We Were Born in a Flame [Extra tracks, Import]

Sam Roberts | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 17, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Universal
• ASIN: B00009EUGQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,303 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Hard Road

2. Don't Walk Away Eileen

3. Brother Down

4. Where Have All the Good People Gone?

5. Taj Mahal

6. Every Part of Me

7. Higher Learning

8. Rarefied

9. On the Run

10. No Sleep

11. This Wreck of a Life

12. Dead End

13. Paranoia

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A Montreal native and former hockey player, Sam Roberts gave up dreams of becoming a star Canadien [stet] to embark on a musical career. Given the track record of most jocks behind the mic, this doesn’t exactly portend great results, but Roberts's full-length debut is pretty good. Roberts writes tuneful folk-rock and power-pop tunes, many of them built around a percussively strummed acoustic guitar. Musically, he covers some of the same musical territory as Travis, but overall the effect is more extroverted and aggressive, less wispy and melancholic. Three of this CD's best songs are lifted by an earlier EP, Inhuman Condition, but there’s not a bum track among the 13 included here (although an unnecessary '70s rock-star guitar solo comes close to ruining the otherwise gorgeous and seductive orchestral pop of "Taj Mahal"). Canada seems full of musical artists who don't quite translate outside that country’s national borders, but the bright, confident appeal of Roberts’s full-length bow is far more universal. --Keith Moerer

Product Description

Up-and-coming rocker, & Montreal, Canada native Sam Roberts, with his 2003 debut full-length. 14 tracks with song lyrics & color photos of the band included in the sleeve. Universal.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We were all born...to own this cd, March 7, 2005

By 

Christopher B. Prentiss (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: We Were Born in a Flame (Audio CD)

This is a great great record and should be on any critics short list for best alternative record of 2004 (or 2003. Essentially the same album was released by Universal - Canada in 03 and it sold 50,000 copies winning Mr. Roberts a Juno award for the song Brother Down.) This cd is extremely well-conceived and is a finely executed work that deserves more attention than it is getting. There are some other bands that have the same type of groove (Jet, Powderfinger, Paris Texas - maybe) but Sam Roberts is probably the best of all of these.

He is an amazing songwriter and his tunecrafting skills stand up well next to early Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney (of course realizing that he is just a beginner.) His hooks are instantly catchy and you will find yourself tapping your feet within the first 30 seconds of "Hard Road" - the opening track. Along with Brother Down, Taj Mahal, and Every Part of Me, Hard Road is a stand-out track and contains some gripping and intelligent lyrics (something of a rarity in today's reductionistic and formulaic music world!) He is young but writes with eloquence about the ubiquitous human efforts at finding the easy life and avoiding the bumps of the real world. He opines, "There's no road that ain't a hard road to travel on." Like Pierce Pettis (another overlooked genius) he is able to chronicle the travails of life in this fallen world without offering therapeutic platitudes like "believing in yourself" or something similar. While true hope and significant answers are missing, art does not by nature have to be redemptive. On this record, Roberts chooses to narrate the problems of humanity and creation rather than offer solutions, but in doing so he manages to escape falling into the Disneyesque moralism so prevalent in popular media and music.

Along with compelling and inquiring lyrics, and great songcraft, Sam Roberts is also an interesting musician and decides here to play all the instruments except for percussion. This rarely works (Lenny Kravitz' "Let Love Rule" is the only other recent success that I can think of) but Sam Roberts pulls it off and the record ends up sounding like it was recorded with a talented studio band. Production and mixing efforts are handled by Brenndan McGuire, but to discover this you have to search; his name is buried in minute font in the credits of the Universal release. To my knowledge, he is a newcomer, but he is talented and should get some more work after this excellent outing at the helm.

Enjoy this record, Sam will be around for a while

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talented ex-hockey player makes a beautiful CD, January 2, 2005

By 

M. J. Kenoyer (Tampa, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: We Were Born in a Flame (Audio CD)

Sam Roberts is a standout songwriter/guitarist whose first full-length CD is a rare gem in a bleak landscape of too-packaged, too-plastic pop tripe dominating the airwaves these days. I've read other reviewers' comparisons to other musicians; but he makes me think of Ben Harper without the reggae and all of the passion. His lyrics are full of soul and realism but still manage to resonate as deeply poetic: "We were born in a flame/we need a cool breeze and a summer rain/we are stealing from ourselves/we are feeding off ourselves." (from "Where Have All the Good People Gone?")

His style is mostly grass-roots rock with some folk and punk mixed in--with "Don't Walk Away Eileen" and "On the Run," he gives a tip of the hat to the post-garage bands that have been infiltrating the underground for the past few years. "Brother Down" and "Higher Learning" are standout songs, as is "Rareified" with its masterful integration of a rhythmic bassline and complementary guitar along with well-paced vocals.

Some of the songs are throwaway filler bits ("No Sleep" and the drudgerous "Dead End"); but overall, Sam Roberts proves himself to be a soulful and sincere voice that is refreshing and much-needed in today's overcommercialized music world. If you have to take a chance on one CD for which you haven't yet heard the songs on the radio, I definitely recommend it as a good purchase.

For anyone who's never heard of Sam Roberts and wants to take a chance on a promising new artist, this Bud's for you.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning full-lenght debut, June 17, 2003

By 

John "[e-mail]" (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Were Born in a Flame (Audio CD)

i first heard of Sam on a late night Canadian tv show that showcases up and coming Canadian filmmakers and musicians and i was impressed. later his 'Inhuman Condition' EP came out and i was amazed. based on those two experiences, i bought this album the day it was released and i was blown away. the three tracks from the EP that are featured here (Where Have All the Good People Gone?, Brother Down, Don't Walk Away Eileen) are all new versions, and are improvements on their earlier counterparts. Sam is a very proudly Canadian artist, with references to Canada in many of his songs (even singing in french for a few verses of one), but that certainly shouldn't limit his appeal to a strictly Canadian audience. i really hope he catches on in the US and elsewhere, because he is really a great talent. his songs (which are all penned by himself) are inspired, original, well written, diverse, and above all, catchy. some highlights include: the stunning first track, 'Hard Road'; 'Where Have All the Good People Gone?', my personal fav; the beautiful and Beatle-esque 'Taj Mahal'; and the uber-catchy 'Brother Down'.