Take a Chance on Something Beautiful

Half Past Forever, Half Past Forever | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Independent
• ASIN: B000NJWAHE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,130 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Small-town sensation Half Past Forever have finally broken onto the national scene with their new album Take a Chance on Something Beautiful. The draw for new listeners will no doubt be American Idol phenom, Chris Sligh, but don't be surprised to find his equally astonishing flair for songwriting and production. Even if the songs here weren't already his own, Chris's smooth control and distinctive, urgent ownership would make you believe he was spinning these wonders out of thin air. Backed by accomplished guitarists Adam Fisher and Cole Edmonson, Chris's gifts have the platform they've needed to let loose and shine.

Take a Chance is old school in some ways, delivering the refreshing album-based songwriting you didn't think existed in the mainstream anymore. Though several tracks should rightly become singles, this music was meant for more than 3-minute snatches, and has the wholeness of a concept album without the need for a concept. In other ways, the album is also on the leading edge of musical creativity. Alongside the delicious hooks of chart-bound hits like "Know" or "In a Moment," you're just as likely to find the complex musicality of songs like "Convenience," which melds hypnotic synth and soulful crooning with tinges of "A Day in the Life" and Gnarls Barkley. Or "Naive," which opens like a sorrowful Goo Goo Dolls hit, only to incorporate bits of Seal and Coldplay to refine the sound. Actually, the musical background here is so eclectic, it's probably most sensible to call this sound a remarkable beauty being born.

Take a Chance is an album that rewards multiple listens, and it may take you a dozen times through to begin realizing the lyrical depth or the calm interlacing between songs. Along with his Idol fame, Chris has a couple national songwriting awards under his belt, and it's not hard to hear the talent. You'll probably have the chorus to "Know" memorized by the third time around, but it may take a little longer until the meaning hits you like a slap in the face. And when Chris's half-despairing "I'm gone" moves into the album's last track, it's answered with the nascent discovery, "Now I know the pictures I hold on to are gone away / ... Maybe getting older brings me closer to you." There is remarkable range here: you'll find yourself carried away by equal parts free-spirit and turbulence, with songs evoking the spectrum from arena to quiet personal space. And all the while, Chris's soaring baritone will keep its enticing hooks in you. Certainly, there are missteps, and there is room for the music to grow. But Take a Chance on Something Beautiful is the sound of a band coming into its own.

Half Past Forever Photos

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best indie- rock CD to come along for a very long time!, April 7, 2007

By 

G. E. Williams "Nunah" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take a Chance on Something Beautiful (Audio CD)

Two things are unfortunately the facts of life. First, Chris Sigh doesn't fit the image of today's "Pop-Stars". Back when it was music over image, say 1967-1978, with enough talent AND enough connections, you MIGHT get a record deal, but studio time was so expensive that it was really difficult. But then you could look like Leslie West and still be a rock star. Then came MTV and video killed the radio star. Then recently, digital music recording has become affordable enough that anyone that really wants to can record a quality CD, if you have the talent. You just need the pirates that they call Record Label Executives to market your CD if you want it to make you wealthy. Consequently, the most marketed artist often looks the part, but is missing the talent.

Which means generally, that you have to know kids in college, to find the really good music that is being made by the "Independent Rockers," and sold at their shows.

Which brings us to American Idol, which had the good luck of having a first season winner that was capable of becoming what they wanted her to be, which of course is a "pop star".

Then came the train wreck of Karaoke singing contestants and a legitimate Country Star. Not that there have not been some great vocalist on the show, and not that my family doesn't watch every episode, but the CD's that have been made are so "cookie cutter pop", that it seems that these record exec's don't know what to do with these vocalist, and the vocalist themselves, don't know either. Take the best "Rock voice in the show's history, Chris Daughtry, the voice is so good, but the songs while they are not bad, you don't say to yourself, wow, rock is alive and well because the album is made, and he can thank the stars that he didn't win or he would have really been watered down, frankly I don't even want to imagine that album. As it is Daughtry is a pretty good CD with okay songs and great vocals. But by the way, women I know think he is dreamy.

Which brings us finally to my second point, Chris Sligh, isn't the chick magnet that record companies want in an artist, and we on the west coast would have never heard of him without American Idol. Did he get a fair exposure on Idol?, probably not, I think he probably has the second best "Rock Voice" in the show's history. Did he have some problems with the Pop Theme's? yes. Did I want him to win? No. Because what they would have done to his music would not have been good, AND...

"Take A Chance On Something Beautiful", by Chris Sligh & Half Past Forever, is a GREAT CD!

The musicianship is outstanding, the songwriting, the lyrics, and the vocals all very, very good. If this is the future of rock music, then I think that there might be hope after all. If you long for the days of Classic Rock, if you miss the times when the music wasn't a jar of jellybeans, but rather a fine recipe, then this is a CD to buy and play over and over.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this cd is very good, March 27, 2007

By 

L. washington "bmorebamma" (baltimore,maryland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take a Chance on Something Beautiful (Audio CD)

i like this cd ,i did not know that chris was in his own band. he has one of the most insteresting voices in music. as some one said i hope he don'e win ai they would kill whatever that special thing that chris has , i have a couple of faves on this cd track's# 5 and 15 . any whoo you may think that iam a teen but iam not iam a 44 year old afrcian amercian female, who CAN think outside of the so called box

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Band Should Be On A Major Label, April 6, 2007

By 

D. Nickel (St. Louis USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take a Chance on Something Beautiful (Audio CD)

I admit I was skeptical buying this CD. Let's face it, other than Chris Daughtry's effort, the former Idols who tried their hand at Rock/Pop musical efforts made CDs that are not very good. Taylor Hicks...yawn...Constantine's band, Pray for the Soul of Betty...a few good songs but they couldn't make up their mind whether they were Led Zeppelin or a some form of a 21st century Black Sabbath, so their CD was a mush of music....Bo Bice...forced to cotton candy his songs to try and please the Idol producers and the masses, so it ended up sounding bland with no edge.

So even though I liked Chris Sligh and was disappointed he was voted off Idol earlier than I thought he should have been (although you could tell he was ready to go home), and heard he had a band, Half Past Forever, I was not sold on buying his band's musical effort. So I first checked out the band's My Space site and liked what I heard. I proceeded to order it fearing I would get two, maybe three decents songs from a quasi-Christian message band trying to make it. Boy was I wrong.

This band's songs fill your speakers with solid rock songs that have enough hooks, musical bridges and key changes to keep the songs creative and different. Where Daughtry's songs all start sounding the same after awhile, Half Past Forever does not suffer from the same song writer's cramp. The band sounds like a cross between the Goo Goo Dolls (when they were good), Mercy Me with an edge and a little HelloGoodbye keyboard thrown in. I loved the way Half Past Forever creatively links many of the songs to each other, which creates hardly any dead air time on the CD. If I have one nit, it is the two weakest songs are the first two full songs on the CD (not the short intros), after getting past those two efforts, the CD sails to the end. After the CD is finished, you felt it was worth every dime you paid for it. No buyer's remorse.

Half past Forever's CD is as good as anything out there on the market by many major label bands. There is no good reason this band is not on the radio and in the mainstream. Trust me...at my age I have heard all the good and bad that rock has to offer. This CD will be in your player for weeks before it comes out.