Personality (One Was a Spider One Was a Bird)

The Sleepy Jackson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 25, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Astralwerks
• ASIN: B000FVQYKE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,946 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You Needed More

2. Devil Was In My Yard

3. God Lead Your Soul

4. Work Alone

5. God Knows

6. I Understand What You Want But I Just Don't Agree

7. Miles Away

8. Higher Than Hell

9. Play A Little Bit For Love

10. Don't Say

11. You Won't Bring People Down In My Town

12. Dream On

13. How Was I Supposed To Know

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Remember when Mercury Rev emerged from their early-career noisy haze and presented Deserter's Songs? Keep that event in mind as you hear Luke Steele (a.k.a. the voice of the Sleepy Jackson) intone atop the orchestral swirl, vibraphone, and massed-vocal harmonies of "You Needed More," the opening track of Personality. It's the album's most lush tune, with the remaining 12 repurposing the song's textures at will--and adding pedal steel, more pronounced drums, and wonderful, controlled guitar distortion. Steele's mastery of the Pet Sounds palette is vast, creating a floating ambience that multiplies the bandleader's core strangeness--his fascination with confusion, psychedelia, and--at root--being and nothingness. As a follow-up to the much simpler perfection of Sleepy's criminally under-accorded 2003 debut, Lovers, this is an ambitious mélange of all the sounds Steele loves. Luckily, they play together wonderfully. If you're Sufjan Stevens jones is hungry and you can tolerate a more avant-garde take on orch-pop, then you have to hear Personality. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description

The epic new album from the celebrated Australian band. A soaring pop gem in the vein of The Flaming Lips & Brian Wilson. Features 'God Lead Your Soul'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Personality - One was a Beach Boy and One was a Beatle, July 25, 2006

By 

Shaun Rackyvorj "Rackers" (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Personality (One Was a Spider One Was a Bird) (Audio CD)

The Sleepy Jackson's second opus after their successful 2003 debut "Lovers" captures Luke Steele at his visionary best.
Teaming up again with Malcolm Clark (drums) and a host of other strong talent (including Davey Lane from You Am I who features on several tracks), the Perth act have a distinctly, as the title of the review suggest, Beach Boy/Beatles sound to it.

Kicking off with the very 60's sounding "You Needed More" we are then led into three Beach Boy sounds in "Devil Was In My Yard" and "God Lead Your Soul" and "Work Alone". In "God Knows" Luke Steele will have you singing out All i Want is to Lead you there, as we really get into some catchy chorus melodies.

"I understand what you want but i just don't agree" is a prime example of this with juanita Tippins beautiful with her backing vocals. This track is one of several tracks that could have easily been written out of John Lennons writing pad. Think early Beatles.
"Miles Away" takes the album into a country mode for just a few minutes before the gospel feeling "Higher than Hell" and rocking "Play a Little Bit for Love" continue the diversity of Personality...
In "Don't Say" and ""You won't bring people down in my town" you'll have Steele change the mood by singing some dark lyrics such as: "You're a terror in the northern part of town. A crooner in the poorest side of South. I always caught you on the ranking down, down, down down, down, down"

But this is once again just a change of direction for "Dream On" is an epic in itself - although just three minutes long.

"How was i supposed to Know" finishes Personality... on a rather melodic note. Quite fitting really as the album is full of them.

Steele has added the 20/20 Orchestra choir group in this album, and they feature on all but two of the songs "Work Alone" & "Miles Away". This is probably the best thing that Steele has improved for Personality...(and there are a lot of things to love). If you're looking for stand outs it's hard to discount any one song. But either way, you'll have to explore yourself.

Personality... is different from anything youy will hear on the radio this year, and indeed previous years for that matter. That's what makes Luke Steeles effort seem risky, but it works.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pop masterwork, October 3, 2007

By 

The Prestige (FL,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Personality (One Was a Spider One Was a Bird) (Audio CD)

Luke Steele (aka The Sleepy Jackson) follows up his promising if scattershot debut "Lovers" with what surely ranks as one of the best records of 2006. "Personality" boasts a gaudy, overwrought cover that may scare some people off with its overstated pretensions, but the music inside the packaging proves to be as remarkably opulent, colorful and extravagant as any Baz Luhrman movie.

Backed by a full orchestra and choir, Steele creates remarkably lush, catchy and cinematic pop that mines several influences (The Beatles, Brian Wilson, The Flaming Lips, Prefab Sprout, and even gospel) and yet comes up with a sound that is truly of its own invention. The lyrical themes about man, God and the devil give the beautiful and precise pop arrangements a potent thematic edge while Steele's agile vocals lend a perfect accompaniment to the soaring and intricately crafted musical soundscapes. This is a grand, ambitious piece of work that you can listen to a hundred times over and still find something completely new and wonderful about it during each subsequent spin.

Undoubtedly, Steele's baroque and uncompromising style will not be to everyone's taste and nobody should go into this CD expecting to hear just another Beatles or Beach Boys retread. However, if you're the type of music fan who appreciates stylish and adventurous pop music that sounds like it was created by some kind of mad genius in a musical laboratory, then this CD should definitely be in your collection.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immense and Expansive, October 13, 2006

By 

gonzobrarian - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Personality (One Was a Spider One Was a Bird) (Audio CD)

First of all, take a good look at the cover of this album, and count how many times or places you find the face of The Sleepy Jackson's frontman Luke Steele. More simply, contemplate the significance of Steele standing at the forefront, carrying who else but himself. It's perfectly fitting for the title of the album, 'Personality', but slightly indicative of something else as well. In the liner notes you'll find Steele describing the music making as an "odd flourishing flower", made throughout sessions of both beauty and turbulence from which he couldn't run away without destroying the album or even the band altogether. In any case, the resulting record produced by the imaginations of Steele and company is very immense in that it's a big step forward from their previous album, Lovers. The themes are spacious and philosophical, while the expansive element of the album is provided mainly by the ethereal 20/20 Orchestra. The production and orchestration of 'Personality' is lush and grandiose, containing brilliant melodies, catchy rhythm and interesting lyrics. There are numerous songs here that deserve mainstream play, but more importantly I would describe the album as being cohesive, strange and very dreamlike. Considering the past instability of the band, I think it's slightly premature to place huge expectations on The Sleepy Jackson's future projects just yet, but this one is definitely a gem and should be savored. It's a cool and curious album.