Customer Reviews

This Sounds Like Goodbye

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

 

 

This album will grow on you. Trust me. The first listen may sound a bit rough, a bit mish-mashed, a bit experimental and demo-ish. But the second, the third, and so-on, listens, reveal many other layers and emotions and connections between songs etc...

Ken Stringfellow, for those who don't yet know, is fantastic Seattle musician who got his start, at 19 years of age, as 1/2 of the Seattle (well, technically Bellingham) band, ThE PoSiEs.... From there, he went on to play, along with Jon Auer (the other Posie) with the band Big Star, then it was onto solo projects and playing with other bands, such as Australia's Orange Humble Band (as singer (but not song-writer)), as well as none other than REM, as keyboardist, etc.. He also plays in a band with Peter Buck called the Minus 5, as well as producing bands in the states, and all over Europe (Sweden, Spain, etc etc)...

This Sounds Like Goodbye has remnants of Posie-type songs, but really it digs deeper than that. It is more intimate, more varied, more personal. This album is all about mood, about letting the music wash over you and going with the flow.

It starts off with the now classic "Here's to the Future" and leads into an experimental piece which is highly reminiscent of work done by another '90's Seattle band (which amazingly Ken also co-founded in the late '80's, Sky Cries Mary).(Ken has another joint project with a generally similar ("experimental") direction entitled Twin Princess.)

The cd then goes into Your Love Won't Be Denied, a nice, moody greyish pop song. After A Short Drum Break, the cd leads into another pop-song, Any Sign At All, the experimental piece Bi-Son, another non-vocal number and then into what is the real reason to buy this album, the AMAZING, sad and beautiful Too True!.... The lyrics in this song make my heart melt, hauntingly heartfelt and beautiful. Top notch songwriting, this.

A couple more experimental numbers round out the album, leading up to the closing piece, a cover of a Big Star song, Take Care.

For something that reflects the heartache and pain of love and loss (much like Touched, but sadder and somehow less hopeful) so well, this album is a shining gem of beauty, and though it is rougher around the edges than any Posies album, and less cohesive and streamlined than the magic Touched, it is a seminal work for any Stringfellow fan.

I have listened to this cd alot and have come to the conclusion that it is nothing more than 4 track demos of songs Ken wanted to use with the POSIES and exploring new directions that trendy music is taking. Ken lose the turn-table and MPC and grab the acoustic guitar and some other musicians and put out a solo effort worthy of the money spent on a cd and most of all your incredible talent. There are some great songs but they are so under-developed that only the very hardcore posies fan (me) could swallow. Sorry so rough but Ken and Jon were (are) some of the best alt. pop songwriters that ever collaborated. KEN DO A SERIOUS GUITAR RECORD< DO IT FOR YOUR FANS! We're waiting.

It certainly does sound like goodbye Kenny boy. For with this travesty of an "offering" I have written you off completely. So, goodbye Ken. For the parting glass...here's to rememberances of the glory days of The Posies...so very long ago and far away.

Some of the songs here would have been great had they been done by the Posies in the studio. Why Ken wanted to assault us with his demo noodlings is all more the puzzling. I mean..Revolution Number 9 has already been done.

I think Big Star may have had an adverse affect on him. At any rate there are a couple good songs on here and only two stand on their own here in demo fashion i.e. "Too True" and "Heres to the Future". I hope that some day he looks back at a couple of these songs and takes another crack at them in the studio with Mitch easter at the helm.

4 Demos & filler is stretching it. ONLY purchase this album if you consider yourself a completist. I found this collection to be disjointed, slightly jagged, murky, and just depressing in general. I'm not sure where Ken wants to lead us, but I agree with another reviewer,,, pick up the acoustic guitar and write some SONGS. This album definately has an UNSETTLING aspect to it, perhaps Ken wnated a "Sister Lovers" (Big Star), or an "I Am The Cosmos" (Chris Bell) feel......sorry Ken, those two albums manage to have that quirky off-kilter feel to them with success, but yours does not.

In Ken Stringfellow's first solo album since the end of his band the Posies, he explores musical realms not yet touched in his past work. The album alternates between songs and instrumentals, with each one building tension and emotion upon the last. The track Bi Son, is an emotional break through, a triumph in translating spirit into song. At times the album is remeniscent of Grant Hart, Sid Barret, and at other times Radio Head, but the real musical message here is this freedom and expression that Ken seems to have found since his liberation from the Posies.For those familiar with Ken's past style of songwriting, you wont find the smooth lyrical song mastery of Dear 23, but you will find an album that is mature and brilliant, not a piece of ear candy, but an essential vitamin that must be taken. I highly recommend this album to all fans of the Posies and those who love brilliant thought provoking music.

The guy who said this was 4 demos and filler was right. Like he said in the Posies "Don't waste yor time" I hope he'll make it up to his fans for this Amazing Disgrace.