Customer Reviews

Shapes We Make

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

 

 

To me this album sounds like a delicious melding of Ex Hex and Helium's Magic City. It has all of the trademark MT sounds and melodies but expands to include some really cool guitar work (some post-hardcore-esque riffs and Sonic-Youth-y picking), along with rockin' drums and bass and dreamy keyboard effects.

The other reviewers are completely right. This CD is amazing like Magic City, and also has the moodiness of Mountains and the upbeat feel of Ex Hex. I can't stop listening to "Pause/Off" - it's my fave Timony song of all time. None of my other friends have been able to get into Mary, despite our similar musical tastes, but this CD may change that. I just wish she were touring somewhere near my city!

....So cool, best describes Mary Timony's new album, Her best work since the Magic City, and at times even surpassing that very fine record. It should bring her a whole new audience, it deserves many ears to hear it, but it probably won't. It's also her most straight forward rock record, less of the Cartoon Monster feel of the Dirt of Luck, Less of the medieval feel of all her other records.

Pause/Off is a cool shimmering 60's spy flick soundtrack noise coupled with smart and witty feminist lyrics, it's easily her best song to date. The best record release of the year so far, go out and buy it and be one of the cooler kids.

I've sporadically followed Timony's career ever since I sat up and took notice of her after the best radio station I've ever listened to (WHFS in Annapolis) played her Autoclave single "Dr. Suess". I ran out and got a hold of the Autoclave EP and have since grabbed a few of the Helium Albums and now this one, which I think is her best to date. However what keeps me from giving this 5 stars are criticisms I've had with her music from the start- her stylistic choice to drift off key in her vocals at the end of verses I find annoying though in other parts she seems to have a very nice capable voice which is why I suspect its a deliberate artifice and not lack of talent vocally. It's not bad enough to keep me from buying her material though, such as Joy Divisions vocals preventing me from buying their otherwise innovative brilliant work. Also, her music isn't "tight"; there are odd flaws here and there in the playing as well, which are left as is, lending a slightly amateurish sound to the music. The brilliance of the songs and the depth and creativity of the music as a whole make up for these flaws but imo keep her music from hitting the big time. I'll likely keep buying her stuff because it's interesting though I wish some things about it were different.

I think this is not her best work. But I still enjoyed some fresh music from her.

Mary Timony is back with a vengeance, and with a band too! Perhaps the weakest point of the album is the opener "Sharpshooter" but if anything, it sets the tone for the album: this album was made for fun and out of love for musicality. I think that's where some people have a falling out. I've heard friends, also long-dedicated fans of Timony talk about the degradation in lyrics-- and that's why they're not overcome with joy about the album as a whole. I think that is way critical, and Mary has mentioned in recent interviews about how she's not being so literal or figurtive with the meaning in songs. This is a seasoned, extremely consistent musician and lyricist talking here. I think she's been there and done that, so if you were/are expecting songs about peacocks and demons and dragons please revist 'The Golden Dove', 'Mountains', 'The Magic City', and 'No Guitars.' However, that doesn't mean that Timony has forgotten those albums. Helium's 'Magic City's' "Revolution of Hearts, Pt. 1 & 2" comes to mind when listening to the tangling of notes in songs like "Summer's Fawn", "Rockman". What matters most in this album is how the instruments work along each other, and fit like a puzzle. Nearly every song on the album ends with thought-out jamming sessions, it's not the kind that turns you away (I think of some songs of Sleater-Kinney's 'The Woods'). Not to mention there is really solid playing. Devin O'Campo's percussion made 'Ex Hex' a force to be reckoned with, it's not as bold here, but still strong and still dynamic. Chad Molter's bass is essential to this album, that's easy to hear. What's so great about this album goes back to the nature of 'The Magic City.' This is a rich rock album. There are layering of vocals, of guitars, sounds that seems to come from outer-space. It never gets boring. I got this album on the 1st of May, and I pretty much listening to it everyday still (this is nearly September now). I've bought over new releases since then but they can't seem to hold me, and it just makes me want to play 'The Shapes We Make' as soon as possible. It's a shame that other, absolutely lousy "rock" albums get more exposure than this one but get praised much higher. Listen to 'Shapes', you may the judgement.