Hawaii

High Llamas

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 24, 1997)
• Original Release Date: July 29, 1997
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: V2
• ASIN: B000004BSA
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,175 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cuckoo Casino

2. Sparkle Up

3. Literature Is Fluff

4. Nomads

5. Snapshot Pioneer

6. Ill-Fitting Suits

7. Recent Orienteering

8. Hot Revivalist

9. Phoney Racehorse

10. Dressing up the Old Dakota

11. D.C. 8

12. Doo-Wop Property

13. Theatreland

14. Friendly Pioneer

15. Cuckoo's Out

16. Peppy

17. There's Nobody Home

18. Hokey Curator

19. Campers in Control

20. Double Drift

See all 29 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magnificent and complicated, September 20, 1999

By A Customer

This is a difficult but extraordinarily significant recording. The Llamas seem to have ingested the whole history of American music -- from Stephen Foster to Paul Whiteman to Brian Wilson (especially Brian Wilson) and beyond -- and they have created a marvelous tapestry of sound. Do not be fooled by those who call this group derivative. They are the most intelligent and musical post-modern synthesists at work in classical or pop. For the first time in many years, the vanguard is in pop music.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dressing up the Brian Wilson/Giving it another shot, March 20, 2003

By	Stanley Beaker (Beachy Head, England) - See all my reviews

Well, any wonderfully uninspired music critic must surely believe that artists employ stock 'beach boys' harmonies in order to enhance the emotional resonance of their creation, much in the same way, I suppose, that bands lump an orchestra at the back and instruct them to pump poignancy into a dog of a ballad. Consequently, every record with harmonies is, fairly or unfairly, belittled into being 'Beach Boys-like', and really, every record sounds like the beach boys if you listen hard enough, or if you don't listen at all. The much less common 'Brian Wilson'-like description refers to the soundscapes Wilson used on the Beach Boys records and so because popular groups have still yet to adopt the 'banjo-vibes-harpsichord-rustic rattles' set-up the tag has almost exclusively been stapled to the legs of Sean O'Hagan's High Llamas.

Furthermore 'Hawaii' is said to not only emulate the rich, exotic instrumentation of the Beach Boys circa 1965/66 but more specifically the incomplete 'SMiLE' album. Is there a reason for this ultimately dismissive and condescending, comparison? Maybe it's because 'Hawaii' doesn't sound like anyone else in contemporary popular music, and, well, you've got to compare innovative artists to somebody, surely? But it was SMiLE that marked the peak of Wilson's module song structures, it would have relied heavily on complex group harmonies and it was so experimental that its lofty ambitions were never realised. The High Llamas, on the other hand, employ a more leisurely, flowing, instrumental soundtrack style, with vocals far less prominent and O'Hagan himself coming on with the endearing euphoric fragility of the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne. Of course there are similarities to the Beach Boys work, O'Hagan's lyrics do adopt Van Dyke Park's mischievous abstract wordplay for example, but ignore SMiLE, direct you attention to Pet Sounds' 'Let's Go Away For Awhile'. It conjures a similar escape fantasy, a soundtrack to a canyon drive, hot midday sun flickering through the trees above.

Ultimately, and unlike Brian (unfortunately), Sean O'Hagan was able to realise his high ambitions, creating something unique, timeless, remarkably consistent, where those 'O'Hagan'-like sad, yearning but sparkle-eyed melodies perpetuate. Maybe it's too polished, maybe it could have been rawer with some of the Wilson's sessions strange electrical charge, and, you know, at 29 tracks and 77 minutes maybe it's too long, but I say that, and, you know, I'd be happy for the gorgeously haunting codas to 'Nomads' and 'Dressing Up The Old Dakota' to continue their cyclical journeys outwards, onwards and upwards.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wall to wall sublimity, September 30, 2001

By	ned good (the real world) - See all my reviews

I'm not ashamed of the hyperbole: Hawaii is a masterpiece of pastoral bliss-out, and whatever debt they owe to Brian Wilson/Burt Bacharach(a charge far more tiresome and unoriginal than critics purport the HL to be) is paid back in spades with woozy, pretty compositions laced with the sarcastic lyricism that the High Llamas have largely dispensed with in the years since. I'm in the minority as I think they've gotten exponentially better through the years(Snowbug and Buzzle Bee are among the most spiritual pieces of music I own) but Hawaii has a peculiar, airy charm all its own, and makes for a wonderful starting point. 5 out of 5 with no reservations