Customer Reviews

The Way We Are

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I stumbled on Fleming and John through their incredible rendition of "Eldorado" on the "Lynne Me Your Ears" tribute album to Jeff Lynne. I listened to the sound samples from both of their CDs and bought them both.

Most reviews try to describe this band in terms of other bands. My best guess in describing "The Way we Are" is "Everything but the Girl meets No Doubt and Kate Bush", but that really doesn't do complete justice to this particular CD.

I've decided that this is the beginning of a new genre that I call "quark", for "quirky adult rock".

The beauty of this music is that it's very accessable, but not predictable. It's like everything I've heard before, only different.

To me the trademark of Fleming and John is that they start with a musical theme or idea that is very familiar, and then unexpectedly take you somewhere you don't expect to go, without breaking the continuity of what they've started. It's great fun to listen to.

Add to this Fleming's harsh-but-sweet and amazingly powerful voice plus intelligent, clever, and funny lyrics. But wait there's more! Outstanding recording quality that put's Fleming's voice up-front so you can understand what she's singing. What is there not to love here?

So, I've decided that these two are pop music geniuses, and certainly my musical discovery for 2002.

Still reading this? You should be listening the sound samples!

I bought this CD for Ugly Girl, which is an great song, and liked the album at first. But every time I listen to it, I enjoy it more and more, and find another favorite song. THIS IS A GREAT ALBUM! Don't miss out!

Maybe once a year, I hear an album that gives me literal goose bumps. This one gave me goose bumps on my goose bumps. The second release by husband and wife writing team, The Way We Are retains the imaginative pop styling of their first album but with a more mature approach to lyrics and composition. Fleming, the wife, sings, writes the lyrics and creates the melodies which are unbalanced, full of unexpected twists, yet natural and horribly catchy. Husband John creates rich tapestries of sound around these melodies, writing the music, making string arrangements, and playing an astounding number of instruments (aside from drums and orchestral strings, he plays every instrument on the album including such non-conventionals as flugelhorn, balalaika, vibes, flute, oud, saz, dilruba, spacephone, accordion, dulcimer, and the creepy theremin).

Like the music of The Police, their sound is immediately catchy with just enough pop to have wide appeal but with enough musical meat backing this pop to appeal to the die-hard musician. Ben Folds, perhaps their biggest fan, calls their sound "the Carpenters of the 90's with a Led Zeppelin rhythm section". "I'm So Small" opens quietly but with enormous tension that soon floods into a full-out punk-flavored assault of guitars, Indian-flavored orchestral strings and Fleming's voice that can effortlessly glide from a sweet little girl to a screeching banshee. "Sssh!", with it's Alanis Morissette feel and theme of falling for a best friend, is driven along by timpani and spent more than one day in my head. Singing about their marriage, "Comfortable" hits home with anyone who has gone past the infatuation stage in a relationship with it's laid back, Carpenterish sound. The title song finds Fleming wondering if she and John will grow apart or stay "the way we are" against a jazz-influence slide upright bass part that morphs into an aggressive chorus of complex, interwoven vocal lines. "Radiate" can only be described as "The Go-Go's Meet Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass". In "Ugly Girl" Fleming sings "I can't believe you're leaving me for an ugly girl" while John plinks away merrily on the xylophone. Other songs verge on disco, mix R&B with tango, swing with grunge, and dirty blues with Siouxie and the Banshees. In the hands of lesser artists, this juxtaposition of styles would be a sonic mess. With these masters of songwriting, however, the result is absolute perfection.

"I'm So Small" has got to be one of the best songs I've heard in at least 3-4 years, I really, REALLY wish I had discovered the rest of Fleming & John's music when it first came out, but unfortunately the only song I'd heard by them was "Ugly Girl", which I thought was good in a funny, cute sort of way, but was in no way prepared for just how excellent this band is. I stated above, this CD deserves 5 stars just for "I'm So Small" and is worth every penny. The song literally gives me goosebumps, it totally affects me. Get this album. Don't think about it, just get it.

By rights, this self-recorded, self-produced second album by wife-husband team Fleming & John should have ruled the airwaves in 2000. "Sssh!" should have been played to death on the alternative stations, while "Comfortable" should have dominated adult stations AND become the official theme song for all 5th wedding anniversaries ("You'll agree that we've become predictable/But I really don't mind being this comfortable"). Instead, the novelty song "Ugly Girl", co-written with pal Ben Folds, became the single, and the album went unheard. Someday soon, either of these songs or "Rain All Day" will be prominently placed in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie and this pair will be discovered by the masses a la Aimee Mann.

Wife Fleming McWilliams sings and writes the melodies and lyrics. Her voice goes from a Maria Muldaur coo to an alternative scream to an operatic wail on a moment's notice. Husband Mark John Painter writes and arranges the music, and plays almost all instruments except drums. On "The Pearl" alone, he plays guitar, bass, cello, flugelhorn, balalaika, vibes, and timpani. The songs run a variety of styles and moods ("I'm So Small" starts the album as an alternative screecher and closes it as a lounge number). Yet the album still has a coherent feel.

These two have recorded a better album in their barn than most could do with a year in the studio. The production mixes Phil Spector's classic pop with Jon Brion's kitchen-sink approach, and the arrangements teem with original touches: The timpani used in place of bass drum on "Sssh!", the operatic vocal between verses on the languid, gorgeous "Rain All Day", the discordant cello figure during the chorus of "The Way We Are", the theremin on "Sadder Day" (a song that you could picture Cibo Matto covering), the hammered dulcimer on "Suppressed Emotions" (which you could picture Tori Amos covering), and so on.

This is an Enhanced CD, which includes a 7-minute video documentary on the making of the album.

I purchased this CD after hearing "Ugly Girl" on the radio. After listening to that one track for a while... I allowed the CD to play others and was very surprised. Most CDs one buys has only one or two good tracks... this one is a winner! The most surprising thing is that, out of 16 tracks, 13 are excellent! This CD is really worth the purchase!

I heard Ugly Girl at the gym one morning and practically dropped the barbell when the lyrics hit me. What an incredibly vicious but fun song! I've played it for friends who all did double takes when the cattiness of the song sunk in.

The music is different and does challenge you which is great in this overly homoginized world of "popular" music (popular for who? the people who crank it out or the brainwashed masses who just buy it blindly?) Sometimes the lyrics do fail but I would definitely recommend purchasing "Ugly Girl" and really, REALLY listening to the lyrics - we've all felt this way when we've faced our ex's new significant other and they're not who we expected to replace us.

I bought this CD a couple years ago when just by chance I heard "Ugly Girl" on some new music program and was instantly hooked by the catchy and clever song and the shimmery vocals that accompanied it.

From the first track to the last, Fleming and John will take you on a musical exploration of relationships. Some of the highlights include the title track, "The Way We Are," in which the narrator wonders how their love will survive the various trials of life. The aforementioned "Ugly Girl" attracts you instantly with the xylophone riffs and keeps you entranced by its musings of a jilted lover on her replacement. "Sadder Day" is a nostalgic look at adolescence in the early 80's and first love and loss.

Throughout every song, Fleming will amaze you with the versatility of her powerful and captivating voice. It changes to suit every story perfectly, as does the vast range of musical instruments John uses to give each song its own personality.

I just love this CD. It's one that you will keep playing over and over again.

Fleming and John, while a relatively unknown band, are extremely satirical and witty, as well as have musical talent. The song "Ugly Girl" hooked me the first time I heard it. It's about seeing your ex boyfriend again, but with a really ugly girl. It's funny, and yet wistful, and I think most of us know how it feels to be dumped only to be replaced by someone we find inferior.

"The Way We Are" is also a very good song...it's a little heavier in lyrics, but a little lighter musically. "Don't let it fade away" and "I fall for you" are also two of my personal favorites from the CD.

I guess what I like most about this CD is the range of music that is on it. I also like Fleming's vocals...her voice has an edge and definite wit in her expression of the lyrics. I'll be looking forward to the next release.

I love the music here, strange as it might be. The diversity of the instruments is very nice, a welcome change from the standard guitars-and-drums bands that seem to be everywhere. The one beef I have with this album is that the lyrics just don't work with the music. The music is creative and different, but the lyrics really can't hold up their end of the bargain. It's the same problem the Cranberries, have, in my opinion. Great music, just lacking some sophistication in the lyrics. I tried hard to love it, really I did. I can only love certain parts of it.

Tracks I really like:

Ugly Girl (of course!)
Sadder Day (I love the retro references, and the disco-ey-ness)
The Pearl (Was that short story by John Steinbeck? I don't remember)
Rain All Day (It's just kind of nice)

-thus endeth my unprofessional review-