Customer Reviews

Son of Evil Reindeer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first Reindeer Section album came out just last year, and although I loved it, I was not expecting a follow up - especially one so soon and so good. Let me explain. The Reindeer Section is the brain child of Gary Lightbody of the band Snow Patrol, and the line up for their first album, Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear, consisted of 15 people, all of which also had their own bands. This makes for a great idea and a possible one-off, but to follow it up one year later with a cast that has grown to 27?! Who knew that egos, schedules and creative differences could stay under control enough to allow this group to record an album that surpasses their first in greatness? Well, they did and we are lucky for it. Despite the plethora of different musicians and singers from track to track, Son Of... flows beautifully and contains quiet and beautiful melodies that will stay with you and beg you to listen again and again.

Just picked this disc up last night. Wow. I find it amazing that not only has Gary Lightbody managed to put together a collection of well written songs, but that he has managed to coordinate 27 fellow glaswegian scenesters to play them.

Folks, this is an incredible disc by any account. I haven't been able to stop listening to it. I force myself off of it from time to time only to find myself longing to hear it again. This is similar to how I felt when I listened to the previous Coldplay disc. The songs seem to pull you along a meandering path of thought and provocation. It makes me want to go hug every single one of the members of this reindeer section.

I knew belle and sebastian, snow patrol, astrid, idlewild... well all of them - but couldn't conceive how they, as such a large group, could've made something so simple and yet so affecting. I'll be here when you wake and your sweet voice stand out for their melancholic brilliance while strike me down and you are my joy are just great and well... i could mention pretty much every song on the album and still not do it justice. An excellent album if you are looking for something intimate and thoughtful, don't expect hideously upbeat and chirpy music because this rarely borders above mildly cheery, but this is an excellent,yet under-appreciated album

I can't say enough about this album. I was turned on to the Reindeer Section on a trip to Ireland this past June, and have simply not stopped listening to it. The first song, Grand Parade, had me in tears, it was so affecting. As a whole,the songs just fill me with peace and happiness on a level with the classic pop albums of, say, Frank Sinatra. I know, different styles and eras of music, but still the same kind of complete musical satisfaction. Simply the best pure pop album i have heard in years. I would say more, but I need to turn my stereo on and listen to the Reindeer Section.

Its hard to believe that after an amazing debut like "y'all..." The Reindeer Section would be able to put out a record that just surpasses its predecesor's greatness with such ease. And not only did they manage to do that in less than a year, but with an additional 12 members! Most bands cant handle 5 people, but that is probably where the greatness of this project comes along.
The music becomes the main element... the creative process gets five times the input... and there are just no worries about the future...
Its like a big indie party of music making... except the music is downtempo and gloomy...
For me it took a while to assimilate this record... i was still hooked up on their first when i got it, and it seemed far more depressing. So i put it down for a while... then acouple of weeks later, when i put it back on, i couldnt get enough of it... that was in october and it has been in my car's cd player since.
Yes, the atmosphere is gloomier, but the composition is much better, and the recording seems much better. Not to mention that when you have 27 people working with you, arrangements are more varied and interesting... such is the case here...
Gary Lightbody's voice is beautiful, and fills the atmosphere with sweetness and a sentimentality that is easy to relate to.
Whereas the music feels sort of like home... comforting, reminding you of things youve done recently...

This album, like others have put it, is addictive... And the way it moves through the atmosphere, makes it amazing to listen to... and, although most songs are downtempo, there are a couple of songs that are bright and pump some energy back in you...

this cd is definetively a must for fans of indie and lovers of truly great music...

i think i'm in love with gary lightbody. well, at least his voice. as you all know, the reindeer section is made up of 427 members from various scottish bands. ok, that's a slight exaggeration, but you catch my drift. members of arab strab, belle and sebastian and mogwai may be present, but this is gary lightbody's show. everyone else is merely window dressing (ok, that's an exaggeration, too).

if nothing else, 'son of evil reindeer' is a gutwrenching album. it puts me in one of *those* funks everytime i listen to it. it makes me meloncholy and blue. that's not to say it's unlistenable, or sentimental, or sappy and dippy; that's hardly the case. each song is beautifully simple. simple chord progressions, plaintive lyrics, basic instrumentation, etc. then there's the *voice*. gary lightbody has one of those voices dripping with warth, agony, pain, anguish and beauty. his vocals on 'son of evil reindeer' are far superior to anything on the three snow patrol releases (maybe 'cept for 'an olive grove facing the sea' and 'how to be dead'). and not only is his voice better, the songs are better. 'your sweet voice,' 'cartwheels,' 'where i fall,' 'budapest' and the irresistable 'you are my joy' (maybe the greatest video ever) are prime examples of gary lightbody hitting all the right notes. from start to finish the album shines. there's narely a dull moment and you'd be hard pressed to find something more evocative and that dreaded word, 'emotional.' but emotional these songs are, almost ad nauseum. it's a good thing it's a relatively short album, otherwise there'd be a rash brokenhearted kids jumping london bridges.

en fin, gary lightbody may wear his heart on his sleeve, but rarely has heartbreak sounded so inviting.

I found this album, in comparison to their first, to be more mature. There seemed to be more of a beat you could catch on to. The lyrics went beyond repeating the same line over and over, unlike their first album. 'Budapest'-track 2, is one of my favorites. Overall, i'd say it did not disappoint.

What can I say but oh geez is this what it's all about in music, you have MHS and Teenage Fanclub in the mix, and what do you get, the album before this is really something but I tell ya', if anything comes close or even better it's this. This really takes you there and back. It's not just music here anymore more like an experience unparalleled that makes you cherish love, blasphemy, hardcore sadness, and everything inbetween. I really dig the first track and the cartwheels song.

I really behoove you to listen to Y'all Get Scared How, Hear? Before this one. I only bought this album because I was in a PIAS fix. I couldn't get the new Vitalic because it wasn't there. I couldn't buy Mogwai, because I was real skeptical about past work (I admit it!) So it was either Reindeer Section, Mr. Oizo or Llorca. They had Reindeer Section, so I picked it up only to find out that Snow Patrol's Gary Loightbodycreated one of the most charming CDs written. Most of it is just love songs, but the standouts of the album is, of course, the cheesy yet charming "You Are My Joy", the ecstatic "Cartwheels", and "Budapest" written for a baby born during the recording.

The song that sounds like it was written by an Irish Lambchop "Whodunnit" is the most wonderrul ending, because Aidan Smith of Arab Strap makes you feel as if he has been a very flawed and troubled man, and the choir behind him has blessed his beer-drenched heart the drum machine drenched "Who Told You?" and anticipating "Last Song on Blue Tape" are songs that should have been singles. The rest are interestingly executed songs about love and heartbreak, one being the fingerpicked, acoustic "Where I Fall". When Snow Patrol went back to popularize Snow Patrol, I hope he didn't know that he wrote a beautiful, and I'm using that in a serious manner, rocket of an album on his hands.

Rating: 6.75/10

Just like "Y'all get scared now, you hear," "Son of evil reindeer" is another solid album. If you like Snow Patrol you will enjoy these two albums. More mellow than snow patrol, but a good listen just the same.