Customer Reviews

A Soap Bubble and Inertia

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

 

 

Way back, in my first year of high school, during a boring assembly in the auditorium, the monotony was suddenly broken by a rocked-up performance of a Christmas song ("Santa Claus is Coming To Town," if I remember correctly) by a young Paul Jago. Young girls swooned. Jago`s high falsetto voice became embossed in my brain. Not long after, Jago`s band, the Gandharvas, released this album, and with a little help from Muchmusic (Canada`s MTV), they garnered a little fame. As a live act, they were unmatched by their canuck contemporaries. Soap Bubble is experimental and quirky, and a very impressive first outing. Their potential wasn`t fully realized until their next album, Kicking in the Water, but this one is stunning nonetheless. Most songs are infectious from the get-go, and the psychotropic title track still remains, years later, a frequently-spun staple in my stereo. Sadly, the Gandharvas are now defunct, but this album remains a telling legacy to the rare treasure that the band was.

Obviously the song entitled "The First Day of Spring" is one of the most beautiful compositions to hit the radio in the last 10 years. However, there is a mystique to the rest of the album that you can't quite put your finger on, but you know you haven't hear anything quite like it.

The gandharvas are truly a unique band. Many people claim that bands have a sound that is different from anyone else, but the gandharvas never sound the same as THEMSELVES from album to album or even song to song. If you are Canadian, chances are you've heard "The First Day of Spring" but it is not at all indicative of what this album sounds like. It's really hard to explain or compare their music, so I have to just say go out and buy their albums. If they are no more or not, I am not sure. I have heard rumors both ways, but regardless they are a great band that more people should have taken notice to. In my personal opinion their second album, "Kicking in the Water" is the best of their three, but this, the debut album, is great as well. Check them out!