Customer Reviews

Story of My Life

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3 star:		(1)
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I am a fan of the late 70's Pere Ubu ("Modern Dance", "Dub Housing", etc.) and have read much about the "commercial period" - This phrase is used quite frequently in print and online reviews so I'll go with it. I can't imagine the band would refer to it as such (maybe they have, what do I know?). I have purchased and listened to three albums from this period, "Cloudland" - "Worlds in Collision" and this one, "STORY OF MY LIFE". I would venture to say that this album has a nice mix of weirdness, grooves, cool lyrics, eclecticness (word?)and sheer Ubuness (I know that's not a word). If you are beginning to get into the band I would say Dub Housing (older) and Ray Gun Suitcase (newer) are the two best (Five Stars), but really Pere Ubu shouldn't be viewed as old and new - every album is different and unique. Give every album a chance and don't give up if one doesn't strike you as brilliant. I am so glad I got turned on to them in the last couple of years -- I had been looking for something bold, new-sounding, and completely rewarding to listen to --- who woulda thought I was going to find all that in some albums from 30 years ago !!! ---- I would say this (STORY OF MY LIFE) is the Best of the "commercial period" ---- they put out Ray Gun Suitcase a few years later which, as I said, is tremendous.

So back in the early 90s I bought an Aimee Mann CD and for $3 I sent a coupon in and got a "sampler" CD of Imago music in the mail. One of the featured artists was Pere Ubu with the song "the story of my life".

Catchy tune, quite weird, but had to buy the CD to see what the group was about. Many of the other songs on the CD are weird and catchy as well. If you like listening for nuanced music oddities (and a song about postcards from different parts of the USA "a baked potato from Boise, Idaho") then you might enjoy it. I have.

The odd chord changes on the end "Kathaleen" (their pronunciation of Kathleen) make me want to listen to it over and over again, and the line about a "raisin farm" cracks me up, although most people don't get it right away...

Supposedly this album is one of those that is more "mainstream" because they "sold out" for a while, but as a mostly rock/pop/jazz/classical listener, some of these songs BORDER on unlistenable, so I can't imagine what their more "non-sellout" music would sound like.

I first heard this album as a very rigid fan of Trout Mask Replica style avant garde and hated it. Pere Ubu totally goes bland and sells out, I thought. 6 or 7 years later, this album is far better than that. While Ubu could do better (as proven by their next album) Story of my Life keeps a lot of the quirkiness of classic Ubu with a sugary touch to wash it down more easily. If you like the new wave side of Pere Ubu you'll like this album. If you like Fear and Richard Hell, buy the Modern Dance instead.

Having listened to this as well as the box set, I have surmised that; if you like art school punk, Talking Heads and the like, you might like PU
More humorous, ironic stuff than anything else;

but still better than Killdozer!