Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A vibrant parade of evocative and masterfully played classical grass, March 3, 2008
Imagine this scenario, because this is what you may feel like during your first few times listening to this masterpiece.
You are part of a moving audience on a barge on a river floating past dozens of the best string bands ever formed.
Each band plays a different form: bluegrass, new grass, classical grass, Stravinsky, Mozart, chamber music, toe tapping, melancholic.
You hear something you really love and you want to stop. But the barge keeps moving.
There will be many for whom this experience is too strange to really get it.
But this band is so totally amazing and the playing is so good, you should not want to miss it.
Once you get to the 7th or 8th time through, and listen to the lyrics more carefully, you will begin to see the logic, the classical structure, the repetition of themes. The composer moves between mourning and hope and the music follows the emotion.
One thing that is consistent in the album is the excellent, infrequent, very focused singing on the part of Chris and the band. The singing is an accent and a sort of narration for your journey down the river. There is no whining or harsh notes. It's quite beautiful.
It's also notable that this is not a band backing Chris on the Mandolin. It is highly integrated and features the banjo (Noam Pikelny) and violin (Gabe Witcher) in many of the segments.
Chris actually plays more of a supporting role musically. Gabe Witcher's soulful and soaring fiddle is really the voice of much of the music. But the rest of the time, the 5 play as one. The dynamics are stunning, often swooping from raging bluegrass down to whisper soft fast picking and then back again.
So what is it about? No, it's not just about Thile's divorce. Like several of his other records, this CD is about the intersection of love, faith, loss and growing up musically brilliant, but socially late. This provides a rather small audience of people who will understand. How many "absolute genius, Christian prodigies who didn't start dating until nearly 20 and got their heart broken late in life (compared to most who got it out of the way at age 16)" people are there?
But that makes this record about something unique, very niche, not quite universal. Most people won't care what the record is about and just listen to the music. For those of us who have some part of a similar background, the meaning does connect with the music and brilliantly.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bluejazz, March 5, 2008
I just saw The Punch Brothers at the Troubadour in Hollywood Feb 28. They played most of this CD. I was totally knocked out by the virtuosity of each member. The music is incredibly complex, but that did not get in the way of it being a helluva lot of fun to listen to and tap a toe to. These guys are exploding the boundaries of acoustic music. On one tune, I felt like I could have been in a small cafe in Paris, listening to acoustic jazz. Then off to a rip roaring hoedown in Nashville in the next piece. Lightning fast licks, and stop on a dime precision. Chris Thile should be a major pop star. He has the look, is able to engage in witty banter with the audience, has an incredible singing voice, and is probably the greatest mandolin player of all time. Yikes.
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25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Over my head, March 27, 2008
I'll admit it, I'm the first to consider myself somewhat of a music snob. I appreciate music with substance. My favorite albums are the ones that I didn't like the first time around, but grew on me as I appreciated the subtleties and nuances that tied them together.
I didn't like this album on first listen. It's certainly filled with enough subtlety and nuance, but after a few spins, it's not growing on me. I've listened to enough Nickel Creek and Thile's solo albums to appreciate Thile's skill at venturing out to the fringes of popular music generes, and bringing back with him interesting and surprising takes on music, but I think he may have ventured too far for most on this one.
The problem lies in his reliance on atonal music. It's very abstract-- it lacks context and is seemingly aimless wandering up and down the fretboard; the instruments all seem to be playing different songs. A great example of this is the first two minutes or so of Blind Leaving the Blind Movement 2. The album has some great melodic moments mixed in with the atonal. I particularly like the comparatively simple "Nothing, Then".
I don't doubt that this album is genius, I don't doubt that those more musically inspired than myself can truly appreciate this album. But as for me, it's over my head.
Update:
After several more listens, I have to admit it has grown on me somewhat, I do enjoy Movement 1, Movements 3 and 4 have their moments, but the album is indisputably melancholy, and is simply not the pleasure to listen to that Thile's albums have been.
Also, it's interesting to note that none of the negative reviews have been voted "helpful" (at least not to the extent of the favorable ones) perhaps some prejudiced voting by some overzealous Thile fans?
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