Customer Reviews

Personality (One Was a Spider One Was a Bird)

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This follow up to the very incredulous debut "Lovers" in 2003 has all the hallmarks of a fine piece of art hanging in the hallways of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Luke Steele has put together an intensely rich canvas of classic pop songs that cut a swathe through every music gendre known to the pop music ear.

A beautiful album of beautiful songs.Is this the work of a crazy genuis or just another fine piece of work from a very fine and original artist? The jury is probably still out on Perth's Luke Steele.However, one thing is for sure there is no one else in the world like The Sleepy Jackson.

I've been reading reviews that say this CD is a Pop album, that it sounds like the Beatles and/or the Beach Boys..... I couldn't disagree more....... It's a rock opera, if ever there is one, finely tuned and hip shakingly fabulous!! If you've never heard Luke's voice, you are in for an incredible surprize !! He draws you into his world and lets you wade around in his creativity. What more would you ask of a musical genius? Some songs are tender and make your soul swoon, some are rock and roll mantra, but all of them stick to your aura like glue.

He's chatting with God through some of it and trying to answer questions for himself....
or perhaps, for all of us. Personally, I like dancing around the house with Luke and God...it's like having what's forbidden, sweetened by the heavenly cosmos. Oh, and by the way, the astrological aspects?....he's got them..... the most intrinsically, talented muscians do......
Keep dreaming, Luke, we like the mystical ride. Cheers, Kiwi

2-1/2 stars.

I've spent a lot of time with this record, trying to figure out what exactly happened to The Sleepy Jackson since their great debut "Lovers". Frankly, I would love to give this record 4 or 5 stars, and I would love to get the raw tracks and take them into a studio and have someone remix them, because without fail, almost all of these songs, for me, are nearly ruined by relentless sheets of strings and backing vocal "ooohs" and "aaahs". Also, listen to lead vocals on "Lovers" and then again on this record: something has happened to Luke Steele's voice, it has decayed into a croaky husk of what it once was.

It's just plain lazy to use the Beatles and Beach Boys as reference points. Sure, some of that is here, as it makes its way into most pop-rock songwriters' writing over the last 40 years, but there's much more going on here. Steele has always seemed to have shown more of an affinity for George Harrison's post-Beatles work than anything else, but here with all the strings and backup vox he slides more into a dangerous hybrid of ELO meets Burt Bacharach territory. Backup vocals and strings, to me, are like the dressing on a salad, or the syrup on pancakes: too much of them kind of ruins the meal.

Australian Luke Steele, however, is one of rock music's true originals, and has great potential. Take "Play A Little Bit For Love", for instance, which starts off as a gawd-awful falsetto disco-era Abba but twists itself into a really interesting minor-key instrumental outro. Too much of "Personality", though, sounds the same, with too much syrup, and with Steele as co-producer (with Scott Horsecroft, who also engineered/mixed) one can't argue that it's the producer's fault, not the band's. So, good, this is where Luke Steele is for now, and in the sense that artists shouldn't waste their time repeating themselves, I applaud him for embracing the, um, syrup. I will hope his vocal cords rebound, and look forward to seeing where he goes next.

"One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird" is my first encounter with the Sleepy Jackson Personality. It is an ambitious set that works sporadically. On "God Knows" the background vocals with their resemblance to John Lennon are more interesting than the melody, although lyrically there are sweet sentiments, "All I want is to lead you there into the light." The great weakness of the set is reflected in "Higher than Hell." It's got lovely orchestral flourishes, but other than the production, there is no melody or lyric that is particularly memorable. It's like a cotton candy confection without much there. "Don't Say" is melodically boring. The good thing about this set is that if you're going to be imitative, pick the best to imitate, which Sleepy J does with George Harrison & the Beatles. However, the melodies are faceless, the lead singer doesn't have an interesting or emotionally gripping voice & the lyrics are often inane. The marvelous thing about "Spider/Bird" is its production, which is stunning. Taxi!

Beatles? Beach Boys? Pet Sounds? My dog howls better than that guy sings. Just because he puts "God" in his titles doesn't mean it sounds like two of the greatest rock and roll song writing groups ever. Where are your ears? This is a poor man's ELO at best, which is nothing compared to Lennon/McCartney and Wilson. Where is the melody? the hook? I'll say one thing - all the songs are consistent - they sound the same.