Stuck On Nothing

Free Energy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Astralwerks
• ASIN: B003DN5M5Y
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,238 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

FRONTMAN PAUL SPRANGERS (think: young Mick Jagger / Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie's love child) and guitarist SCOTT WELLS formed FREE ENERGY, after the breakup of Minnesota indie band Hockey Night. Now based in Philadelphia, Free Energy take the blithe, hooky classic rock of groups Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, and Tom Petty, as their jumping-off point, as well as contemporaries such as The Strokes, Kings Of Leon, and Wolfmother. DFA honcho and LCD SOUNDSYSTEM frontman JAMES MURPHY produced the album and played bass on it, while PAT MAHONEY (drummer of LCD Soundsystem) played drums. The album evokes earlier musical eras, blending big sounds with snippets of glam, power pop, bubblegum and arena rock. The tracks on the album are propelled by cowbell and carbonated guitars, mixing vintage with the contemporary for an all around feel good record with sing along hooks that can't be beat! The band on James Murphy: "he (James Murphy) was able to translate our little blueprints into 3D Technicolor".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Punch In The Face Ever, March 9, 2010

By 

Chris B (Detroit) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stuck On Nothing (MP3 Download)

Straight up rock that goes right at you and punches you in the face and doesn't stop being awesome. All the way through. The guitars get right in your ears and won't get out and take over your mind like Kahn's ear worms. The bass gets right down, hits you in the gut and kicks you in the behind. The whole package let me sit back and enjoy it all without trying to get all emo and mopey about everything.

This album is solid all the way through; it's getting the best product from some plain decent rockers right NOW instead of from 30 years ago.

Free Energy - turned it up to 11. Still makes me drive faster than the law allows.

Dream City - made me make an illegal turn on red.

Bang Pop - someone said this was like the Ramones. I don't buy that, but I'd buy the song twice. I didn't, but I wouldn't complain if I had.

All I Know - starts out slow and inexorably picks it up like a delivery truck you don't realize is moving that fast until you're passing cops doing 80 but they don't pull you over because you're delivering a whole lotta awesome.

Bad Stuff - this is not bad stuff. great drum beat to start off. i love the effects on the guitars in this one. great lead too.

Dark Trance - starts with a guitar opening your face like a can opener. and just gets better and better.

Young Hearts - made my 6mos daughter look up and smile at me; it's fun, it's quick, it's peppy. Sounded a little like Steve Miller and Thin Lizzy. that made me repeat it.

Light Love - not really sure what this song is called, it sure isn't Light Love. whatever it is though, it's good. i'm going to say soulful, but these guys deliver so well on it that i don't feel like a dork having said that. whether we pause or make love to that sound when the dream light comes around? get out of town!

Hope Child - (actually Light Love) it's poppy. pretty sure i caught the 6mos daughter singing along. the keyboard stuff sounded incredible.

Wild Winds - (actually Hope Child) just flat out good. the wife had to acknowledge that even though she was tired of hearing it over and over. i wasn't. still not.

I'm going to say Amazon got the tracks mislabeled. This album made me put down the classic rock and really enjoy something new. Fantastic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars get infected, May 27, 2010

By 

Samuel Gentle (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stuck On Nothing (Audio CD)

When music isn't challenging, it better be fun and catchy if it wants attention. Stuck on Nothing aims for the latter path, but it does so rather unapologetically. It doesn't aim to re-invent a genre, but to continue down a familiar path that would be less enjoyable if altered. Most of the elements feel immediately recognizable, the reference points generally sticking to 90s indie rock/pop (i.e. Nada Surf, Weezer). However, the hooks and melodies are too solid for you to stop listening. Like a home you never knew you had, you sort of strangely ask yourself as you move deeper into the album, "Have I heard these guys before?"

"Bang Pop" is one of the initial standout tracks, but the album is so strong throughout that it's difficult to pick a favorite. It's the sort of song that you'd actually want to clap along to at a show even if the band didn't insist on it. Where the album does fall short is the absence of shifts in momentum. All the tracks move along at a similar casual, summer-paced speed. Additionally, the music stays pretty basic. Most tracks contain a few rock chords with the occasional fist pumping transitional solo. Again, the music was meant to be simple and not to push envelopes. It's a fairly bold move in today's constantly shifting sonic climate, yet Stuck on Nothing is enough fun to make it memorable and a mainstay in your hypothetical 5 disc changer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Fun, May 17, 2010

By 

Bang Potential - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stuck On Nothing (MP3 Download)

Normally I've afraid of hyperbolic praise ruining the uninitiated's initial experience of the treasure in question, but I can't hold it in. This band has had me compromised for almost a year, and after listening to the album with actually decent headphones tonight this could easily end up being my number one of 2010. Free Energy "makes life worth living" or at least much much more fun; assuming of course that you at one time loved Thin Lizzy's boys being back in taaaowne.