swan song album "Up Off The Floor" Then I received it. Wow. This album has THE worst mastering off any album I know. Like a reviewer said below, the songs sound like they were low bit rate MP3s that were changed to wavs to make this cd. The MP3s I downloaded off of the website a while back sound better. I am very disappointed and I actually thought that the record was a bootleg, but no, Locomotive Records does seem to exist. What a shame.

Oh man. God Lives Udnerwater IS THE BEST BAND YOU'VE NEVER HEARD. BRIEF HISTORY:Man, they released empty in 1995 on the american recordings label, then went to 1500 and released Life Int he So-called Space-Age, but then the label went under bankruptcy, then the band had issues, went their separate ways, in the meantime dave released the 7 ep by fluzee and Living in syn by Robot Teen America (basically all him) and then FINALLY in 2004 he released this, UP OFF THE FLOOR, on megaforce records (...) and his solo EP, INSIDE on corporatepunishment.

ALBUM SOUND: Very emotional. Unlike many artists that get to their 3rd album beoming more and more cold and cut off from their audience emotionally, GLU got so deep and so raw with their klyrics and layered sound. its a beautifully diverse mix of (to sum up quickly) Rock and Electronica. There are breakbeats, scratches, fades, many quiky digital sounds, but mixed together coherently with melodious vocals, heavy guitars and drumbeats. Way more content than the amount of layers or sound in, say, a Brian Eno album. The guitars are elaborate and mesmerizing, almost storylike in quality like smashing pumpkins' Earphoria or Siamese Dream. The songs are the usual length, unlike on LITSCSA, where a few go on for over 8 minutes. THe songs are all in the same general range (in terms of genre) but they dont all sound the same, they all have their own little moods. Great album.

You dont have to be a hardcore fan to enjoy this. buy one and one for a friend. its really good stuff.

If you appreciate industrial rock, you'll love this album! I've always been a GLU fan and they've definetly topped their albums with this one. It took a few listens to really appreciate this album. every song on it is good, I can't decide which one is my favorite, they're all unique sounding, there's some poppy choruses in a few songs and some nice sounding synths. These guys are really under rated, I'm surprised that I haven't heard any of these songs on the radio yet. If you like this CD, order the David Reilly's solo acoustic EP (He's got a full length coming early next year, thats the singer. You can find the cd on www.davidreillymusic.com.

I can't really add too much to what has already been said, but I'll back up a few points. The quality may not be too great, but this album has been tossed around and left in uncertainty for years. Thankfully, it's finally seen the light of day. This is by far GLU's most mature and amazing release to date. It is filled with emotion and is based on real-life. Whether you're just discovering GLU or a long-time fan like me, this is definitely worth picking up!

one of the best albums on the market. I suggest buying extra copies and giving them as presants. It's an AMAZING gift. Incrdible songs. Reilly and Turzo out did themselves. too bad it took so long to come out.