Customer Reviews

Soft Airplane

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

 

 

I cannot begin to tell you how in love I am. Chad VanGaalen is an absolute brilliant song writter/musician! He gives me goose bumps everytime I hear him sing! I think he has bumped The Shins off the top of my top 5 list. You MUST buy this CD, and also watch his amazing self drawn music videos.

Soft Airplane is awesome. Every song is a little surprise. Beautiful falseto voice combined with many sounds, melodies and effects. I recommend it like a small treasure.

I heard about Chad Vangaalen from a LIVE 105 radio DJ in San Francisco. She listed "Willow Tree" as her #1 song of 2008. I was intrigued by this decision so I checked him out - probably one of the best decisions of my life. I bought Soft Airplanes almost immediately after hearing Willow Tree for the first time. I'm a huge fan of banjo so it was love at first listen. I love his sound and mixture of electronic beats and sounds with guitar. Absolutely love it! I just caught him in concert as well. Beyond fabulous show - he's quite a terrible storyteller but I'll blame the alcohol for that. But you should really pick up this album. You can get all 3 of his CDs for next to nothing if you buy used.

CD arrived in mint condition. I've listened to it over 25 times already. Every song is good and very catchy, almost too catchy at times where I couldn't get the songs out of my head and had to put it away for a few days. I bought this CD used for $3.50 (plus $3 s&h). Can't beat that anywhere.

Visual artist and musician Chad VanGaalen sounds like Neil Young at times on his new album, "Soft Airplane." Recording into an old tape deck and then overdubbing, VanGaalen usually plays either banjo or guitar on the majority of these tracks. This style of songwriting works well and VanGaalen's imagination crafts a wonderland of sound during the first half of this record.

During the second half of the album, I started to lose interest because of the bleeps and bloops that began to take over his songs. It's almost like VanGaalen started to run dry and threw effects in to cover weaker material. This album is either hit or miss but some of the standout tracks include the woozy "Bones of Man," "Willow Tree," "Molten Light" and "Rabid Bits of Time."