Ready for This?

Tim Minchin | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: July 20, 2009
• Label: Laughing Stock Productions
• Copyright: 2009 Tim Minchin
• Total Length: 1:13:42
• Genres:
• ASIN: B002X2ZMHO
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,881 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, I am Ready for This, November 26, 2010

By 

Jeremy Thornhill - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ready for This? (MP3 Download)

Tim Minchin is a rare sort of individual. On paper it's difficult to figure out just what to make of him: is he a musical comedian, or a comedic musician? The truth is that he effortlessly combines the two disciplines, and the resulting performance is greater than the sum of its parts.

Minchin's humor can be at times acerbic, but he's capable of injecting an element of poignancy into even the most brutally cynical song. This album highlights some of his more popular work; his songs here range from rapid-fire, almost rap-like rhyming to drop dead simple refrains, and he readily wanders between musical genres.

One gets the sense that Minchin is a very thoughtful individual, and that he has a deep respect for logic. I believe him to be at his best when he's poking fun at commonly held, irrational quirks of human nature like religion or love, and I think he's got several great examples of this on this album (such as "The Good Book" or "If I Didn't Have You").

Not every track here is a winner, though. When Minchin strays away from big subjects, he comes across as less thoughtful and sometimes a bit ridiculous ("Bears Don't Dig on Dancing", I'm looking at you). Even buried in the goofball songs, though, you can appreciate Minchin's clever turns of phrases and absolute utter disregard for meeting musical expectations.

Bottom line: if you're looking for some clever musical humor, I think Minchin's one of the best there is right now. It's a rather sparsely populated niche, but Minchin surely fills it nicely.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Criminal that Minchin's not better known in the States., June 25, 2010

By 

Greg "Saganite" (Brooklyn Park, Mongolia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ready for This? (MP3 Download)

Tim Minchin is by far one of the wittiest and most talented musicians I've heard...and his stuff is very hard to come by. Fortunately, this download showcases some of Minchin's best stuff, ranging over several styles. The common thread running through all of Minchin's work are his sharp, clever lyrics that can surprise you, turning on a dime from whimsical to poignant. If you don't have a sense of humor about things religious or theological, and don't possess an otherwise open mind, this might not be your thing. But for those of us of a more skeptical and irreverant bent, this album is pure gold. And "White Wine in the Sun" now stands alone as an all-time favorite Christmas song. And like Minchin, I quite LIKE other Christmas songs (see my review of Midwinter Night's Dream (Dig) as evidence) to begin with.

I can't praise "Ready for This?" enough. It's one of the few albums I play over and over in its entirety rather than just downloading a couple of favorite songs.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, February 17, 2010

By 

April R. Legate (Webster NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ready for This? (MP3 Download)

If you could only get one song from this collection, White Wine in the Sun would be well worth the price of the whole CD. It's a new Christmas classic and it's already in my playlist for next Christmas morning. But there's so many other gems in this as well. I burst into Canvas Bags at the drop of a hat. My only complaint is the lack of more collections I could buy.