Til the Wheels Fall Off

Amy Rigby

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 22, 2003)
• Original Release Date: April 22, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Signature Sounds
• ASIN: B00008OLZA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #198,949 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind., May 7, 2003

By A Customer

Signature ***1/2)

It's hard to write a funny song that isn't just a novelty, but Amy Rigby is a master. Her comically pessimistic, self-deprecatingly ironic songs are as amusing on the 10th listen as they are on the first, in part because she can be as bitter ("Why Do I") as she is sweet ("Don't Ever Change").

Til The Wheels Fall Off is Rigby's best album since 1996's great Diary of a Mod Housewife. She's randy and rambunctious even as she deals with parenthood and a penchant for unreliable men. In rootsy songs that range from the Tex-Mex title track (a duet with Todd Snider) to the jaunty piano pop of "The Deal" to the twangy anthem "Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?" ("We used to be triple x-rated/look at us now, so domesticated"), Rigby dissects desires and doubts with vivacity and humor.

- Steve Klinge
Philadelphia Inquirer

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting better all the time..., May 12, 2003

By	"mcconna1" (Pittsboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews

just got Amy Rigby's latest - Til the Wheels fall Off.  A GREAT cd...equal to her first, Diary of a Mod Housewife.  She's absorbed all the great R&R moves into her musical subconscious and everything fuses together wonderfully...Her melodies are lovely; the arrangements go from the delicate to seriously rocking out.  But it's her rueful, often witty lyrics that trump everything..An underlying drone supports the music - organ, mellotron, accordion depending on the song, but it's a neat effect.  The next to last song, Believe in You, is a lovely musical homage to George Harrison... the last, All the Way to Heaven, has a sweet VU sound but almost all the songs (and esp songs 1-5 & 10,13-14) are wonderful. Jump off the Lucinda Williams bandwagon & give Amy Rigby a buy & a listen.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen Til Your Ears Fall off, May 6, 2003

By	J. Husson (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

By all rights, "Til the Wheels Fall Off" should be Amy Rigby's breakthrough album. This is her strongest, most consistent collection of original songs to date, supported by a crack team of musical compatriots including Todd Snider, Will Kimbrough, and Ken Coomer. They don't get much better than this.

This isn't kid stuff. "Wheels" is full of big, hard questions about big, hard life-and-love struggles, with no easy answers. "Why do I pull wings off butterflies...I kiss the boys but I'm the one who cries," she laments in "Why Do I". "What am I looking for?", she asks in "Shopping Around," adding "I'm getting older, I'm getting wiser/But am I getting laid?" "The Deal" picks up the wry relationship-as-transaction theme from her last album's "Cynically Yours". "Forget that couple stuff/Forget about love/That's the deal/It's optional", she proposes. Do you believe that? Neither does Amy. "I wish that I could lose myself inside of love/Instead of always standing on the outside," she sighs on "Believe In You", revealing the capital-R Romantic beneath the cynical facade.

But for all the drama - and there's plenty enough here - "Wheels" is shot through with good humor and musical sophistication. "Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?", a hilarious take on marital fizzle, gets a subtle banjo, pennywhistle, and bodhran Irish treatment. The bright, bouncy pop melody of "The Deal" seems to come right from the Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart/Monkees songbook. "Breakup Boots" gets a full country band treatment here that soars on World Dominator Will Kimbrough's slide work. The title cut is a loping shuffle tugged along by trebly Farfisa organ riffs, a loopy trombone solo, and a drawling Todd Snider duet that redefines "laid back". The Sept. 11-inspired "Don't Ever Change", achingly beautiful and elegant in its simplicity and directness, goes beyond events to give much-needed perspective and uplift in a world of uncertainty and pain. It's one of those songs you could see Dolly Parton taking to Number One.

If there's one thing missing from "Wheels", it's a rocker. As anyone who's heard her tear through "Pump It Up" or her own "If You Won't Hang Around" will tell you, ain't too many people rock harder than Amy. That's as good a reason as any to catch her on tour with her band this spring.

In the meantime, pick up "Til the Wheels Fall Off", and hear one of America's best singer-songwriters show 'em how it's done.