Welcome to Struggleville

Vigilantes of Love | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 19, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capricorn Records
• ASIN: B000003CL6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,330 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not biased...I'm just sold., December 29, 2007

By 

J. R. Cornett (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Welcome to Struggleville (Audio CD)

This is a great album of tunes. As much as I like the title track, after hearing it for about 10 years, I'm just a little tired of it. However, I'm not tired of any of the others.

A lot of these songs sound good loud; Resume, Babylon, Runaway Tran and Bitter Price To Pay...all great rock songs. And there's never any risk of being bored by meaningless lyrical content...this, like all V.O.L. albums, is full of verbal treasures. This is smart Southern rock.

A quality line from All Messed Up...(one of many quality lines Mallonee's responsible for...)

"got the venom of asps
right under your lips
and a curse on everyone's head
you got the death rattle twitch
and a rattlesnake's bite
spit a secret right off the tip of your tongue"


Don't wait, get it now.

3.0 out of 5 stars Memorable Lines From Each Song, February 28, 2004

By 

Joseph McCarthy (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome to Struggleville (Audio CD)

Bill Mallonee, song writer, guitarist, and singer for the Vigilantes Of Love, is a very talented song writer. If an already famous band or star were to cover a Mallonee song, it would undoubtly become a hit. The Vigilantes write hits, they just don't get the airplay they deserve. If they were played on mainstream radio everyday, their songs would sell many cds. But really, it's not about "hits." Its about getting your music to a wider audience. The point isn't that VOL isn't getting rich from potential sales. The point is that the public is missing out on some really good music.

"They are building a new gallows for when you show up on the street - polishing the electric chair - they're gonna give you a front row seat." - Welcome To Struggleville

"Palm readers and politicians make promises galore, Hollywood spreads her legs like a two bit whore, offering numbness to the masses who fear the market crash." - Aftermath

"Now the union man come up here to organize - make the rich man hear my cry - Mr. Getty and Carnegie and Vanderbilt - if I talk too much my blood will get spilt." - Resume

"This is no pleasure cruise in the South Pacific, I'm bailing ice water up to my neck, Titanic's Captain said that God couldn't sink her, you might say he learned a healthy respect." - Babylon

"I could have told you, you were on the wrong track - I could have told you about the knife in your back - I could have told you about the people you see - all of those friends were just your enemies." - All Messed Up

"Smile or a handshake, and look out baby, here comes the plastic explosive - take me down to Saigon river, take me down to the China sea - put myself unreservedly in the stars and stripes forever - I got a cauterized brain and a heart shot off at the knees." - Vet

"Doctor is in, surgery is free - use no anesthetics, but its all gauranteed." - I Can Explain Everything

"Going down to the graveyard with a pick-ax in my hand - gonna dig down in that Georgia red clay, dig down to the promised land." - Runaway Train

"Saw you out among the patients when they took you all out for a walk - you tried to grab me through the chain link fence, but my dad says I really shouln't talk." - Sympathy

"Legislation won't change hell's march in the human heart - been such a long time since I seen the Spirit moving around these parts." - Cold Ground

"I don't know what was going down in the dark recesses of my soul, if you see something amicable darling, I would be the last to know." - Last To Know

"Some are painting on canvas to show the way they feel - some are filling up notebooks to tell the same ordeal - I could walk through the door, but the truth gets in the way - and your's is such a bitter price to pay."- Bitter Price To Pay

"You see so much - see not much at all - we're treading down serpents - and we're braking the fall." - Glory And The Dream

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Not A Struggle To Listen To This CD, February 21, 2004

By 

Joseph McCarthy (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome to Struggleville (Audio CD)

The title track is the killer tune on this release. It's a classic example of the singer's song writing ability. Bill Mallonee not only sings and plays the guitar very well, he also composes great music to go along with his appealing lyrics. "Aftermath" is also a quality cut, and one of the four great songs on this cd; the other three being "Glory And The Dream" - "All Messed Up" - and "Welcome To Struggleville."

It seems that most rock albums have four exceptionally good tracks with the rest of the record being good except for maybe one or two throw aways. But with music taste being so subjective, no one can really be the ultimate judge on what songs are great and which ones suck. It all comes down to opinion. That not only applies to songs but also to reviews of the band itself. Furthermore, using words to describe music can be tricky. If a reviewer describes to you the sound of a group, one that you never heard before, can you safely assume you know what that group sounds like? Maybe. Maybe not.

Of course, it helps if you can compare the group to another band that they sound like. That will give your reader an idea of the noise the group makes, but its not so good for the group. Its always better to have your own style and not sound like anyone else.

With that said, I must admit that I can't think of any group that the Vigilantes Of Love sound like. Not that their sound is that unique. In fact, they have a general rock style, but its hard to nail down. They're from Georgia, but you can't really hear the South in their music. Some of the guitar work has a hard edge, but you won't hear heavy metal. And when they play fast, you couldn't call it punk. It'll suffice to say that even though I can't hear the nineteen seventies in this cd, I think it would not sound out of place being played on "classic rock" stations.

However, the throw away tunes that I would not play on the radio are, "Last To Know" and "I Can Explain Everything." Not bad, considering there are eleven other songs on the cd.