The Shore

The Shore | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 3, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Maverick
• ASIN: B0002IQC48
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,564 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arguably Better Than Anything You've Heard Before, April 16, 2005

By 

Paul D. Wegele (Phoenix (Hades)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shore (Audio CD)

Words do not do The Shore justice. Rarely, does 1 find a cd that has so many stellar songs one after another. Most musicians don't write a career's worth of music this good. I saw The Shore live at a rock venue here in Phoenix, AZ. Their performance live was every bit as good as the music that I have become obsessed with listening to every day in my house, at work, and every where I go. As I wait for the bus, walk home from the grocery store, and do my laundry, I sing their soulful, emotive, beautiful music. To call this music "POP" is to do it a disservice. It isn't pop. It is rock and roll with possibly the best singer modern rock music has created in the last twenty years. Some of David Gilmour's work or Matthew Good from Beautiful Midnight could come close. They could come close but, only with a specific song or two. Nearly all of these ten songs have Ben Ashley showing the music world what real feelings, real loss, and real tears sound like when they are lamented from the vocal chords of a strikingly talented singer. The lyrics feel like a river, and the music feels like being lifted up to a heaven we were taught existed once. The building polyphonic orgasm of "Coming Down" is unparalleled in the history of rock. I cannot imagine a human being that couldn't appreciate this music. I've played this music to a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, some who listen to gangster rap and some who listen to christian music and some who listen to jazz and some who listen to death metal. Inevitably, I hear, "hey who is this playing right now". It's The Shore. That's all you have to say. It's The Shore. Download this album, share it with your friends, send it to an ex-girlfriend even if she hates you. You can communicate things with music that you cannot do with any other media including words which is why I hesitate writing this review at all.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Innovation, But Reinvention, October 26, 2004

By 

Lux Valentine "professional troublemaker" (West Chester, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shore (Audio CD)

If you are craving the sounds of The Verve, the spellbinding contemporary British pop band with a front man possessing cheek bones in high-relief, well...there's always your copy of Urban Hymns or Richard Ashcroft's solo project Alone With Everybody. If that just won't do, try nabbing yourself a copy of The Shore's self-titled debut, full of dreamy tracks with mournful yet ardent vocals, piano interludes, and evocative guitars.

This isn't the first time the band has been compared to The Verve. The Shore, a talented young L.A.-based quartet formed in the summer of 2002, has been inspiring critics to make comparisons to Coldplay, Oasis, Radiohead, and even U2. Giving it a listen, you realize that those critics are right. Every track feels familiar. You know you know this band's songs, you must've heard them somewhere before.

Even though it may not sound exactly unique, does that mean that it's bad, trite, or cliché? Not exactly. In fact, it sounds familiar because it works; as opposed to be annoying, it is satisfying in its sameness, and yet at the same time it's refreshing because they take that recognizable sound and reinvent it. Founder and front man Ben Ashley has obviously been invoking all the right muses and smashing them together in order to create this melodic and introspective otherworldly first album. Released in August 2004, the songs conjure up images of lonely deserts, dusky cross-country road-trips, and summer sunsets taking place in the 1970s. The opening track, "The Hard Road", delivers a nostalgic desperation with twangy guitars and leaves the feeling of loss, but the fulfilling kind of loss. "Hold On" is the longing, beautiful track you listen to on the lonely bus ride home with your face pressed up against the window glass, taking pride in your misery. Not every track on the album is a "downer", though; "Firefly" is a catchy, upbeat song with scratchy, passionate vocals, aside from the illusory falsetto chorus, and the mid-tempo "Everything We Are" will have their audience moving, being a quality pop song while still retaining meaning and integrity.

The Verve may have become another footnote in the history of Music, allowing new bands to spring up and take their place. However, in this case, that may not be so bad. Welcome to The Shore.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PAY ATTENTION, January 22, 2005

By 

Chris Paladino "Dino" (chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shore (Audio CD)

Excellent debut album. My guess is that we'll all be hearing about The Shore over the next few years. This CD is full of passion, emotion, energy, and songs that somehow just sink into you without you knowing what's happening, but next thing you know they are stuck in your head. Reminds me very much of Parachutes by Coldplay, not so much for the sound but for the tone and for being a smart, honest, unique, debut album.

It lacks any easy, "hooks", that most people in the US require to even consider an artist, there is no intentionally, radio-friendly, Yellow, on this CD which is the only thing that might prevent The Shore from blowing up, and that's a good thing.

I love it. Give it some time to sink in and listen closely. It won't grab you from the start because there is nothing entirely familiar to compare it to, it's more a combo of Verve, Coldplay, Beatles, Travis, Beach Boys, etc rolled into a unique sound

It's not perfect, some flaws, but thank god some bands in the US are finally starting to pick up on what the UK has known forever- that great, lasting, music starts with passion and commitment to the art first and then the $$$$$.