Customer Reviews

Toreador of Love

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

 

 

If you thought a band couldn't mix the heavy with the melodic, well this will come as a surprise. Though the melodies are definitely pop-sweet, it's the hard and heavy fuzzy guitars that will capture you and not let you go. The standouts, which are mere genius, are "Cosmic Allison", "Comet" (a hit single that never was), "She's Supersonic" and "Boog". The other songs are merely great. Not only will the tunes and the guitar reel you in but the intertwining vocals of drummer Jody Bleye and guitarist Peter Krebs shades the music with a flavor of X's better moments. You must buy this.

Wow! I bought this CD without knowing anything about the band, or really what they would sound like...Usually purchases like that turn out to be crap, but not this time! This is one of the best CDs I've ever heard. Jack Endino (who recorded Nirvana's "Bleach", as well as many, many other things) is a genius! His recording perfectly brings out the powerful rock and sweet melodies of this great (and now split-up) band. Pete Krebs and Jody Bleyle sing fantastically. Jody's drumming is really cool, and hey, so's everything else! This album is pure grunge, although perhaps it's not fair to say that. It rocks more than mostly everything else in this world. The first 4 songs on the album are fantastic. The rest of the album is mostly excellent. The only real bad point is one song ("Constipation"). Apart from that slight stumble, this is one sweet and kick-ass record.

I used to go watch Hazel perform every chance I got in Portland when I was a teenager, mainly at La Luna and the X-Ray Cafe. Their live shows were fabulously fun and inspired audiences to fling themselves around in abandon. I still pull out their albums regularly and it brings back waves of happy nostalgia, and I still treasure my purple HZL t-shirt. Unfortunately, the album doesn't really capture the spirit of what it was like to see them in person, but it's still one of my favorite power-pop albums and defines what Portland was like in the early 90s for me.

I don't think MTV came within fifty miles of this band. A couple of the reviews below make me wonder if somebody's working out a personal grudge...

Anyway, Toreador is a solid, uptempo, melodic indie rock album by one of the many creative Northwest bands to find themselves trapped at the tail end of the "grunge" era. Songs like "Comet" and "Shiva" are fun, frenetic numbers with a sardonic undertone. One of the best albums of all time? No, of course not. But a good reminder that the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s spawned a lot of quality bands that shouldn't be folded into some one-dimensional "grunge scene." Buy it, put it on when you want to feel energized and sing along a little.

Hazel was a guitar-driven band that wrote some pretty good songs but failed to strike enough of an impact to make me want to devote myself to their brand of upbeat grungy rock. this cd is a pretty good enough listen, overall. i like some of the melodies but i find myself bored. Hazel reminds me of bands like Pond, Heatmiser, and Crackerbash...but with a much thinner sound and less creativity. this is a great album cover, though!

I laughed when I saw the review who's telling that the drummer for Hazel is weak and sounds as the drummer for White Stripes.I'm not agree that this is a music for MTV kids,but certainly it is not interesting and seems just very commercial.Actually,I think that if Jack White will need another drummer,maybe can look at Hazel - this is not far as sound.

The drummer for Hazel is ridiculous.She's weak.She seems the drummer for White Stripes.I think this music is for MTV kids.