Customer Reviews

Under the Western Freeway

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I ran across Sophtware Slump after hearing two songs on the BBC's Later with Jools Holland. Since I started listening to Rock in the 60's, this band seemed to have taken a half century of music and made everything work. It reminds me of a lot of 60's bands, but the construction of the music is remarkable. Moving backwards, I picked up this album. It may be better, but it is different.

Sophtware Slump has kind of a theme, but it's not trying to make a pompous point. It just contains a lot of extended explorations on a theme of detached emptiness. The songs are complex, with songs within songs and miscellaneous 'noises'. The Bonzo Dog Band explored 'dada' music, and their last songs push rock music to some kind of limit. This music is more 'impressionist'. The words are creating moods, not just saying 'something'. The clever lyrics and mystical chants in several songs are beautiful, in SS. This is a less complex CD, and it's more of a 'flat out', pedal to the metal straightaway, kind of rock. Heck, buy both albums.

UWF has less 'content', perhaps. It includes songs like "Poisoned at the Hartsy" that are very cute and endearing, but a little limited. Some of the songs are absolutely haunting, and that is the strength of this album versus SS. "NonPhenom" is so unique that it is almost hypnotic. The message is obvious, and it is delivered with precision. It's a depressing theme, but it's kind of an inspiring song. It's like, "Oh, well. Yeah, that's what happens... I guess it's not really my problem." It's beautiful.

"Laughing Stock" is an incredible piece of rock music. It's just a very clean wall of sound that pulses out and then retreats. This is very polished rock music. "Freeway" is a melody with no lyrics. It evokes several things, but much of their music seems to be about feeling emptiness without being overwhelmed by it. "Summer Here Kids" is, again, a lot of musical power under complete control, with a definite mood.

JLytle can create art with his music. He can move me without being trite or doing much of anything that anybody has done before, exactly. The way the tracks are put together is wonderful, although this album has songs that open in fairly distracting ways. It's complex music, and the execution of SophSlump is more polished. This album has a more raw 'hard rock' quality. "Broken Appliance" on SS, with a kind of edgy uncontrolled rawness, doesn't work as well as "Summer Here Kids", which goes in the same direction.

"Why Took Your Advice" is a melancholy song about relationships, but it IS impressionist. It's about radios and microscopes, but, of course, it isn't. The song is doing everything it can to make you feel, well, what you might feel in a relationship. A fairly sour relationship. Don't worry about the birds. You'll wonder why everyone doesn't use birds.

It's silly to say he redefines rock, but he uses fairly simple themes to create music that completely involves the listener. These are songs about being left out, or left behind, or not liking being where you are, or wishing you could get back to something, somewhere, but you aren't sure quite where. Lytle makes a compelling case that this is what music should do.

I've noticed that lately my music tastes have gravitated towards bands that aren't commercially successful, but have constantly produced quality music. I consider Under the Western Freeway one of the best albums that I own because its just great music. Grandaddy experiments with different sounds and styles, but they play their music with emotion, great intensity in some songs and a sweet sadness in others. I can see how this experimental nature may turn some listeners off from their music, but I think it's great that the band just plays what it wants to. Nowadays it seems some bands and singers seek to use music to create an image so it's refreshing to hear a group that displays sincerity and passion for their music.

Some songs I like on the album
AM180 - Great song, catchy tune
Nonphenomenal Lineage - I love the guitar in this
Everything beautiful Is Far Away

Dare I say that this is one of the finest pieces of art I have ever put in my ears? I do! Radiohead who?? These guys are something else. If reading through the rave reviews on this album don't convince you to give this album a listen, then you will truly miss out on something special. I have purchased 2 copies of this album and copied one on minidisk so that I can listen to it wherever I am. If this sounds pathetic, don't worry - you will soon understand. These songs are perfect, achingly beautiful melodies sung by a man with the voice of an angel. Grandaddy is pure paradox. They have this way of capturing raw, genuine emotion and vivid imagery in songs that sometimes seem so simple that they are almost childlike. But these songs are anything but simple, as repeated listens clearly unveil its incredible depth like the turning of each page in a narrative. The rythmic little bleeps and bloops from the casio keep it playful and light, like tiptoes on a frozen lake. Raw noise guitar keeps the album grounded just enough to keep you from floating away. The album in a whole is much, much more than just a sum of its parts. I have never listened to just one or two songs - if I put it in the player, I am always prepared to go along for the entire ride. The entire album works because all these elements balance perfectly with each other to create a zen-like experience. Even those little things that might seem like flaws at first profoundly transcend into greatness after they sink into your scull. And man, are they there to stay. I can't get these damn catchy songs out of my head! Grandaddy has just moved in and they found a cozy little corner to snuggle up into. Thank God they won't be leaving.

Anyone who has just gotten into Grandaddy has to pick up this album. The Sophtware Slump was epic but a bit overdramatic and Sumday was brilliant yet oversimplified. This album, on the other hand, is pretty close to perfect. Even if it doesn't have the overtly pessimistic lyrics of its follow up, this album is genionly gloomy. Feelings of lonliness, nervousness, and isolation lurk under perfect pop gems. Even the upbeat AM 180 has a certain melencholy to it that is hard to even put into words. The first and last songs bookend the album perfectly, Lawn and So On dissolving into about five minutes of crickets chirping. Its a shame that I had to wait until after the Sophtware Slump to discover this album but now that I have, I don't think I'll ever look at pop music the same. No joke.

This is real easy listening music. Not 'Easy Listening' but easy listening: sublime, laid-back, blissed-out, hypnotic.
Guitars are strummed feverishly, rotating like windmills to provide backdrops for swirls of keyboard and synthesiser to dance around.
For illustration, look no further than the enchanting 'Go Progress Chrome'. A heady wash of electronic sound meanders over a hypnotically rhythmic guitar line, and is anchored by a melancholic vocal which recalls Mark Linkous at his most beautifully despondent.
Sparklehorse are indeed probably Grandaddy's nearest cousins, though the often cited Beach Boys comparison rings true in the cute, lush instrumentals. The ghost of Sparklehorse's debut 'Vivadixie..' can be heard on the charged 'AM180' and 'Summer Here Kids', while the spectre of Pet Sounds is evident in the likes of 'Collective Dreamwish..' and 'Under The Western Freeway'.
In truth though, Grandaddy pretty much stand out as a unique band with a sound of their own. It's beautiful, and it's not too far away..

Honestly, tell me cause I love this stuff. These guys managed to dodge so much crap in the music industry and stay on top of their game from album to album. But this. Truly their finest work. It's absolutely remarkable. "Summer Here Kids", "Everything Beautiful is Far Away", "AM 180" are all jams that I could not live without hearing from time to time, it's a timeless piece of music that is about joy and happiness coming out of your radio.
More importantly it's absolutely gorgeous songwriting intertwining over and over again, over this wall of music you can't escape cause the sounds are so familiar and exist somewhere between a computer and guitar. It's the transformation from a folk to more sonic sound and it's almost like Grandaddy is singing merrily the whole way there.

Modesto's Grandaddy could be accurately described as a close cousin of Mark Linkous's Sparklehorse. Both bands employ unforgettable melodies, poetic lyrics and lo-fi production techniques. And both are as adept at playing slower, plaintive ballads as they are at delivering crunching Pixies style rock. While Grandaddy's songs may not (yet) pack quite the same emotional wallop as those of Linkous, in their own regard they are still excellent. "AM 180" and "Collective Dreamwish..." are both irresistable and maddeningly catchy. "Summer Here Kids" is a shining anthem about youthful disenfranchisement. "Laughing Stock" begins with a cheesy burbling synthesizer line and builds to a glorious finish that recalls "Rust Never Sleeps" era Neil Young. And of course I could go on here but by now the message should be clear that I think this is a great record that you should buy. Of course this isn't a record for everyone, but as Grandaddy says in "Non Phenomenal Lineage", '..surely you understand/only gifted hands/will receive the chance/to touch down on fortune'.

Grandaddy could be easily summarised as "Slow rock with synths"... but it's so much more than that!

I used to dislike synths in rock, probably because it reminded me too much of some crappy stuff from the 80's, but the way Grandaddy uses them made me change my mind: here they add space, they put you in a kind of peaceful trance, they sometimes are funny little noises but without ever being ridiculous.

The final touch, along with the always beautiful tunes, is the singer's fragile voice. Oh my... that voice! Soft and delicate, always on the brink of, but never breaking. It lies on the strata of synths and on the wall of guitars like a light feather on a calm lake.

I first came across Grandaddy on French TV (they played what became their hit single "AM 180") and I've been a fan since then. This record is their first album and contains this track. It is a good one to start with if you don't know the band, and a must have if you already like them!

Sometimes, when critics hail an album by a certain group or artist, they often forget about any other albums by that artist. I sadly think this is the case with "The Sophtware Slump," Grandaddy's second release. "Under the Western Freeway" proves that Grandaddy were also the founders of the sonic fusion between synth-pop, country, and rock. This was before the Flaming Lips' magnum opus, "The Soft Bulletin," folks! It is here where we can truly say Grandaddy were one of the originators of the sonic movement, right along with Sparklehorse, Radiohead, and The Flaming Lips. Every song tells a story, not only through its words, but also its clicks, clangs, and textures of strings, banjos, and Casio blips. While not everyone's psychedlic fix, Grandaddy, on the first album, prove they are rich and inventive musical artists. You will not be dissappointed.

Under the Western Freeway ignites my soul and my spontaneity. One word to describe Grandaddy and this album: Dynamic! Makes me want to play a red piano with an old friend near.