Customer Reviews

Reason Flew

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

 

 

And Reason Flew is like a good art film. It describes places we go in dreams. Lots of layers. Lots of double-blind meanings. Lots of strange characters. Lyrically oblique, I'd like to set it on its side and look at is from a few different angles. Craftily crafted, I'd like to take it apart and try to put it back together again. Just to see what it's made of.

Highlights:

Flagrante Delicto: The riff in the chorus just tears my head off! It's like a force they were just barely able to control. It's dangerous and urgent.

Birthmark: I love that bit of strangeness they lapse into in the middle and end.

Dewlaps: The story of when love goes from "the lock of hips/and the thinking you could fly..." to "the knock on the head/and the wishing you could die..." Heartbreaking. The final wail,"Leave on, leave often" chokes me up every time. A truely beatiful song.

100 Watt Smile has made a really great record.

The pop sensibilities of Blondie, Fleetwood Mac and Cheap Trick, post-grunge rhythms with a dollop of Zeppelin, surreal and challenging lyrics, a dash of classical music, all mixed into a wild miasma of melodic energy, topped with breathy sugar-vocals. Vocalist/violinist Carrie Bradley brings her love of classical music and a masters degree in fiction writing into sharp focus with this guitar-based band, creating songs that shift elegantly from Breeders/Pixies-pop to intricate rock arrangements that only reveal their complexity with repeated listens. One of the many exciting aspects of this band is their use of the violin, making it an equal player with the guitars instead of the usual afterthought. This expressive instrument can turn from beautiful, legato melodies to a snarling banshee in a heartbeat, even rounding out the song "Face on Your Head" with an aggressive, feedback-laden solo as good as any guitar. Other classical influences include their mastery of dynamics, taking songs from soft to loud and back again with greater skill than I have previously found in rock music.

Each band member is a first rate musician, handling the unpredictable yet natural music with ease. While I have so far concentrated on the technical aspect of this band, their music is not cold, intellectual progressive rock made for other musicians to admire. The music is warm and inviting, the vocals tauntingly seductive. To say that the melodies have strong hooks is an understatement. For instance, I woke up this morning with one of their songs in my head, a song that I had listened to about eighteen hours before. These songs not only knock around the skull for a while but they take up residence and start picking out drapes!

"Birthmark", one of my early favorites, has a big rock groove and a powerful candy chorus with a symphonic theme that is tossed between the guitars and violin. Lyrics such as "Hard packed heads planted legs straight up/We grow in place like plastic vines/ Scalp your pass to the millennium/ For fifteen bucks and change" make the title track resound with the weariness of a resigned existence. The peppy "If You Won't Too" is backed by a Beatles beat and lines like "Run over me slowly/ For the moment I am breathing." Other songs discuss life, sex, death, and love with poetic insight, all backed by the same unparalleled music. Check them out for yourself at mp3.com or 100wattsmile.com for what is easily one of the freshest, most creative albums I've heard in years!

You can get their new, unreleased album at their web site... equally as good as this one!

Once every decade or so a new band comes along that combines freshness with a seasoned professionalism to produce music that makes you happy and also touches your soul. 100 Watt Smile is one of those bands. Every track on this superb CD has colors and textures that make you want to hit the repeat button, but you end up waiting until the whole album has played, and then play it ALL over again. Truly music with "legs"! In fact this could be a legend in the making.

I heard a few songs on Pandora and decided to buy it.

It's well worth the money. I really love the slow rock indie style. Very unique. All the songs are great. They have a very unique style. Nice listening for a lazy afternoon.

Just preview it on Amazon before you buy.

Highly recommended.

100 Watt Smile are alternative chick rockers similar in style and tone to The Breeders, 4 None Blonds and Veruca Salt (indeed the lead singer is from the Breeders). They do a pretty good job of making slow, slightly hard and lyrically interesting alt rock, probably a bit batter than bands I compare them too. Highly recommended fans of this sort of music. Best track is `Flagre Delicto'.

Got your shades on? Carrie Bradley and her latest band, 100 Watt Smile are so luminous, you're gonna need to shield your eyes. I first became acquainted with Carrie Bradley during her time with the quirky, very likable trio, ED'S REDEEMING QUALITIES in San Francisco. The classically trained violinist/guitarist/singer-songwriter then went on to be a part of some band called, THE BREEDERS. Dug them, too. I moved to New York and I heard tale that there was some new project... Happily, I was able to secure it through amazon.com, and here we are. The 100 WATT SMILE cd that I ordered, AND REASON FLEW, blew my mind! It immediately reminded me of some of my favorite bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Cake but it was also quite different. I would categorize 100 Watt Smile as a thinking person's alternative hard rock and roll dream. It's one heck of a tight, hot collection of songs. There are just so many great tunes on this thing, I cannot stop listening to it! Songs of particular note include: FLAGRANTE DELICTO; BIRTHMARK; DEWLAPS and FURRY. If 100 Watt Smile doesn't make it to the big time, then I swear, there is no God in heaven, though, frankly, I think that listening to this cd must be what it is like to be there...

Got your shades on? Carrie Bradley and her latest band, 100 Watt Smile are so luminous, you're gonna need to shield your eyes. I first became acquainted with Carrie Bradley during her time with the quirky, very likable trio, ED'S REDEEMING QUALITIES in San Francisco. The classically trained violinist/guitarist/singer-songwriter then went on to be a part of some band called, THE BREEDERS. Dug them, too. I moved to New York and I heard tale that there was some new project... Happily, I was able to secure it through amazon.com, and here we are. The 100 WATT SMILE cd that I ordered, AND REASON FLEW, blew my mind! It immediately reminded me of some of my favorite bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Cake but it was also quite different. I would categorize 100 Watt Smile as a thinking person's alternative hard rock and roll dream. It's one heck of a tight, hot collection of songs. There are just so many great tunes on this thing, I cannot stop listening to it! Songs of particular note include: FLAGRANTE DELICTO; BIRTHMARK; DEWLAPS and FURRY. If 100 Watt Smile doesn't make it to the big time, then I swear, there is no God in heaven, though, frankly, I think that listening to this cd must be what it is like to be there...

Carrie Bradley was someone only discovered by some because of her connection to alternative pop goddess' Kim Deal where she was violinist for the short time.

When she formed her own band afer the massive and unexpected success of the Breeders 'Last Splash', and I picked up a copy of 'And Reason Flew' initially I was impressed mostly but dissapointed with the lack of originality the band puts forth.

Alot of the songs are just amazing and I love Carrie's voice (think major imitation of Kim Deal without the hoarseness) and she pretty much carries the band to where it needs to go.

Would recommend to any Breeders' fan and I'm happy to hear that Carrie is on board for the next Breeders' albums contributing violin as well as vocals.