Thanasphere

Herman Jolly | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 21, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Barsuk
• ASIN: B00007L7F3
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #764,125 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Windless Sucked Me In, January 10, 2004

By 

Owen Shiflett (LA, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thanasphere (Audio CD)

Herman Jolly. What a great name for a singer/songwriter pop-folk revolutionist. Thanaspere, what a great name for a disaterous disappointment.
Everything about this album is lame. The cover art sucks, the liner notes tell us nothing, the hype is even blisteringly dull. Why even rate it with one star you ask? "Windless" is the single best song to come out of the indie folk scene since Bright Eyes first burst from his Nebraska roots or Joseph Arthur's undaunting Big City Secrets. Even the more mainstream David Gray and John Mayer can't quite grasp the honest brilliance of Jolly's flirtatious single.
If you can find a version of "Windless" in mp3, I can't reccomend it higher. (Pitchfork used to have a link) His minimalist ballad seems to be just wrought with the kind of angst and torturous songwriting that a seasoned poet couldn't even create. At the same time, however, there's an energy and optimism that could only compare to the college student playing his own material at an open mic for the first time. Wonderful song that you can't help turn the volume up to.
Now the album. Aweful. Jolly ditches his infectious song writing and funky hand-clapping grad school wonderment for drudging sorrows and drugged-up clunkers. The rest of the songs rely too heavily on Jolly's less-than par vocals to save their melodies. He isn't playing to his strengths. Let the songs sing themselves. The stories within would carry tune. He forgets this on every track surrounding "windless."
I've not experience Mad Cowboy Disease, but I don't know how it could be as disappointing as this one.