Customer Reviews

Where the Change Is

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nova Scotia's Flashing Lights join a long dynasty of powerpop bands from Canada such as the magnificent Sloan,Thrush Hermit and the Superfriendz. Their trademark sound is a mixture of rock riffs and catchy songs.

From the opener "Where the Change is" to the closer they barely put a foot wrong. Their brilliance is in being able to combine brilliant harmonies with crunching driving hard rock riffs,the most notable of these songs being "Where do the days go ?" with its 60's organ at the beginning and it's incessant riff throughout.

They sound like a very young bunch of lads so hopefully this means that they will be around for a very long time.Popular music needs these kinds of songs !

...remember "math rock"--with it's not-quite-in-the-groove rhythms (or lack thereof)? This is the guitar pop equivalent. Great songs with off kilter rhythmic structure that explode the volume when they should be quiet, and get really quiet when they should be loud. There's an obvious debt to Moon and Entwistle with the way the bass and drums dance around the melody lines of the songs. This is one of those amazing records (Lilys' BETTER CAN'T MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER and Let's Active's CYPRESS are two others that spring to mind) that I was pretty lukewarm about when initially released but came to love. It's one of those discs where if you keep listening suddenly the lightbulbs go off and you just "get it"--there's an incredible amount of depth in here to be found, and few discs of the past five years have so richly rewarded repeat listenings.

I hate to try to oversimplify this too-swell-for-words record, but if The Who were playing Game Theory songs with the Posies on lead vocals, you'd have something not too far removed from The Flashing Lights. Highly, highly recommended.

As I troll around the internet looking for great music that I am unfamiliar with, I typically get dejected and go write my own songs. I especially make an effort to find music every late Nov./early Dec. to keep up with what other Amazon users, and the world in general is listening to. The year 2004, struck me as slightly lackluster, but I am glad to have come across the likes of Arcade Fire, A.C. Newman, The Killers, Caviar, Futureheads, another fine effort from Ted Leo, and a few others. Being somewhat underwhelmed with the bulk of the current crop of music, I then dig a little deeper and (being a life-long fan) attempt to find a Power Pop release that I may have somehow missed. Occasionally, I stumble upon bands like The Merrymakers, The Shazam, Johan, True Love, Chisel, and others that I somehow missed the first time around. Flashing Lights are one of those bands, and "Where The Change Is" is one of those releases.

As much as I respect and try to appreciate revered Power Pop bands like Jellyfish, Frisbie, and others, I still tend to get giddy when presented with the revved-up, stripped-down, old school sounds of The Beat, The Plimsouls, 20/20, and the rest of the classic late 70's Power Pop sound. Flashing Lights deliver that kind of energy on this release. And as much as I would like to give it 5 stars, not all of the tracks are equally strong, but there are more than a handful of stand outs. If you aren't intially hooked by the first three songs, listen to a couple change of pace tunes, and then brace yourself for tracks 6 through 8. Flashing Lights drop influences from The Beatles, The Rasberries, and Sloan, but never let the influences overpower the strength of the songwriting, keeping things fresh and lively. With the exception of a few slower tempo tracks, energy remains high, and the melodies and hooks are nigh unstoppable throughout. This certainly ranks in the top 10 Power Pop releases of the last decade, and arguments could be raised to elect "Where The Change Is" into whatever unofficial Power Pop Hall of Fame exists in your universe. In fact, I'd like to make that nomination right now.

The newest project from Matt Murphy is arguably better than his Super Friendz stuff. I think so anyway. But what does it matter? I say that any self respecting music-liker should have all of the above. This stuff is so easy to listen to, it's like rock-pop or somthing. Give it a listen if you like Sloan or The Super Friendz or even 60's rock like the beatles -n- stuff. It's kind of hard to find but that only makes it more special! Right? One other thing, if anyone knows what Charles Austin's doing now I'd like to know 'cause he writes some nice songs. E-Mail me- sickboydan@hotmail.com

Ever stand in front of the mirror in your bedroom, tennis racket in hand and rock like no one's business? Even if you haven't, one listen to the Flashing Lights' WHERE THE CHANGE IS will make you wish you had. Just grab that racket, queue up track 2, and power strum along to "Highschool"--you'll feel just like Pete Townshend at the Marquee Club.

The Flashing Lights wear their Who/Kinks influences on their rock and roll sleeve and make no apologies--nor do they need to. Clever lyrics, thrashing guitars, fluid basslines and powerful drumming combine to form an incredibly assured collection.

Man, are they cool!

If you like melody, harmony, guitar, bass, drums, posies, sloan, etc.....buy this music collection. Cheers to Amazon for letting us get the word out on some great Candian material

A lost power pop masterpiece that gets stronger deeper into the CD, as another reviewer noticed. Great singing, excellent guitars, the kind of music that needs no lyrics ("Talk to the Hand"?) to be better than anything that's out now - tighter than gasier power pop pretenders liek the Posies, Fountains of Wayne - what a find.

Packed with tons of sun-drenched chords and crisp, shimmering rhythms, this album is the perfect soundtrack to a cross-country road trip.

Highschool - which should've been a radio staple - and the title track are the two best tracks, although there isn't really a bad song to be found. Since singer Matt Murphy's a product of the Halifax pop explosion, the influence of his peers (Twice Removed-era Sloan, the Inbreds, Joel Plaskett, Cool Blue Halo) is sprinkled all over. Because the Flashing Lights perform with such aplomb, they don't sound too derivative of the aforemented bands. In fact, Murphy can be excused for the awkward lyrics of Talk to the Hand and Day Like That because of the band's charm.

The Flashing Lights are more retro than the rest of the Halifax crew, evoking the Byrds and the Beatles. The summer of 1969 never sounded so good.

OK, so Matt Murphy's old legendary band the Super Friendz had a super special angular pop rock thing going on and it was heartbreaking when they broke up (the first time). But Matt Murphy moved on and so did we and he got together the Flashing Lights and those of us who dig harmonies and rave-up guitar tunes (and we mean TUNES) were very happy indeed. Where the Change Is is just one of those brilliant albums where nothing sucks and it all works together and makes me happy all over. I think, if you like this kind of thing, you'd own it already. I hate to compare, but if you're into the whole slew of power pop like the Posies, Sloan, Redd Kross, Brendan Benson, Jason Falkner and so on and so forth, you will love this record. Matt Murphy, you did good.

I don't know much about this band, as I kind of got the album on a whim, but I do know that I enjoy this very much. This girl I know from a message board who's from canada sent a couple of songs of theirs to me and I was fairly impressed. Then one day I found the album at a cd store somewhere used for pretty cheap, and although only one of the two songs she sent me was on it, I decided to take the chance. Now it's on regular rotation in my cd player. I guess I would describe the sound like this: 60's kinks/who influenced (but still very modern and timeless sounding) melodies with very energetic but subtle performance and neat organ parts. All of the songs are very good, but my favorites include "summertime climb", "elevature", and "rotary hotel". One of the best cd's I've purchased this year, which is saying something considering it's competition includes slanted and enchanted by pavement and post by bjork. Oh, by the way, if they let you have points, this would be a very high 4.