Penthouse

Luna | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 8, 1995)
• Original Release Date: August 8, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002HJ2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,593 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Chinatown

2. Sideshow by the Seashore

3. Moon Palace

4. Double Feature

5. 23 Minutes in Brussels

6. Lost in Space

7. Rhythm King

8. Kalamazoo

9. Hedgehog

10. Freakin' and Peakin'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Daisy and Tom Buchanan Were Still Around..., June 5, 2001

By 

James Carragher (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Penthouse (Audio CD)

they'd be listening to Luna and, as the speakers boomed out across the sound, Jay Gatsby would be at the end of his dock, trying to figure his way into their world by figuring out this music. Here's what Penthouse sounds like -- it sounds like languid, six foot tall women reaching across a glass topped table for their one cigarette a month. It sounds like lipstick traces on your cheek alone in a warm taxicab and the first snowflakes just getting flicked away by the windshield wipers. It sounds like one single light still softly on at 3 AM in the windows of an otherwise all dark building across Fifth Avenue from Central Park; awful things happening there perhaps, but you're pretty sure not. It's music that defines all those times you can't quite figure out what's going on, or where it may be headed, but God do you love it as it's happening. And there's the tie back to Gatsby and the Buchanans, no matter how seductive this work, there's a whiff of darkness about it too, but isn't that always the way with temptation. Personally, I've always wanted to be like the singer's friend in Chinatown --"you're out all night/chasing girlies/You're late to work/And you go home earlies." Yep, "earlies," that's what he says.

"Shimmers," see Amazon reviewer above, is a good word for the music; seamless would be another. And Wareham's voice is another instrument in the mix, sometimes lulling, sometimes quietly desperate. Or think of water, this music flows you along from one cut to the next, and in the time it takes you to surface from the cut just ended, a new one has begun. I don't know of another CD where I've been less aware of the blank seconds between cuts than on this one.

Specifics? Comparisons? The closest sound I know is some of the quieter Yo La Tengo. Lloyd Cole in the Commotions days is a good one too. Forced to pick best cuts -- and it's worth stressing again that each cut builds into the others, making it less important to cite individual highlights -- I'd go with Chinatown, Lost in Space, and Kalamazoo. I don't much care for Bonnie and Clyde, though. Otherwise, this CD is damn near flawless. You've got to go to Bewitched for Wareham's single best lines though in Going Home which kicks off like this: "I've seen her face/in those scented magazines....The Chrsyler building is talking to the Empire State/The Twin Towers are talking to each other/Saying "all is forgiven/I love you still/And we're home, going home." What could more comforting, reconciliation of buildings and of people. But to get that, you'd have to buy another Luna CD. Oh, well, many worse ways to keep the economy going.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, melodic tunes with euphoric instrumental climaxes, September 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Penthouse (Audio CD)

Penthouse has been in my heavy rotation ever since I first discovered it back in 95. Initially attracted to "Chinatown", a top-ten hit if ever there was one....How has this band avoided becoming huge? Listen to the building crescendo in "23 Minutes in Brussels". The final jam manages to simultaneously sound like a rolling freight train, ringing bells, a jackhammer and a chorus of angels singing the return of the Lord. Played at high volume, I can't keep myself from screaming with enjoyment. "Lost in Space" actually captures the feeling of being a million miles from Earth, Dean's guitar leads whispering beautifully from light-years away. But its the WHOLE RECORD, there's not a weak link. Wouldn't you think I'd be tired of a CD after 3 years of constant play? It's that good; buy it immediately, you'll thank me later.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Luna Daze, January 14, 2003

By 

Chris White (Oklahoma City, OK!!!!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Penthouse (Audio CD)

The perfect soundtrack for lonely nights. Dean Wareham and his band pull out all the stops on their third full length albulm. Naughty songs fill this from "Chinatown" "You're out all night/ Chasing girlies/ You're late to work/ And you go home earlies." to the last song "Freakin' and Peakin'". Each track is a gem of lonliness and despair. Like other indie rock king Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips) Wareham takes our hand shows us comfort through humor. His lyrics are often quirky, yet all-together very touching. For there is never a boring moment on this albulm. Luna fills the air with strong guitar work that doesn't call too much attenetion on itself, but fits the mood pefectly. Wareham has come a long way from Galaxie 500, and on this abulm he is showing off. Better production value, better song-writing, better guitar playing, and an amazing record to show for it. The song "Kalamazoo" is perhaps one of the best songs ever written. The perfect jam to sit back with one of the "green, green bottles" and know that someone out there hurts just as much as you do. Simply put, this is one of the greatest albulms to have ever been recorded. Not enough good things can be said for it.