Customer Reviews

Spoke

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to agree with all of these reviewers, save for the one who didn't like this release. This is a beautiful concoction of thoughtful-western-meets-tearful-traditional-Mexican beauties, worth listening to repeatedly. It doesn't jump out at you, but lures you in gently like a curious whisper. Everyone I played this CD for loved it and promptly went out to buy it. I suggest you do the same.

This IS Calexico's first album, Philip W. Black Light (their 2nd release) is a great album, but I prefer the lo-fi charm of the more soft-spoken tunes that make 'Spoke' Calexico's best album.

This is not the lush cinematic Calexico of the other albums, This is much more folksier and gritty, and for that it stands alone in its sound. The framework is there for what would come later but there is no pedal steel or horns. All in all it is great, and Id also suggest Commited soundtrack or the Road Map cd from the bands website for a similar sound.

I had the good fortune of seeing Calexico live recently, and they put on quite a good show. I've been a casual fan for a while but bought this CD after the Iron & Wine collaboration, which is really good.

Here, they've put together a lot of found sounds, different ideas, and a hodgepodge of what they're into. The root is a southwest sound, but they really manage to go all over the board.

After listening to it a few times, it gives you the sense of a band in search of something, maybe its own sound, but they don't quite get there on this album.

These guys are experienced and great songwriters, and put on a great live show, but I'm waiting for thier masterpiece, which is going to come one of these days.

Calexico's early work has some of the same meoldies they elaborated on later, recorded either at home or in a makeshift studio actually adds to the flavor of this album nd makes it a must have for Calexico fans. lot of drums & guitar duets, very cool.

A lazily haggard introduction into what would become a potently cultivated sound, it would still take another disc to develop into something that would persevere.

I have all of Calexico's full-length CDs and they're all excellent. Hard to nominate a single CD as their best, but if I were forced to, Spoke would be it.

How do these guys do it? How do they assemble such magic from such simple parts?

This is a spaghetti western lo fi arizona chili beauty. The sound of a dirt road, a canteen, and some peyote bottons, transplanted to your barstool or the platform of your subway station. This album is near perfect. You will not stop listening, and if you do, you're stupid.

After loving the first Calexico cd and finding that almost everyone I played it for felt the same, I was disappointed in "Spoke." It comes across more as a thrown together release of material the guys hadn't finished working on than the evocative, cool step beyond that it is perhaps intended to be. You can easily find other music in this genre that surpasses this cd, but it's still worthwhile if you're a dedicated Calexico fan.

After loving "Black Light" and finding that almost everyone I played it for felt the same, I was disappointed in "Spoke." It comes across more as a thrown together release of material the guys hadn't finished working on than the evocative, cool step beyond that it is perhaps intended to be. You can easily find other music in this genre that surpasses this cd, but it's still worthwhile if you're a dedicated Calexico fan.