Customer Reviews

Pristine Smut

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Murmurs second effort bombed... but still remains one of my favorite CDs.

THE SOUND:
While their first CD relies on their acoustic guitars and beautiful vocal harmonies, this album sounds more like a country-rock album, with a full band (including Sheri and Sherry on bass and drums.)

COMPARISON TO BLENDER:
This album is nearly identical to their next effort, Blender. However, Sleepless Commotion, a beautiful song about the murder of the artist's mother, was removed on Blender. And some very pop-oriented songs that don't appear on Pristine Smut, were added to Blender... which, in my opinion are kind of silly. (a song called "La Di Da.) I prefer this album to Blender, but unfortunately, it is out-of-print and hard to find. But if you can purchase it used, i HIGHLY reccommend it.

THE COVER ART AND PHOTOS:
were apparantly the reason that the alnum got discontinued and re-released as Blender. The photo of an old woman with blue eyeshadow (one of the singers' grandmothers i've heard!) does not give any clues as to what kind of music the disc contains. The cover of Blender does more justice for Heather & Leisha's beauty. I honestly think that if the cover of Pristine Smut were a bit more attractive, the alnum would have done better... but still...

Pristine Smut is a wonderful wonderful album. Any fan MUST have it... but i reccommend it as an introduction to the Murmurs as well.

This CD brings the Murmurs into a very different realm from their first. Mostly gone are the acoustic guitars and harmonizing vocals. Instead you find a fuller band with a drummer and base guitar player. Many of the songs have a hint of country through them.

After the near perfection of their first CD, I was disappointed by this one. I get the feelings that Murmurs weren't happy with this CD either, since it ran for only a short period of time and many of the songs are repeated or reworked for their next album. Unless you feel a need to complete your set, I'd say hold back the money from this CD and put it towards their next CD, Blender, instead.

Although the band took on a very different sound for their second album, the brilliant writing and clever two-chord melodies still make the band fun to listen to. The change in pace from upbeat songs, to angry songs, to songs of infatuation etc are a perfect blend of ups and downs for a 36 minute workout on the treadmill. I highly recommend this album. A word of warning to those who are stuck within the realm of the first album, they sound like two completely different bands. I love each equally but you have to take the new as it is without trying to make the band what they were on the self titled album, things change, life always moves forward. It would be like yearning for Sheryl Crow's new album to be just like Terri Clark's self titled, the are just two seperate worlds.

This cd lends a much more mature sound to Murmurs than their earlier album. Almost every song is fantastic.

Although their first album was folk sounding-I like the Murmur CD,Basically talk about Leisha mom with MS, which I have and we talked before a concert. This is so great, every song wonderful. It is a good combo with Blender, which is close to this CD but 3 great songs where not put on the Blender CD. Sleepless Commotion is about Heather mom,killed by her husband-Heathers' step-dad. KD was with Leisha for 4 years, I think PS was not a bomb MCA dropped the ball. Blender is fresh (Smash is the best song on there) GET THEM BOTH_EVEN IF SOME SONGS ARE REPEATED.

Sorry, this will offend the one-eyed Murmurs fans. I bought this CD when it came out and got dudded. This album was a mistake. I agree ... that perhaps the Murmurs got too carried away trying to do "the k.d. lang thang". In fact there was absolutely nothing wrong with the wonderful original sound of their previous album, "The Murmurs", which was a beautiful carefree breath of light sweet air. Pristine Smut however is a dank stale stuffy room. There's some space for redemption in some tracks, and it was attempted with the hurried re-do, "Blender". But it wasn't enough to lift the mish-mashy production. k.d. lang killed the Murmurs and we're still in mourning.