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Bird Dog

Verlaines Format: Audio CD
4.8 out of 5 stars 4 customer reviews
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Audio CD, Import, November 30, 2010
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$96.69 $49.25
Audio CD, October 23, 1992
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$155.86 $18.00
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  1. Hallelujah All the Way Home
    Verlaines
    4.7 out of 5 stars 3
    Audio CD
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  • Sample this album Artist (Sample)
1
30
Makes No Difference
4:06
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2
30
You Forgot Love
2:50
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3
30
Take Good Care of It
2:21
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4
30
Just Mum
5:24
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5
30
Slow Sad Love Song
3:46
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6
30
Only Dream Left
3:49
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7
30
Dippy's Last Trip
1:58
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8
30
Bird-Dog
4:13
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9
30
Icarus Missed
3:13
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10
30
C.D. Jimmy Jazz and Me
5:46
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Product Details

  • Audio CD (October 23, 1992)
  • Label: Homestead/Giant/Positive
  • ASIN: B000000IM1
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,360 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Customer Reviews

5 star
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4 star
25%
3 star
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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsDevestating. But in a good way...
By sfobos on May 31, 2002
Format: Audio CD
There's something truly exhilarating about finding yourself so immersed in an artist's work that you find yourself completely lost in their world, vivid with the images, emotions, hopes and dreams that they portray. And make no mistake: BIRD DOG is an exhilarating experience, of sorts. Graeme Downes' songwriting captures melancholy in terms so personal and compelling that you can't help but be swept up in the grandeur and anguish of his heartbreak.
From his declaration of "I'll see you in the death machine tomorrow, unless somebody's God intervenes" in the opening "Makes No Difference," Downes paints scene after powerful scene of lives where good times come only in a brief rush of alcohol or nicotine, where love inevitably torments and disappears, where happiness is only a memory. "I dream of being like I was before," he sings in "Take Good Care of It" -- an ambition whose impossibiliy doesn't stop him from longing for something, anything, better than the life he sees.
The album's high point comes at its midpoint, the aptly-titled "Slow Sad Love Song," which may well be the most harrowing, devastating entry to the "love song" category ever recorded. Building from a slow strum to a final, frenzied cacaphony of guitar and pain, Downes seizes the fragmented moments in time that define the death of a relationship ("Tones of resignation, 'I'll probably see you round.'"). In the song's final moments, his thin, anguished voice is literally howling in pain and confusion... and the effect is nothing shy of exhilarating.
The Verlaines' early albums (i.e. Juvenalia, Hallelujah) were overwraught with obtuse writing and musical structure (as if Downes was attempting to justify his Ph.D in music).Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsStrangely Stunning
By Lypo Suck on June 27, 2002
Format: Audio CD
I'd read so much glowing praise for Dunedin, New Zealand's Verlaines that I wondered how on earth I could've made it so far in life without hearing them. After reading about them in Matthew Bannister's book on his own Dunedin band, Sneaky Feelings, I decided to investigate. I'll admit I was a wee bit disappointed at first, but this album is a grower.

The Verlaines revolve around singer/guitarist Graeme Downes, and much has been said of his PhD in musical composition, which he was working on concurrently with the Verlaines' first few albums. Naturally, I assumed Downes' fusion of orchestral and pop elements sounded promising, like something akin to the Go-Betweens' "Liberty Belle," or Echo & the Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain," or even like the Bats' winsome pop placed in a baroque setting. And well, it does sound like them in spurts, but it turns out Downes' primary focus isn't always crafting achingly beautiful pop melodies, but more on generating songs built on manic, rushing, rhythmic energy, and/or instilling his compositions with unconventional twists and turns, accented by touches of strings and horns, and only occasionally teasing the pop fiend with lilting melodies. Still, when those gorgeous melodic epiphanies come, their impact is tremendous.

Downes' PhD in musical composition also asserts itself in the songs' meandering structures, eschewing the traditional verse-chorus-verse in favor of a more "classical" approach, where parts ramble, evolve, and build upon each other. This usually works, but can occasionally detract from the overall tune.

Standouts include the sadly beautiful, piano-driven "Only Dream Left," the upbeat, infectious "Take Good Care of It," and the dynamic, nicely arranged (if a bit long) "C.D., Jimmy Jazz, & Me.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsHeady remembrance
By A Customer on June 24, 2001
Format: Audio CD
I first heard this record driving to work on the Taconic Parkway in 1989. Memorable songs are like familiar smells, they heighten the awareness of your emvironment so you can immediately capture a time and a place. The lyrical imagery and 0 to 100 dB instrumental dynamics seem to play on this. "Take Good Care Of It" with its frenzied allusions to Camel cigarettes and "Bird-Dog" with its climactic singalong to imported German beer. These are real compositions, no producer listed.
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5.0 out of 5 starsJudging a CD by it's cover art
By Wayne Christensen on March 29, 2005
Format: Audio CD
Some people write reviews so that others will know how smart they are, how good they are with words, how much they know about music, etc. If you're really that smart, go out and make a CD with your band, and see if after 10 years or so, your CD will be worth anywhere close to 100 dollars when the CD goes out of print! Most wind up on the 50c rack at some used CD store, or go out for a penny on ebay. I love this band, I love every CD they have made, even "ready to fly", but I think what makes this one really stand out is the fabulous cover art coupled with the great music. I think any album that has great cover art and good music will stand the test of time. This CD's artwork looks better every time I look at it! If I were a millionaire and could by the original painting I would pay half my worth for it! I rate it as one of the 10 all time best album covers - right up there with Robin Trower's "Bridge of sighs", and "the blurred crusade" by The Church, and "Rendevous", by Luna. When I get time, I will write a book about the best album covers ever made, but right now, back to work, coming boss..... :-(
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