Customer Reviews

Songs From Rain

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I couldn't believe what was coming out of my speakers when I first purchased this cd. I originally heard "Thing of Beauty" on the radio and thought it was a great song. I was surprised that the rest of the album was even better. I listened to "This is it" 4 times in a row the morning after I bought the cd. It made me late for work, but I could not get enough of the song. This is an amazing piece of work by very talented songwriters and musicians. There is not a weak spot on the disc. I love "People" and "Home", but they don't quite live up to this release. If you need to lift your spirits, put this cd in your player and get a natural high. Tell the lads we need a follow up...

If I had to be on a desert island for the rest of my life this would be one of the first CDs I'd rescue from my sinking ship. Hothouse Flowers brought it to a new level on this release. While People and Home are great they both have weak spots. Songs from the Rain is solid from start to finish and has both outstanding up-tempo celtic rock and the slower thoughtful ballads. HH Flowers are one of the most underrated bands in the world. Silly people are always wanting to compare them to U2 but there is no comparison. HH Flowers focus on the joy and possibilities of music while focusing on entertaining their FANS (what a concept!) They lack the ego and pretentiousness of today's "big acts". Here's hoping that they continue for many years.

Since the insane terror brought upon this country last week, this country has been in a state of tension, anger, and patriotism. I have had this album for a while now, but haven't heard it for a while. I picked it up, and maybe its the times, but inspired feelings like no other time I can remember came over me listening to this album again. The entire album is a spiritual awakening, and it deserves a listen during these trying times. Just amazing songs...One after the other..So if you need a time of reflection, a spiritual pick me up, pick up this cd and feel the raw emotion, and poetry of each beautiful song. This CD is definitely a thing of beauty!

With this long awaited follow up to their groundbreaking album, "Home," the Hothouse Flowers proved that they could branch in different directions both musically and lyrically. Much more of a rock album than the celtic/country/blues they had mastered on their previous two, "Songs from the Rain" contains some truly uplifting and, indeed, spiritual songs of longing, love and, yes, God. They let their souls run bare with songs like the subtle yet glorious "Be Good" and the stirring "Good For You". Liam is in wonderful voice on this recording, his emotions pouring over each song and bringing the listener to a new space and time with every couplet, with every whisper. The album ends with a plea and a prayer for the Lord not to abandon us in our time of dire need ("Stand Beside Me")in a song that would make even U2 blush with envy. Even if you don't have their groundbreaking "People" this album is still a good place to start. But don't end... keep the music living and buy them all.

Listening to this cd is like walking through the woods on a fall day just after a gental rain while sunlight filters through the trees. It is so haunting, so full of beauty and love that it touches your soul. Listen to good for you, your nature, or stand beside me. They are truly great songs that are full of raw emotion. Songs from the rain is a favorite in my collection.

Irish folk-rock-soul music tempts me from "The Commitments" and even "Waterboys"...

But starting by People, rising with Home, reaching to a climax by "Songs from the Rain"...

every tune and sound of overall album is extraordinary and doubtlessly mya favourite album ever released...

"TO AN EMOTIONAL TIME SONGS FROM THE RAIN"

Rain is simply tranquility, and songs from the rain is love and tranquility...

Let everybody enjoy THINGS OF BEAUTY in this world...

Best Regards...

Kamil

This album is unbelievable. The musicians are at their very best, the songwriting is inspired, and the vocals are so genuine, that you just want to keep listening and you hope it will never end.
I own about 500 CDs. This is the best one I own.
the upbeat folk/rock tunes will have you smiling and singing along. But personally, when they slow it down (Your Nature for example) they are at their very best!
GET THIS CD!!

"Songs from the Rain" was Hothouse Flowers most commercially successful release, but "People," "Home" and the hard to find "Born" are also excellent selections.

This Irish band played soulful music that combined gospel elements, blues and pub rock with equal parts musicianship and vocal flair. It's like Van Morrison meets Springsteen.

Liam O'Maonlai brings impassioned vocals along with outstanding keyboard skills. Fiachna O'Braonain plays a variety of stringed instruments. Peter O'Toole rounds out the core group with bass guitar, bouzouki and backing vocals. Leo Barnes adds saxophones and Jerry Fehily is on drums.

Some of the key tracks I like are "This is it (Your Soul)" with lyrics like "now you're body's tired and sore/well there's rest that's in the water/and there's an answer on the streets/and if you take the time to listen/there's a chance you will meet/your soul..."

"An Emotional Time" has a touch of Chris Isaak/"Wicked Game" twang guitar and vocal falsetto. "It came in a dream you and I were there/you found me while I was frightened/you said/change should not be difficult/you said change should lead us home/to an emotional time/songs from the rain..."

"Thing of Beauty" is perhaps their best known song, with it's gentle picked electric guitar, underlying piano and growing crescendo of vocals that builds to a joyous choir of voices. ""Look out you window on a winters morning/your breath is steam and there's frost falling/and the sun casts a spell upon the road/a thing of beauty is not a thing to ignore."

"Spirit of the Land" picks up more upbeat tempo, like a horse galloping along a sandy beach, and the lyrics are charged with energy and social consiousness. "there's a gathering of races and a gathering of soul/there's be choosing of direction and a distribution of roles/earth is turtle island/and air is isle of green/water is an Indian/fire is aborigine." There are powerful wordless vocals and outstanding piano in this tune.

The entire disk is full of strong tunes, a finely crafted set of music. The songs are gentle and powerful, spiritually moving, with lyrical imagery that transports one far away and makes one reflect upon the world around us and our part in it.

The feel good and most sincere album to date by a very talented and down to earth band.

Eleven years have passed since the release of "Songs from the Rain." It is still a set that I return to repeatedly for songs of faith & inspiration. The opener "This Is It (Your Soul)" is one of my all-time favorite songs with its driving beat, hypnotic bass line, Liam O'Manonlai's impassioned vocals, and the great tune and lyric, "And they're talking at you not with you; and you're bored with what's around & you've tried all the quacks, all the doctors & all you really need is a healing sound." "Be Good" is another resonant classic that I've been playing for the last decade with the great upbeat chorus, "Be good, be kind, be truthful & feel free; and keep your wholly loving eyes on me." The rest of the set is also consistently strong. "Thing of Beauty" has a great sense of urgency associated with appreciation of the beautiful, "Can't you feel it in the wonder of the birds first flight, ...Can't you see it in the gentle falling snow ... like a mother feels when she knows her child has grown." For me these songs resonate as some of the most spiritual recordings in my collection. I think of the teachings of The Urantia Book that define Truth, Beauty & Goodness as qualities by which we approach the Divine; and Hothouse Flowers hits on all of the big 3 in these two songs. "Isn't It Amazing" is also another great song with its tasty lead electric guitar giving a spiritual flavor much as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin plays his electric guitar, "Every cry is a song & every song is a prayer & our prayers must be heard, fill the air." Sometimes spiritually oriented music falls into a trap of sounding more as if it is coming from the head than the heart. This set is exquisite because it so dazzlingly embodies the spirit of the heart. It is a wonderful achievement, not to be missed! As I wait for my copy of the new Hothouse Flowers set "Into Your Heart," I'm again in awe of this wonderful set. Bravo!