Customer Reviews

Sunny Border Blue

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What could I possibly say to get you to see that you simply can't live as well without this album? When I first heard this CD in its entirety I was literally stunned, and I think this is (so far) Kristin Hersh's masterpiece, which is saying a lot for someone so consitently wonderful and lyrically singular. The chap who declared this disc not as "immediately catchy" as Sky Motel, well, I don't quite get that. Sky Motel, I thought, was a bit noisy and unmemorable, while Sunny Border Blue doesn't lack a single memorable song. In fact, "Candyland," "Your Dirty Answer," "37 Hours," "William's Cut," and "Spain" are simply among the best songs I think I've ever heard, and they stay in my head for days. Sunny Border Blue occupies a space between the generally softer tones of Strange Angels and the noisy fuzz of Sky Motel, leaning more closely to the tone of Strange Angels (but, ahem, perhaps more immediately catchy). Take Strange Angels' most memorable songs and they hold hands--gripping fists--perfectly with the tracks on Sunny Border Blue. From "Candyland": "Don't wait for pain/ to find out you exist/ Don't look for shame/ You're better off without it/ Life is unkind/ This isn't candyland . . . He gave me a reason to live it." A fantastic album from one of our coolest, too-much-under-the-radar singer/songwriter/joygivers.

This is one of those albums that you really have to sit with for a while and let sink in before you really "get it." You may like it right away and come to appreciate it deeper as time passes or you may be like myself and think it's boring and meandering when you first hear it. But, taking in the rest of her recordings (both with Throwing Muses and on her own) really puts this album in its place: among her best work. The songs are completely realized and some of the most well thought out pieces she's ever done. The real impressive part is that, in Stevie Wonder style, she played about 98% of the instruments on the album herself. So, it feels like the work of single person as opposed to sounding like a person singing their lyrics over musicians. Very cohesive, layered, and all around a very rewarding album. Possibly my favorite record of any Throwing Muses or Kristin solos.

Kristen Hersh has been one of the most consistent, underrated and wonderful artists of all time. This is not an overstatement. One listen to her haunting music and mind-altering lyrics are enough to change lives. I believe music like this will change the world. Kristen's last album, "Sky Motel," was the kind of record you loved/feared because it was like nothing else in the universe. "Sky Motel" was absolutly flawless, one assumed it could not be surpassed. "Sunny Border Blue" takes flight like a glittering butterfly and proves to be an incomprable work of pure art. This album will make you love her. This album will make you cry. This album will change your life. Kristen lives in a world all her own, but she is unable to change her the basic human emotions that govern all. I hope the sun always finds you Kristen, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

that you bought a CD that made you think, that made you want to get up and dance, made you want to call your friends and tell them about it, made you listen close, made you spend 15 minutes looking for the headphones so you could hear better? When was the last time a CD kept you awake at night thinking about it, running the songs through your mind over and over for hours, and when you woke up the next morning you found that you were still thinking about it? How long has it been since a record made you nod in appreciation of its musicianship, laugh at its cleverness and humor, and sometime almost made you cry?

I have been an admirer, although not an ardent fan, of Krisin Hersh for 10 or 15 years. I've always enjoyed her work but it always struck me as a little bit off in some way. But this is the brilliantly crafted alt-rock masterpiece that I have often suspected that she had in her. Musically, it walks somewhere in the line between a Throwing Muses album and one of Ms. Hirsh's acoustic solo albums, such as "strange angels." It has some power-pop with plenty of satisfying hooks, and it also has a couple of moody guitar-strumming tunes. It has a very clean, crisp sound with Hirsh's distinctive voice at the forefront. The lyrics are intensely personal and sometimes painful, but still done with a cleverness that has to be admired. Although I have not heard every Muses or Hirsh solo album, this is by far the best of the ones that I have heard.

This is probably essential Kristin Hersh. It's not as dark or meditative as Hips and Makers or Strange Angels (two of my favourite solos), but its not as energetic as Sky Motel. The familiar and characteristic hallmarks of Hersh are here: jangly acoustic guitars, electric guitars churning or swooning behind them, touches of piano and acoustic guitar arpeggios, with drums as a prominent and guiding presence in the songs. On first listen I thought, "Wow that Dave Narcizo is sure brilliant--she is lucky to have him," only to read that with one exception, that is Hersh on drums! I don't know whether my mistake is a testament to how mightily Hersh's percussive forays are inspired by Narcizo, or how keyed into Hersh's musical sensibilities Dave Narcizo is. Either way, it's good news. Maybe my newfound attention to Hersh the percussionist led me to consider how she plays her guitar as a real rhythmic force. Guitar notes pop, shudder, and whisper like their own clock, the squeaking strings are so pretty as to seem intentional. Kristin Hersh and Throwing Muses have always used drums inventively. I always felt Narcizo's drumming in Throwing Muses songs pulled me in and directed the song (and me) like you'd expect a melody line to.

So much about Hersh is unpredictable and very unique--her songwriting, singing, and playing. "Silica" has one of those famous shifts fans will recognize, where the song seems to have its own mood swings, and she and all of us are just protecting it while it happens. And Kristin Hersh is a great, great lyricist. Witness: "Leaves me wondering/ruby or iridescent cough drop" ("Ruby")--she gets a ha ha and 'wow, I'm not the only one who sees things' from me on that one. Listen to Hersh lift lines like "'Cause you insist on using f*cked up military time" (37 Hours") when she sings them, if they don't immediately grab you on this page. And who could come up with this, over a melancholy, sparse guitar--"There's always drooling zombies or at least one d*ck/I'm having trouble focusing/'cause all I see in front of me is you when we're finally alone." Tired, ludicrous, irritated, sweet, enraged. Some experience. Thanks, Kristin.

I've seen some negative reviews pop up for this album so I thought I'd put my say on it.

First of all, this was the first Kristin Hersh album I ever bought, and it made me a fan. I now have all of her's and her band's, Throwing Muses, CDs. And I love each and every one of them.

Now, after hearing all of Kristin's albums, this is probably the most laid back. It has a fuller sound than the raw 'Strange Angels' but is more subtle than 'Hips and Makers'.

And even though this might not have as many as the same strange chord progressions as her other albums, it's still great. It's just simply more calm. And this is a good album to have when you want something more soothing but still want to hear Hersh's interesting style.

And the music she creates can be just as haunting and lingering as her other songs in a more quiet form. I can't describe the chill I get when I hear her whisper on the last track, "how did I love a breaking thing? how did I sleep through a kidnapping?"

The more angular songs on this album are 'Spain' and 'Silica'.
Other stand-out tracks are: 'Your Dirty Answer', '37 Hours', 'Summer Salt', 'White Suckers', 'Ruby', and 'Flipside'.

So in conclusion, if you're debating whether or not to get this album because of the +/- reviews, keep in mind, it made one person a fan...

I loved Hips and Makers, I practically wore out my Strange Angels CD, Sky Motel was good, bit for some reason it never really grew on my like the previous KH titles.

Sunny Border Blue is AMAZING.

I've only had it for a few weeks and I've already worked it up to the level of affection that it took a few months to achieve for Strange Angels.

Silica is wonderful and catchy, I find myself constanting humming it around the house.

Summar Salt contains the gem: "for a toxic thing you sure smell pretty / summer, salt and wine / for an ugly boy you sure look pretty / a cowboy frankenstein"

Candyland is beyond description.

I'm really hard-pressed to pick a favorite song on this album. It keeps changing day by day.

I constantly thank the day I first picked up the Throwing Muses Hunkpapa because I liked the tape case design :)

Thank you, Kristin, for sharing this wonderful music with us!

unlike many in the rock world, hersh has managed to remain an artist while also being a grownup. she's been married for 10 years now, and has a son. her music reflects the complexity of life the contemporary, intelligent, self-reflective woman faces today.

you love your children and your husband, but sometimes household tensions pull your emotions to the breaking point. how can you keep loving and respecting someone whose faults you know all too well? the intensity of marriage can be surprising -- how sudden stabs of anger or jealousy, can give way to boundless love and joy. how much marriage "feels" seems to be one of the themes on this album.

how do you negotiate a loving relationship with the demands of a career? you can't always be with your kids when you want to -- and you feel guilty, angry, alone. how do you handle that?

how do you stay married, love your kid enough to die for, and not get lost in the process? is it possible to handle all the compromises and emerge not only yourself, but wiser?

how can you think about your past in a useful way, so that you learn from it; admit your follies and old bitterness, without becoming trapped in the role of victim? how to handle those old friends who still let you down?

hersh addresses all these points on sunny border blue. she sings about the stresses, strains, and contradictions with a blunt honesty, black humor, an appreciation for the surreal and the absurd in daily life, and the wry self-examination you need to get on with it.

this is her most personal and open album yet, without being obscurantist or sickeningly confessional. i think every thoughtful married woman can see pieces of her life in this music. that border between sunny and blue -- where one crosses quickly into the other -- is a place a lot of women know about.

the rock critic establishment likes this album ok, although some are giving it lukewarm reviews. don't be put off by what you read in the press. rock rarely deals with profound emotional issues in this complex and nuanced a fashion.

sunny border blue is a must-buy for fans, and new listeners may find it her most accessible album in a long while. surprisingly, the song that stays with me the most is the haunting cover of cat stevens' "trouble." i'm absolutely no fan of his, but hersh saw what was in this song and made it hers. she takes what was for most people a maudlin throwaway mini-hit and polishes it to perfection. you'll be taking this one to heart, i promise.

Kristin Hersh's songs never quite do what you expect them to. Humor is always hiding behind her evil twin, heartbreak. Cynicism is partnered with emotional purity. This album seems to reflect Hersh exorcising her demons; buried pain from years ago. "Candyland," is apparently about her first son, Dylan, and is the most emotionally raw in lyrics like, "I was born with a sad song in my mouth. He gave me a reason to sing it."

The song that's grown on me the most from this cd is "White Suckers." "You didn't disappoint me totally," she sings with only a trace of irony. Devastation lurks at the end of the song: "Driving around in your souped-up Jeep, like you've got somewhere better to be." Hersh reaches a subtle plateau of emotion, raising more questions than answers.

Hersh's lyrics can be vulgar, which can have a jarring effect, and this seems most pronounced on this album. In a performance, Hersh introduced "Flipside," saying, "This song has so many swears in it I can't count them. And it's my sweetest one." Her lyrical styling keeps any song from being too coarse or too saccharine.

The instrumentation on this album is varied and interesting; unlike Strange Angels, which was entirely acoustic, or Sky Motel, which was mostly electric, this creates a unified sound of rising and falling energy.

This album could be a great introduction for those not yet familiar with Hersh's music, and a permanent addition for those who have loved her music for year

Once again Kristin manages to amaze me. And soothe me and shock me and generally run me through a huge gamut of emotions. "Sunny Border Blue" is amazing. In fact of the Throwing Muses/Kristin Hersh scale of amazing it is amazing to the 10th power. Not a weak song on this album and I find myself listening to it constantly. In fact I can't stop listening to "Listerine"--I hit the repeat button on my CD player when it comes on so I can listen to an endless loop of it. Once again her lyrics are frank yet wonderfully worded to invite mystery. She takes the minutia of everday life and casts it all in a new, if somewhat hazy light. Who is she talking about? What happened? Kristin Hersh has a way of writing that makes me want to give up writing. If I can't be as simultaneously direct, simple, complex and beautiful as she is, I don't want to write. Favorite cuts: Listerine, Silica, Summer Salt and William's Cut.