Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday [Import]

Creeper Lagoon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 25, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal Int'l
• ASIN: B00005B6AN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,591 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With the release of Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday, San Francisco's indie-rock darlings Creeper Lagoon take a large directional leap into the mainstream alternative realm of full harmonies and slick production. For their second full-length album, the band worked with four different producers (Jerry Harrison, Dave Fridmann, Greg Wells, and Mark Trombino) to add lush melodic textures and pack synthesized swirls and beats around their high-soaring tracks. As a result, Take Back the Universe is an energized burst of radio-friendly rock built on tenderly emotional songs that yield completely to the soft pop spot in Creeper's musical heart. Opening tracks "Chance of a Lifetime" and "Wrecking Ball" set the Take Back tone, boosting wistful lyrics about easy living and stumbling relationships with sparkling rock endorphins. Throughout the disc, melancholy sentiments build into robust choruses as the songs trip through co-vocalists Ian Sefchick and Sharky Laguana's musings on love and lighthearted affairs. With the release of Take Back the Universe, Creeper Lagoon show they have the ability to embrace their sensitive sides with the sweetness of old indie bands like Sugar without hydroplaning on an overly spit-shined final product. --Jennifer Maerz

Product Description

Full title - Take Back The Universe And Give Me Yesterday. Asian re-release of 2001 album from the Bay-area based rock quartet, deleted in the U.S. Dreamworks.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget yesterday, buy the album, April 18, 2001

By 

Walter Swarthau (Provo, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday (Audio CD)

As a fan of Creeper Lagoon's earlier independet releases, I have to say that I think they've done a nice job of balancing their signature sound with some more radio-friendly stuff. Overall, I have to say that I found the production to be tastefully done.

Yeah, I've heard the rumblings that Creeper Lagoon has gone the way of "corporate rock" by signing with Dreamworks. But they've got solid tunes on the album to please older fans while attracting new ones. The songs are well written and imaginative, the performances are great, so get over it. Besides, I would rather hear a Creeper Lagoon song on the radio than the current overproduced, manufactured bile that passes for music.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Maintaing quirks, aiming big, Creeper takes a small step fwd, April 26, 2001

By 

Christopher A. Anderson (Overland Park, KS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday (Audio CD)

Creeper Lagoon has made a conscious effort to spread out their music across the States, via grassroots publicity, Internet, and now, with their first major label release, they have altered their style in hopes of gaining a wider appeal.

This is not a bad thing. This country is in desperate need of a change in pop rock- the staleness of Eve 6, Three Doors Down, Tonic, Limp Bizkit, etc, is deadening our senses and ruining an entire generation of youth into thinking that this is ALL there is. Creeper is making an effort to change that.

The result is a guitar focused, melody laden album that is fresh, cheerful, riff-laden, individualistic while still aiming for a broad audience. They have ditched the moodier, darker sounds of the last album, focusing more on the "Empty Ships" and "Dear Deadly" area, which were their two best radio-friendly works. Ian is the featured vocalist, with Sharkey Laguna doing more back-up.

"Wrecking Ball" is a great first single, with a catchy chorus and rythmical acoustic opening before it tears in a screaming guitar melodies. Laguna still features his high fill-ins and his studio work displays his knack for mixing in techno elements in suttle layers of headphone rock.

At it's best, "Take Back.." is an ambitious, superb summer album that makes you hope for rock that is pop, but still maintains an air of individuality and passion, creating riffs that aren't rip-offs of Green Day/Blink 182. At it's weaker points, I'm often reminded of Nada Surf with more tools, which really doesn't sound like a bad thing. Creeper has modified their sound, but I see it as a move to bring back guitar rock, and they have done this without compromising their personality. A must for any dual guitar lover who likes to sit on their porch in May at sunset with a cold beverage, chilling out with their friends.

Rock on.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Evidence That Radio Programmers Are Idiots, February 8, 2002

By 

Pop Kulcher "Pop Kulcher" (San Carlos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday (Audio CD)

Creeper Lagoon's second full-length album confirms their ability to live up to, if not surpass, the hype surrounding their role as San Francisco's leading indie rock superstars. This, their major label debut, lacks some of the unique charm of the (mostly) excellent I Become Small And Go, but doesn't suffer for the added polish. Despite the upgraded production that major label bucks have financed, they still sound like a cross between Pavement and Echo & The Bunnymen, chaotic off-kilter rock with a healthy dose of moody melodicism. There are a few outstanding straightforward rockers, most notably "Sunfair" and "Wrecking Ball," all kept from veering into a dull mainstream alternative-rock sound by vocalist Dave Kostiner's plaintive vocals and above-par guitar riffs. The album is brought down a bit by it's obvious bid for mainstream "alternative" radio airplay; a few tunes are just too clean-sounding for their own good, and the fact that this didn't perform better commercially confirms either that the record-buying sheep aren't that easily fooled, or that, more likely, radio stations suck even more than I'd been led to believe.