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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Interesting Music..., June 20, 2003
Sam Phillips remains a highly praised artist by critics, but woefully under-supported by the masses. She intentionally flips back and forth between 'commercial' releases and then 'experimental and artistic' releases. Her debut "Indescribable Wow" was a commercial release, which contained some of the best pop songs every written. Then, she took an experimental and artistic turn with the gem "Cruel Inventions". Then, she came back with the commercial "Martinis and Bikinis", so now we are back to the 'experimental and artistic' with Omnipop. This CD is way out in left field and themes mostly on sexuality and it really works. My favorite cuts are the first song, which to me, is one of her best. She took the word 'entertainment' and left off the 't' on the end and look what you got: "Entertain-men", which is the focus of this song - how life can sometimes revolve around what entertains men, especially where women are concerned. Is it just me or does Sam's voice sound so incredibly sexy when she sings "Watch me... Watch me... Ahhhhh.... Oh let me by your TV, AAHHHHH"!?!? I love the freshness and artsy-ness of "Plastic is Forever". I absolutely loved the sexy and jazzy "Help Yourself". Die-hard fans will find "Power World" a familiar Sam Phillip's trademark. You can always count on Sam to never sound the same, and this one is her most intriguing release to date.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sam expands into new musical horizons, July 29, 2000
By A Customer
I disagree with Jeff Bateman's and Stephen Thomas Erlewine's (allmusic.com) criticisms of this album. The styles, ranging from guitar feedback experimentalism to pastiches of easy listening, only serve to broaden the palette for the super-fastidious, ultra-thoughtful, lyrical songwriting of Sam Phillips. These are not merely complex, biting comments on society and relationships (remarkable enough for today's "pop" music) but brilliantly constructed songs, in every aspect matching the quality tradition of Weill, or Brecht. This album is best seen as the maturation of her model of mimesis; for it demonstrates a freedom to explore a new, unfamiliar sounds, yet one that is grounded in her own mastery of the pop idiom. Anyone who puts down this work in comparison to Martinis and Bikinis isn't giving Sam her fair shake as an artist. Don't expect those who are truly creative to stay in the same niche of sound, or of color, or of whatever medium, to which you have grown accustomed. Let's hope Sam will come out with a few more albums that are again in a new direction.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the Pure in Heart., April 29, 1999
By A Customer
If you liked "Cruel Inventions" then you will probably like this offering also. Ms. Phillips does touch on some of the interesting themes of Modernity. Her criticism of the "tube" is very timely as we watch the horror in Littleton, CO and see two mentally ill teenagers become infamous over night. Probably, just what they wanted. In the song Plastic is Forever we find the following lyric: "pain is pleasure when its televised"; in Power World: "look at how they've washed your brain down the info tv drain". The reality is that "nothing is so beautiful, nothing is so continually fresh and surprising, so full of sweet and perpetual ecstasy, as the good; no desert is so dreary, monotonous and boring as evil. But with fantasy it's the other way round. Fictional good is boring and flat, while fictional evil is varied, intriguing, attractive and full of charm". (Simone Weil)
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