Customer Reviews

Worse for the Wear

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

matt pryor really knows how to craft songs well. he also assembled a group of talented musicians to help him out.

some songs are much "happier" than his previous albums. it has a certain optimism not found in para toda vida. "vignette" and "slight return" are dreamy pop instrumentals that *can* bring a tear to one's eye. songs such as "asleep at the wheel" and "all our vice" make this a good road album (especially at night).

this album definitely deserves five stars.

What an amazing album. This is the kind of album you can listen to from front to back and still be begging for more when it ends. It's has a very mellow feel to it and you'll fall in love with his voice and just the way he sings things. "Spoils of the Spoiled" and "Hover Near Fame" start the album off with a jolt of up-tempo harmonic bliss. And sets the tone for one of my favorite albums ever. Pick this album up, on your second listen, you'll be hooked. I could write much more but I'm off to work. God bless. This album won't let you down.

I have been following The Get Up Kids and The New Amsterdams for a long time now and have been consistently frustrated. While all of their releases are all very respectable and hold permanent places in my disc collection, with every release by I feel as though brilliance is being dabbled in but not grasped. Here, Matt Pryor has grabbed on, and is taking it for all it's worth.

The pop sensibility of this album is overwhelming. It's so simple and yet so devestatingly catchy and infectuous. Lyrics of lost love, bitterness, and rejection somehow seem to inspire hope when laid over the somber beautiful soundscape Pryor has created. He hasn't held back on using the gamut of instrumentation to create this sound either. All the expected are in place (guitar, piano, etc...) but it's the inclusion of the occasional organ or funk-inspired down tuning that really adds that bit of extra bounce.

This album succeeds on every level and will surely be one of the most under appreciated releases for a long time to come. Maybe that's for the best though, because those who do discover this masterpeice will undoubtably feel intimately inspired by it and will want to keep it all their own.

Do you know that feeling where you are totally sick of all of the music that you own? This is the album that I always come back to when I feel that way. I have heard each of these songs a million times, and each time they seem as fresh as when I unsealed the annoying wrapper that holds all cd cases shut.

The New Amsterdams really benefit from the full band that they utilize in this album, as it is not just Mr. Pryor crooning over an acoustic guitar. He is able to craft songs that belong anywhere from being played around a campfire (From California, Hanging on for Hope) to cruising around Wisconsin farmland (The Spolis of the Spoiled, Hover Near Fame).

People often say that there are some albums that "every song is great, but you need to listen to the whole album start to finish". This album is great and every song is great, however each track can be listened to entirely on its own. From its stripped down tracks (All Your Vice) to piano driven gems (Worse for the Wear) the entire album is a pleasure to listen to as a whole OR as a part.

It's fun, its light, it's catchy. It's nothing you haven't heard a million times before. New ground isn't being broken here, but considering "On A Wire" I don't think that it's really necessary right now. Infact, this album is exactly what it needed to be. The drums are back, after being absent in the last album, and they added a new kick that really spruced up this CD. The beats are pop, the hooks are catchy, and even so its not going to make your mouth drop open, it will still leave you feeling good and relaxed. This is the album that "On A Wire" should have been, and in my estimation what The Get Up Kids were trying to do with their last CD, but came out all wrong when they attempted music that they wern't ready to make. The strong songs on this CD are Spoils for the Spoiled and Hanging on For Hope, and the rest of the CD isn't far off the pace. It's simply a good, easy going album that isn't hard to like and gives you what you're looking for.

Something about this album that I can't stop listening. It's very catchy, and I feel all the songs are damn good! It has its charm for me personally. You can never really go wrong with Matt Pryor. Anybody who loves The Get Up Kids will definitely love this.

Skip the first and last tracks (lackluster instrumentals) and you won't be disappointed with the remaining ten songs. This is easily the New Amsterdams' best album, picking up everything good about The Get Up Kids, leaving behind the whiny slowness of their last two albums and bringing in some intelligent more grown up lyrics. There are some standouts - Spoils of the Spoiled and Hanging on For Hope are my favorites, but overall it is a solid album from #2-#11.

Wow! Matt Pryor's side project form the Get Up kids once agian proves to capture our hearts. The lyrics are emotional and his voice is soothing. These albums are alot more acoustic than anything the Get Up Kids have every done (except maybe ON A WIRE, and GUILT SHOW). PERFECT combination of emotion and low-fie rock. AMAZING

"Hey, this is the guy from the Get Up Kids!" Thats what I thought when I first heard about the New Amsterdams. I had no idea that I was going to like them so much. To be completely honest, I didn't think that they were going to be all that great becuase they were sort of just a "side project". But loved their sound. Much more mellow than the Get Up Kids, the New Amsterdams expiriment with a lot of different instraments, which I enjoyed. So, if you are a fan of the Get Up Kids, pick up this ablum, and you might even start think of The Get Up Kids as a side project . . .

This record is a lot different from their last record, Para Toda Vida. Mainly Para Toda Vida was basically solo-Matt. This record follows the way of Dashboard, by instating a full band for a majority of the songs. These songs are great, just like all of the New Amsterdams songs. get this.