Customer Reviews

Year of the Dog

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

 

 

This is the fourth Wolfstone album I've reviewed here (I own every one of their albums that's available in the U.S.) and this is by far the best of the lot. The closing track, "Dinners Set," is absolutely imspired. What more can I say? After all the other glowing reviews I've given, this one is the one that runs me out of words. (I know, could have fooled you.)

This band is different. For one thing it is "celtic rock" not rock done by a group living in a celtic city. For another it has a distinctly scottish flavor rather than the more commonly found Irish. Its use of scottish instruments, rhythms and themes is refreshing and the groups ability to rock using these instruments is readily apparent. Production values and musicianship are excellent. Dive into a new experience - you will enjoy.

(4.5 stars actually) This Wolfstone disc shows a marked change in style from the more Rock edged Celtic stuff of their first two discs, with a return to their folkier roots...still though, it has power and rocks...the songwriting and playing is stronge...this one is actually one of my favs - worth checking out!...

This CD was my first exposure to Wolfstone a few years ago. Just purchased it again, as I loaned it out and it never came back...which is a good thing :o). Wolfstone's use of fiddle, pipes, and electric gutiar is wonderful. White Gown...what can one say? Powerful lyrics are Wolfstone's strength.......into Celtic music? This is a MUST have.....

Wolfstone is my favorite band and this is their best cd. If you like celtic rock this IS the cd to get. Just try it and see. You may get hooked too!

I used to live in Scotland and discovered this band there. They are a really great group and this is one of my favorite albums from them. I had it on cassette and needed to upgrade to CD for my car now. The style is what I would call Modern Celtic Rock. This is the type of live band that you would find playing in local Edinburgh pubs at night. Some songs are more Rock and some are more Celtic, but the voices and styles are great on all. The music ranges from slow to fast options, and I love playing this on road trips. It is great background tunes to the passing scenery. The band has a great viewpoint in their songs as well, that really speaks to the Scottish experience. Not sure if this part will fully convey to those not familiar with the culture, but the music is still great if you like the Celtic style.

I do like Wolfstone. They sounds great in this one. My only possible complaint is that is a bit short! But overall, a great albumn!

I loved Wolfstone's album YEAR OF THE DOG as a high schooler not long after its release in the mid-1990s. I remembered it as a hard rock album whose energy was only expanded through judicious use of traditional Scottish instruments and folk melodies. This sort of rock-folk melange is indeed what Wolfstone does, but upon hearing the album again for the first time in well over a decade, I was shocked to discover that pretty much every track on YEAR OF THE DOG uses goofy-looking synthesizers.

The instrumental "Ballavanich", with its prominent use of bagpipe, might sound like a compelling track to neophytes, but it can't compete with the instruments on Wolfstone's next album, Half Tail(1996) where the band has judiciously limited the use of synthesizers to better effect. "Double Rise Set" is almost musak. "Morag's Reels" is actually a little better than I remembered it, while the album closer "Dinner's Set" is pretty generic and far from the rocking ending I thought it was. Vocal tracks have, with few exception, been Wolfstone's worst. With "White Gown" we inexplicably have this Scottish band condemning the KKK as if the Southern American racist gentry from the 1920s is still a pressing international concern (as opposed to contemporary appearances of racism), with cringe-worthy lyrics. "Brave Foot Soldiers", whose theme is a walking campaign against poverty, sounds like a 1980s "We are the World" solidarity song reject. "The Sea King" is the only one of the vocal tracks I care to listen to more than one, a nice portrait of a crusty old sailor, though its synths make it a guilty pleasure.

Wolfstone got an enormous amount of praise in the mid-1990s in the roots music press, but in retrospect it seems to have mostly been for their live sets, which had a ferocious energy. Their output on disc is often disappointing, and I couldn't recommend YEAR OF THE DOG.

This album would more appropriaely be titled "Dog". On the back of the CD it says "file under Celtic Rock." It SHOULD say "file under New Age Elevator Music" (on a copy of this CD I had obtained from the library, someone wrote on it "Bad New Age" which is a perfect description). This resembles "Celtic Rock" about as much as Barry Manilow resembles Led Zeppelin. First, for an album purporting to "rock", the guitar is badly undermixed so as to render its impact impotent. Most disappointingly, the problem I have with this CD is the same problem I have with much of Wolfstone's music: they seem to have become obsessed with a soft-airy-modern-jazz-New-Age-synthesizer-elevator-music sound which is way overused and dominates much too often. Their formula for "modernizing" folk music seems to be to add occasional electric guitar and this almost constant, cheesy, fogey, annoying synthesizer sound. Resultingly, much of their catalogue is unlistenable. The only song on this CD which has any potential at all is "Sea King", which sounds like it is going to build up to something grand and powerful - but then there's no payoff; it simply and disappointingly just ends. The best Wolfstone album by far is their first one, "Unleashed", where the New-Age hokum is kept to a minimum and resultingly there are some phenomonal songs. Their second album, The Chase" is pretty good in spots but that awful synthesizer sound creeps in more and more. "Dog" is their third album and is totally dominated by the fogey sound, which overpowers all the other instruments. The rockier songs on "Half Tail" are quite good, as well as the folkier songs which keep the newfound toy to a minimum. Overall, Wolfstone is definitely a mixed bag - if you could take all the Wolfstone songs without this hokey elevator-music synthesizer sound, you would have a pretty good collection, but you would have to buy all their CDs and pick and choose the few safe songs from each CD to do this; a costly endeavor indeed. Much of Wolfstone's music could be sold to supermarket chains throughout Scotland for shoppers to listen to while doing their grocery shopping. Oh well, at least Wolfstone doesn't use that awful programmed-synthesized-fake-drum-beat-sound that so many others in this genre use to try to "modernize" folk music...

This album would more appropriaely be titled "Dog". On the back of the CD it says "file under Celtic Rock." It SHOULD say "file under New Age Elevator Music" (on a copy of this CD I had obtained from the library, someone wrote on it "Bad New Age" which is a perfect description). This resembles "Celtic Rock" about as much as Barry Manilow resembles Led Zeppelin. First, for an album purporting to "rock", the guitar is badly undermixed so as to render its impact impotent. Most disappointingly, the problem I have with this CD is the same problem I have with much of Wolfstone's music: they seem to have become obsessed with a soft-airy-modern-jazz-New-Age-synthesizer-elevator-music sound which is way overused and dominates much too often. Their formula for "modernizing" folk music seems to be to add occasional electric guitar and this almost constant, cheesy, fogey, annoying synthesizer sound. Resultingly, much of their catalogue is unlistenable. The only song on this CD which has any potential at all is "Sea King", which sounds like it is going to build up to something grand and powerful - but then there's no payoff; it simply and disappointingly just ends. The best Wolfstone album by far is their first one, "Unleashed", where the New-Age hokum is kept to a minimum and resultingly there are some phenomonal songs. Their second album, The Chase" is pretty good in spots but that awful synthesizer sound creeps in more and more. "Dog" is their third album and is totally dominated by the fogey sound, which overpowers all the other instruments. The rockier songs on "Half Tail" are quite good, as well as the folkier songs which keep the newfound toy to a minimum. Overall, Wolfstone is definitely a mixed bag - if you could take all the Wolfstone songs without this hokey elevator-music synthesizer sound, you would have a pretty good collection, but you would have to buy all their CDs and pick and choose the few safe songs from each CD to do this; a costly endeavor indeed. Much of Wolfstone's music could be sold to supermarket chains throughout Scotland for shoppers to listen to while doing their grocery shopping. Oh well, at least Wolfstone doesn't use that awful programmed-synthesized-fake-drum-beat-sound that so many others in this genre use to try to "modernize" folk music...