Customer Reviews

Ulysses

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

 

 

UNBELIEVABLY GREAT! Discovering this record thru a friend, I've been playing it for over a month almost every day... it might be one of the truly great overlooked albums in recent years. Reeves Gabrels (ex-guitarist: David Bowie, Tin Machine) is obviously a very accomplished guitar player, but he proves here that he's a really fine songwriter too. Only one instrumental! The songs are strong and get better with each listen, I personally really like Jewel, Accident, Standing, Party Puppet, and Yesterday's Gone, which has The Cure's Robert Smith on vocals. (Most songs it's Reeves on vocals.) Other guests on the CD are David Bowie, Frank Black, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), etc. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CD! Five Stars.

Reeves Gabrels is back. Back in a big way. The raging riffs and rough, gritty guitar work from "Squall" are there, however there is also an atmospheric, ethereal quality to his new release. The album begins full of energy and does not let up. Gabrels' playing is still quirky, eclectic and never dull. The recording quality is outstanding.

The only problem I have with this album is that it is way too short in duration. At just over 45 minutes it leaves you wanting more. Let's hope the next release is more substantial in length. In today's era of CDs, 45 minutes is unacceptable.

I love Bowie's collaborations with Reeves Gabrels, including the under-rated Tin Machine, and I've been eying Gabrels solo records for a while, this one being the first I got. From hearing his work on Bowie's 90's albums especially, I fell in love with this guy's talents. This album, however, tends to show a different musician. While his work with Bowie is catchy and very original, about half this album is really exceptional above the average rock album. My favorites are 'Arrow' 'Thirteen Years' and 'Trap'. Some others, like 'Accident' and 'Party Puppet' are good, but fall a bit too repetitive to really work. Also, I can't stand Robert Smith, so 'Yesterday's Gone' is always absent in my player (I mean come on, Smith's own lyrics have the intellect of a depressed 11-year old and his music is hardly above mediocre despite the many years of experience he has had in the business; what a joke! He should hide behind his shaggy hair where he belongs).

But altogether, this album is really great! It's catchy, but not over-commercially so, and the balance between electronics and heavy guitar work, reminiscent of Bowie's 'Outside' and 'Earthling', is brilliant. If only it were a few tracks longer, I would've felt more satisfied with it.

I was pretty excited about this album because of the other good reviews and because I like other avant-garde music and rock. I really admire what guys like Robert Fripp and Buckethead are doing and where they're going with the guitar.
However, as I slid this album into the player, the first thing I hear is some of the most amateur programming ever! The first track completely sucked! The lyrics were retarded and the singing was awful! I don't usually care about lyrics, so I was mostly concentrating on the guitar work, but the singing was so terrible that I couldn't get over it. I let the first track wrap up and hoped for something better to come. I was let down again, and again. The only track on here that would be at all listenable to the average listener is Yesterday's Gone. I also kind of liked Jewel. But the rest of the album was terrible. The mixing was all off; the terrible vocals would be way above the rest of the music, then a horrible guitar "solo" would come screaming in above the music at the same level as what the vocals were.
That was really the biggest let-down. I figured, here's a guy who's making a guitar album, so the guitar is going to be awesome! But it wasn't awesome at all. It was really techy and gadgety, and didn't really require any talent to do. And by techy and gadgety, I don't mean like Tom Morrello. I mean he used a lot of effects to produce a hell of a lot of noise, relying heavily on sustain and not at all on harmony. It seems like he has no idea what a freakin' scale is! Let alone modes.
Anyway, I'm gonna listen to it again to give it another chance, but I wanted my initial impression to be documented.