Customer Reviews

Thanks For The Ether

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Rasputina's first (and best) album. The cello music is inspired and much more noticeable than on their other albums, and the lyrics are remarkably insightful, ironic, and clever. It is also tinged with sadness, cynicism, and of course, the Victorian era and other tales from ages past, which is their trademark.

If anyone can find a group with a more original, beautiful, and unforgettabke sound, it's obvious they're lying. Rasputina's grunge-goth classically-influenced faery tale rock is indescribable. The quirky lyrics and dark music is beyond genius. Melora Creager's inimitable sad vibrato and soulful cello-playing makes this album a classic. The mythic, Neo-Victorian sound behind Rasputina is something I'm just not eloquent enough to explain. Buy this album and experience the divinity that is Rasputina for yourself.

Every time I am listening to this album I feel as if I am a Victorian woman lost in dreams of another life, where I can do whatever I please. This CD is powerful. Very! I usually listen to it when I am in a pensive mood, or when I am doing a lot of homework for my classes, writing papers in History and so forth. Rasputina makes me proud to be a lady. Nowadays we have very downgrading music sung by women themselves. Strange. Rasputina is music for any lady who likes to be alone, sew, listen to rain and ponder life. If you like cellos, melancholy voices, slow melodies, and stories about historic figures, then hurry and buy it now!

I LOVE this album. It is very dark and gothic (not a marilyn manson type gothic but more of a victorian ghost story type gothic) and the music is very dreamy and haunting. Great lyrics, and I have fallen in love with the sound of the cello. Listen to this while reading Anne Rice or Anne Radcliffe, its got a nice Victorian feel to it. The only song I really don't care much for is Howard Hughes but the rest of the songs are great.

This is the most overlooked debut album of the last three years. It's an absolute gem! A refreshing sound that stands alone above a pop landscape filled with boring guitar rock. The 3 women of Rasputina are virtuoso cellists. The imagery recalls a musty yellowed attic in a colonial home filled with old photographs, spiders, rollerskates, costume jewelery, stockings, halloween decorations, and broken dolls. It is sadness and wonder all at once. A must own disc for the more Open Minded fans of Romantic Goth or perhaps Tori Amos.

Rasputina's "Thanks for the Ether" is a hard to describe, hard to absorb, but ultimately brilliant album. The band is comprised of 3 cello players, and as far as classification, it's classical, orchestral cello music in more traditional rock song structure. For many like me who listen to mostly contemporary music, it's almost like a different language and could be an acquired taste.

Charismatic frontwoman Melora Creager makes the album (and the band), with her incredibly detailed and descriptive lyrics, usually descriptions of some event, person or situation. She also has a wicked sense of humor, evidenced in her stage presence and the spoken word interludes on this album (including one insisting that the term "settlers" implies the "willingness to settle for a meal of human flesh"). More subtlely funny moments included the purposely mumbled and indecipherable lyrics of "Sister Sleep". Song topics range from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire to a mysterious note signed 'Mr. E. Leon Rauis'. Oh yeah, and she's an awesome singer, with a distinctive sound, range and a lot of vibrato.

There are a full 19 songs on this album (even the spoken word pieces have cello accompaniment) and none of them are at all weak. My personal favorites are the lively "Stumpside", and the more melancholic tunes like "Any Old Actress" and mysterious "Dig Ophelia". There's a catchy melody at the root of every song here, and a ton of diversity. There's also some covers of older songs, Melanie's "Brand New Key" and "Why Don't You Do Right". For all the cleverness and humor, a lot of these songs have real emotional effect on me. The feel is often one of nostalgia and conjures up images of the Victorian times that they're so enamoured with.

The difference between this and later Rasputina is that on later albums such as "How We Quit the Forest" (also great) they were literally playing classic rock songs on the cello, distortion and all, and the arrangements were simplified compared to the full blown harmonizing and intricacy of this first album.

So, there's my bad attempt at describing this band / album, which is a lot more than just a novelty. "Thanks for the Ether" is highly recommended to anyone looking for something different, and if you get the chance to see this band live, it's an experience you'll never forget.

I'm all for pop that reaches out and incorporates elements of classical music. This band of three women cellists has made something quite different here.

They definitely have the whole breeches-and-stockings neo-romantic thing going here, though songs like "Transylvania Concubine," with its amusingly cheesy lyric, might strike some as trying just a little too hard. But covering Melanie's "Brand New Key" is unexpectedly pleasant.

It's the strange accompanied recitatives on this record that strike me as the most interesting thing here. "The Donner Party" is a lovely parody of "transgressive" academic bunkum. There are other monologues here that are almost equally as strange.

Oh Rasputina. My joy and my delight. An incredible, revolutionary band with a diverse and unique sound. They really do love their cellos, and it shows. This early album is not as good as 'How We Quit the Forest', being a little more airy, less intense as it were, but is still truly excellent. Highlights include 'Transylvanian Concubine' (on the 'Buffy' soundtrack), 'Brand New Key' which is a cover, and my personal absolute favourite 'Rusty the Skatemaker'. Melora's unusual sense of humour shines through in songs like 'Sister Sleep', 'The Donner Party', 'Five Fleas' and 'Howard Hughes'. Look out for a bonus track in German at the end. The German grammer leaves something to be desired, but it has a really mad sound. In fact, the same could be said of the whole album. I would recommend 'Forest' over this album, but it is definately worth your while. Buy it. That's an order.

An all-girl band with Victorian affectations delivers cello rock with deadpan dark humor, singing about historic deadly fires and cannibalism. It may sound like a "goth" cd, but the inventiveness and humor simply transcend all categorization.

The music ranges from melodic to crashing cacaphony to affected monologues over flowing background strings. It is varied, quirky, and unique, so I wouldn't count on liking ALL the songs equally. There are a couple that I personally detest; oddly they are ones that some of my friends like best. Almost every song, however, evokes a strong reaction of some sort, which is a sign these women are doing something right.

One caution: the lead singer has a thin high voice and the narrated songs are very arch and deliberately stilted in delivery. Listen carefully to the vocals on the samples here; if you find these voices off-putting, you may find yourself unable to enjoy the rich inventiveness on display. I find the delivery effective for most of the songs. A rewarding cd, but not for the faint of heart.

When I first listened to Rasputina I had a number of complaints: it was creepy stuff, too atonal, some songs just didn't make sense, and the songs were difficult to get into. After a few listenings, however, and some analysis of the lyrics, I grew to love their one-of-a-kind style, their slightly eerie sound, and intelligent, often quirky and historically based (err...kinda...My Little Shirtwaist Fire, Howard Hughes, The Donner Party, Dig Ophelia [Hamlet based]) lyrics. Transylvanian Concubine, Dig Ophelia, and Howard Hughes are still my favorite songs, but all of the others are individual amd brilliantly written and performed, as well, by this very cool and talented ladies' cello society.