Customer Reviews

You Were a Diamond

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

 

 

Listening to this CD fills you with the kind of thrilling heartbreak that a prolonged road trip with the unrequited love-of-your-life might--while her boyfriend is at the wheel. Through his sneaky lyrics and plaintive vocals, Eef Barzelay constantly elicits sad smiles. Songs like "i can't stay here tonight" and "yip/jump music" are filled with rich contradictions, heightened by the refreshingly simple texture of a snare drum, an upright bass, a cello and a rhythm guitar. Listen to this when you want to fill in the little lost moments of your day.

Eef Barzelay's voice on this album is so beautiful, it is impossible to put into words. As always, the lyrics are witty and imaginitive. My personal favorite songs are "Yip/Jump Music", "Lost on the River", "Chinese Baby" and Estranged Half Brother.

Ghost of Fashion and Your Favorite Music were both such wonderfully rare-quality CDs that I was a tiny bit worried that Diamond wouldn't live up. However, this CD is not one iota less of a masterpiece than the other two. Because it is a re-release of an earlier out-of-print CD is no reason to ignore it.

It's been said that the musical instruments that come closest to approximating the human voice are the stringed, played with bows. On this record, Barzelay's soulful, sandpapered voice is accompanied by a chorus of string arrangements, provided by Jason Glasser. The result is a humble, crooning record that toes the alt-country line without losing its own sense of self, its sebaceous swing (so to speak).

Whether Clem Snide is stumbling drunk and lonesome through the un-hung curtains of "Row" and "Uglier Than You," or playing western-sounding word games in "Nick Drake Tape" and "Lost On The River," it still sustains its basement-made melodiousness. This tone, one of acoustic notes bounced off concrete, sometimes plays thin enough to be forgettable, but this only happens with the songs that sound like shadows of others that Snide has already done better ("Estranged Half Brother" is one example). The rest of the songs are well-written and well-shaped, and it's no wonder that, occasionally, the album clones itself. It's hard not to fall back on something that's already worked so well.

I think clem snide is wonderful and thank god they put this album out again cause i couldnt be without it. If your going to buy this which probally means you have bought the other three cds then you'll pretty much agree with everything i say.
SO BUY IT!

The dirgelike accoustics of this album unfortunately make listening to it more than a couple of times a very trying experience. It's not that the songs are bad, but that the lack of electric guitars and drums put the burden on the song's sophmoricly clever lyrics and, combined with the droning dirge quality it doesn't add up to anything memorable.

Unfortunately the songs aren't good enough to carry without the missing musical assistance. The effect is that you listen to the album once or twice say "that's nice" and never put it on your CD player again.

Reminiscent of a thousand alt.country bands.