Customer Reviews

Precious

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, I know that Jimmy Gnecco (singer / writer extrodinaire) is uncomfortable with the many comparisons he has been receiving to Jeff Buckley. But truth be told, those comparisons were how I discovered this band. For years I was looking for some music to fill the void Jeff left behind, and, quite by accident, I stumbled upon Ours, who are devastatingly brilliant.

'Precious', their follow-up album to their first major label release 'Distorted Lullabies' is both surprising and wonderful. Surprising, because it sounds notably different from their first one, and wonderful because the evident progression which has taken place between albums has resulted in the formation of a remarkable and classic album. The dark and troubled Jimmy from Distorted Lullabies has evolved into a more observant and heartfelt songwriter, whose outstanding work on this album has pushed the band out of the shadows of comparisons, and into their own light. However, 'Precious' is not a complete departure from the previous record. Still present are the piercing howls, the eerie wails, and the songs so moving and full of emotion that they rip your heart out of your chest on every listen.

Definitely an album worth investing both your hard-earned cash and your time in. A superior album that will no doubt be there to lead us through our troublesome, lonely and desperate future.

Since 1995, rock fans and critics have wondered two things: (1) When is Radiohead going to make "The Bends, Part 2"?, and (2) Is Live capable of realizing its potential and making good music again? The answer to both questions is "no," because Radiohead lives in constant fear of repeating itself, and because, sadly, Live lost its way musically.

The good news is that "Precious" by Ours makes those two questions irrelevant. "Precious" leaves the listener with a feeling of, "I've heard music like this before, but this is better in a way I cannot define." Somewhere in a parallel universe, "Precious" surely became Radiohead's third album. Music fans should be glad that Radiohead followed its own path in this universe and let Ours develop its own style of guitar-based pop/rock with soaring vocals. The best part of "Precious" is its consistency: each track is listenable and enjoyable. "Precious" is a passionate album with a sense of purpose, featuring excellent musicianship. Hopefully, Ours will stick around for a while.

unlike most normal people, i bought "precious" months before "distorted lullabies" [which i just received a week ago]. amazingly enough, i actually heard/saw their single, "leaves," on mtv. considering this was not really my kind of music at the time, i was not completely blown away. for some reason unexplained, i ended up buying "precious" about a week later. i now think this might have been a message from God because i don't usually buy cds after hearing only one of the songs, especially one i don't particularly like.

anyway. now that i've become much smarter, and my taste in music has changed, i think it's safe to say that "precious" is one of the most brilliant albums never heard. it really saddens me that such a talented band is unknown to just about everyone. jimmy gnecco's lyrics and amazing voice are truly stunning, while the music is, to say the least, captivating. i'm trying hard to understand where gnecco got that range, when even i, a 16-year old girl and aspiring singer, can't reach his high notes. very impressive.

but what i love most are the beautifully written lyrics. there is something very appealing about a band that doesn't sing about losing a girlfriend, but about losing faith in mankind. gnecco has taken all the words many people can't or won't say, and made them into songs we can all easily sing.

though ours is nowhere near as well known as the bands you hear on your radio, they have lasting power. this is one of the few albums i own in which i don't skip any of the songs while i'm listening. not to mention, once the cd's over, i find myself pressing "play" again and again. "precious" is definitely an album any true music fan can appreciate.

This would have been a 5-stars album if it would have been released before Distorted Lullabies. Precious is the natural progression of Distorted Lullabies, but everything about it seems less beautiful, except Jimmy Gnecco whose clear voice is as pretty as ever. I really like this album, it's just not as memorable as the first.

So, Gnecco continues his musical journey with a contribution that may be different from what you're used to hear, but nicely completes any collection. This is pop-rock, but pop-rock done in style. It's ambitious, for sure, and it brings a lot of passion. Most important, every song works. Kill the Band is a nice opener that sets the tone. I know some people don't like it, but I think it's great. The next two songs, including the first single Leaves, are nice rocking songs that clear the way for Places, the most beautiful song on the album. Gnecco's vocals are unbelievable on that song.

Fallowing Places is Outside, a short song that's ok at best. I believe it's really just an intro for In a Minute, an energetic song. Then, there's Femme Fatale... I have no idea why this song is here. It's not that bad, it's just that it's Loo Reed's song. I don't mind bands doing other people's songs, as long as it's special. This isn't special. Closing the album are two excellent songs, If Flowers Turn and Disaster In a Halo, that are really catchy right from the start. The very last song, Red Colored Stars is an improvement over Distorded Lullabies' last song. It leaves you with the feeling the record has ended and you won't have regrets about listening to it.

Both Ours' efforts are recommanded, the first one over the second. It's one of the prettiest and most talented bands around.

My first taste of Ours was the "Sometimes" video on MTV2, and I knew right away that that voice was one in a million. I'd been literally aching to latch onto a band that was worth following; with actual SONGS and not teen-angst crotch-grabbing rap crap which passes for music this past decade.
So I bought Distorted Lullabies and found that they WERE on to something; "Meet Me in the Tower" jumped on to my top 20 best songs of all time list. The rest of the album..? Still experimenting, searching for a style to gel.
But what really stays with you is the power and beauty of Jimmy's voice. Very tiring are the comparisons to Jeff Buckley.. I am a big JB fan, but Gnecco has a STRONGER voice; maybe not as pretty, yet more complex with more timbre and character. My only critique would be- don't yell so much! Save that beautiful voice! You reach heaven at 3/4 power.
So on to "Precious": a MUCH stronger album as a whole.
SONGS, actual melodies; those lost things that are supposed to be woven to craft songs, sadly lacking in much music, from the entire industry, period, return..
If you like soul-lifting, tear-inducing beautiful melodies, discover "Leaves","Places","Chapter2(Money)",& "Red Colored Stars", the most satisfyingly gelled beauty of the cd.
For examples of power & groove, "Kill the Band", "In a Minute" and most of all "Realize" kick your ass out of your musical coma.
"Broken" has a slow build, and a capturing melody but makes multiple listenings difficult from the powerful but ultimately painful screech that builds for effect. Save that voice, Jimmy!
"If Flowers Turn" is truly a lost Cure pop song, with catchy chorus sung like Robert Smith can't.
The only pooper is "Femme Fatale", a cover that doesn't add anything at all.
Worth buying if it only contained "Red Colored Stars", "Leaves", "Places" and "Realize".
4 out of 5 stars, as they can only improve until we are in awe of each tune, which may possibly be their next cd.
So if you thirst for melody to re-enter modern music and appreciate an absolutely beautiful voice, follow OURS closely. They seem to have a brilliant muse at their disposal and can only get more focused, if we are lucky. Forget radio. Follow beauty.

The oh-so brilliant Jimmy Gnecco, a rather shy willowy creature, said that he was brought up listening to music throughout his entirety with his parents and began to realize the power of music at the tender age of five. One can only suppose that this influenced him during his early search of life to be in a band. Jimmy Gnecco's glorious endowments and attributes are quite hard to come by. His extremely passionate voice is his enchanting apparatus that beckons one's ear with such ease. Gnecco is sirenic lead singer of the beguiling New York's Ours, of which he also writes for as well as plays in. The band is regularly compared to U2 and Jeff Buckley; the compliment is rightly earned by Ours' oddly moving lyrics, emotional guitar rifts, and the undeniable intensity of Gnecco's melodies. When a budding Ours created Sour in 1992, it deeply hinted at their up and coming greatness. Ours spent a great many years perfecting the 2001 album Distorted Lullabies, and one can only admittedly admire their patience and stark determination that went into the masterpiece.
Ours has just released the follow-up to Lullabies entitled Precious. The CD is the perfect embodiment of alluring catacombs of mournful misery, containing twelve superior songs that pleasantly massacre the eardrum, igniting the senses into acute awareness of Gnecco's woeful voice, leaving you drugged amidst the melodic surge in astral gratification, savoring the sound it represses. It strikes the ragged mind prodigiously and sticks eternal, leaving a drugged listener forever humming the bars. Gnecco also remade Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and did it much justice. One can expect much to come from Ours in the near future. The purchase of or downloading of Ours songs is highly suggested.

For those who keep making the worn-out comparison between Jimmy Gnecco and Jeff Buckley - get over it. Gnecco is a MUCH better singer than Jeff Buckley, and, while I think they are in the same vein (I describe OURS to friends of mine who are unfamiliar with their music as "sort of like Jeff Buckley's singing with some U2 and Radiohead thrown in"), Gnecco's singing has entirely different sounds/dimensions than Buckley's. I would say that Buckley's voice was like Frosted Flakes (sugary sweet, almost too sweet), whereas Gnecco's voice is more like Lucky Charms: less sweet, but with nuggets of charms and diamonds. I can't rememeber ever having heard Jeff Buckley groan from the back of his throat as if his vocal chords are splitting, which is a common way Gnecco uses his voice. Gnecco likes to juxtapose dreary, back-of-the-throat groaning with searing, high-octave flourishes and vibratto screaming. Most of OURS music features discord - totally different sounds playing against one another, including the vocals. I think their sound, while obviously INFLUENCED by Jeff Buckley, is different and unique, and Gnecco elicits many more moods, even in the span of 1 song, than Buckley. And even if they do borrow heavily from their own influences (Buckley, U2, The Cure) I can't deny the result. Gnecco's singing will stop you in your tracks, and I think he is the best currently perfoming male vocalist - period. Better than Chris Cornell (though they have totally different styles), better than Thom York, better than Bono, etc etc etc. See them live and I bet you'll agree. In fact, the first time I saw OURS live (I've seen them 3 times), a local Austin singer, who played an acoustic set before Gnecco's acoustic set, actually closed his set with "Grace", and I thought, "wow, that dude can sing". But by the time Jimmy Gnecco was about 30 seconds into his first song, he had eclipsed the prior performance. His voice is extremely clear and powerful.

If you like Jeff Buckley, you will most likely also appreciate the music of OURS, but I don't think it is fair to call ours a "Jeff Buckley" clone as most reviewers seem to do. Really, the more you listen to OURS, you will hear more similarities to U2 than any other band. Especially the upcoming 3rd album - I've heard some of the songs live from the upcoming 3rd album and thought "that sounds like early U2". Maybe not totally groundbreaking but still VERY good music.

I rate Distorted Lullabies the better of the 2 current albums. Precious is less rehearsed, and more untouched/raw. Distorted Lullabies supposedly took 3 years to produce and it has a highly "retouched" feel to it, like it has alot of makeup. But I still think it (Distorted Lullabies) is the better album. Precious sometimes seems to hurried, like the band was rushing to prove that they could also make spontaneous, natural music. Try it out and if you like Precious, you will most definitely like Distored Lullabies. I kind of hope that OURS will find their true sound as something between these 2 albums.

unlike most normal people, i bought "precious" months before "distorted lullabies" [which i just received a week ago]. amazingly enough, i actually heard/saw their single, "leaves," on mtv. considering this was not really my kind of music at the time, i was not completely blown away. for some reason unexplained, i ended up buying "precious" about a week later. i now think this might have been a message from God because i don't usually buy cds after hearing only one of the songs, especially one i don't particularly like.

anyway. now that i've become much smarter, and my taste in music has changed, i think it's safe to say that "precious" is one of the most brilliant albums never heard. it really saddens me that such a talented band is unknown to just about everyone. jimmy gnecco's lyrics and amazing voice are truly stunning, while the music is, to say the least, captivating. i'm trying hard to understand where gnecco got that range, when even i, a 16-year old girl and aspiring singer, can't reach his high notes. very impressive.

but what i love most are the beautifully written lyrics. there is something very appealing about a band that doesn't sing about losing a girlfriend, but about losing faith in mankind. gnecco has taken all the words many people can't or won't say, and made them into songs we can all easily sing.

though ours is nowhere near as well known as the bands you hear on your radio, they have lasting power. this is one of the few albums i own in which i don't skip any of the songs while i'm listening. not to mention, once the cd's over, i find myself pressing "play" again and again. "precious" is definitely an album any true music fan can appreciate.

What I like about OURS is the fact that you don't really have to listen to the music. You feel it. You feel all the words that Jimmy Gnecco sings, you don't just hear them and move along. This is one of the few CDs that you never have to skip a track and you can have the whole thing on repeat and you still feel the way you felt when you first listened to it. It just doesn't get old.

It is really difficult to know where to start with my praise of this album. After hearing Ours' promising debut "Distorted Lullabys", I knew that this band would be a force to be reckoned with for years to come, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine them following up with something this good this quickly. "Precious" is, quite simply, a masterpiece. I am not the type of person who can listen to the same thing over and over again (I very rarely will even listen to the same album twice in a two day period), yet I find myself constantly reaching for this disc. And even when I am not listening to the 12 incredible songs on this album, I find myself singing the tunes in my head. There are so many catchy and interesting melodies here that the songs lodge themselves in your head for days. Add to these melodies the hauntingly beautiful voice of Jimmy Gnecco, the tight instrumental interplay of the rest of the band, and the emotional, intelligent lyrics and what Ours has presented us with is pure genius. To compare this album to any other out there right now, including "Distorted Lullabys", is just unfair to everyone else. Ours has found something really special here, and I would reccommend this disc to absolutely everyone, regardless of taste. And to think that this young band may not have even peaked yet is just plain exciting. "Distorted Lullabys" was great, and this is at least twice as good. If Ours continues to improve at this rate, us real music fans have finally found someone to save us from the uninspired drivel clogging up our radio dials.