Weightlifting

Trashcan Sinatras | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 31, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Spin Art
• ASIN: B0002T7YFI
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,425 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Welcome Back

2. Got Carried Away

3. All the Dark Horses

4. What Women do to Men

5. Freetime

6. Usually

7. It's a Miracle

8. A Coda

9. Trouble Sleeping

10. Country Air

11. Leave Me Alone

12. Weightlifting

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

On Weightlifting, their fourth album, Scotland's Trashcan Sinatras tackle love, loss, and personal triumph with beauty and maturity--no easy feat in a culture teeming with cynical alt-rockers. This is a record founded on earnestness and sky-parting melodies, as the driving, anthemic "Welcome Back" makes clear: it's a song of survival from a quintet that has fought tenaciously to sustain a career while keeping its quaint musical ethos intact. Weightlifting may not be the group's masterpiece--that would be its previous album, 1996's A Happy Pocket--but this is far and away the Sinatras' most accessible album, their most carefully crafted, their prettiest. Indeed, crooner Francis Reader and company seem most at home in quieter tunes like "Leave Me Alone," "Usually," and "Weightlifting," knee deep in delicate textures, lush harmonies, and nuanced phrases. With strings and occasional horn parts, the Sinatras harken to music of bygone eras without a trace of kitsch or irony, never losing sight of the importance, in rock music, of catchy grooves and searing guitars. --Michael Mikesell

Product Description

Deluxe Version CD includes a DVD of live performance on KCRW, two extra tracks, and special packaging/artwork. The first 5,000 copies of the deluxe version are hand-signed by all band members. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mature, mellow, and beautiful!, April 24, 2005

By 

James Oberacker (Los Alamitos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weightlifting (Audio CD)

Scotland's best kept secret is back, and better than ever! I can not stop listening to this CD, as each song quickly moves to the top of my iTunes list of most frequently played tracks. As wonderful as "Cake," "I've Seen Everything," and "A Happy Pocket" are, this is not like any of those three albums. "Weightlifting" is so much more mature, more soulful, more deep, more mellow, and more beautiful than anything they've ever done before. Why these guys aren't bigger is beyond me.

This CD isn't just for the 30/40 something age group which has been following the TCS since 1990. After listening to the album in my classroom, one of my high-school students has, in her own words, "fallen in love with the Trashcan Sinatras!"

My personal favorites: "All the Dark Horses," "Weightlifting," "Got Carried Away," and "It's a Miracle." That said, I never use the skip button when this CD is in the player - every track is worth a listen.

A recommendation: If you love this CD, try "Keep Going" from Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long time fan satisfied, November 9, 2004

By 

T. ORourke (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Weightlifting (Bonus DVD) (Audio CD)

Ever since my brother put his cassette of "Cake" in my parents' old stereo, sparking a spontaneous family dance to "Obscurity Knocks", I have been a Trashcan Sinatras fan. I saw them at a great show at the 9:30 Club in D.C. in 1993 with my sister and was awestruck at the fun they had and their talent and Francis Reader's charisma. I have bought the B sides CDs and followed them via their website. I kept my eyes open for this CD after Francis said it would be good back in late 2003, and I stumbled onto it on a Amazon CD safari in September. I was so excited I ordered one for my sister, too (I don't even think she has listened to it yet). It is everything I hoped it would be. Each song is a separate marvel. I love the wordplay and think Francis has one of the best and most expressive voices in pop music (especially when he cuts it loose). It is less jangly than their second CD, more lively than "A Happy Pocket", and better than anything else you will buy this year. It grows on me with every listen.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the Best, February 8, 2005

By 

C. Bleickardt (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Weightlifting (Bonus DVD) (Audio CD)

I've been listening to these guys religiously since 1990 because they are just the best, and this album re-instates them as The Little Scottish Band That Could... The Trashcans create a lush landscape of soothing sounds on each carefully crafted song here. It's almost as if each song breezes in through the front door, stays for a cup of tea, and leaves you with a different piece to the puzzle of life, love, loss, pain, and renewal. After a few listens you will welcome them back often. Frank Reader has one of the more brilliant voices in all of popdom; Paul Livingston has the jangled guitar sound under his careful control, and John and Stephen Douglas and Davey Hughes keep a rhythm going that plays smart rather than playing hard. Everything fits together just right and the bonus DVD is great as well.

The Trashcan Sinatras easily outshine the likes of Doves, Coldplay, Travis, Belle & Sebastian, and Embrace at their finer moments, and fans of those bands would surely do best to order 2 COPIES of Weightlifting, so that an extra is readily available in case of emergency.