The Life Of Chris Gaines

Garth Brooks

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 28, 1999)
• Original Release Date: September 28, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00000K29L
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (480 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,822 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
In... The Life of Chris Gaines is a way for Garth Brooks to indulge his rock-star fantasies without directly putting his country credibility on the line. This fictional greatest-hits album is supposedly a prequel to a movie (The Lamb) in which Brooks will assume the role of a mysterious Australian-born pop singer. The first single, "Lost in You," sounds like Kenny Loggins auditioning for a role in the Backstreet Boys. Gaines's other "hits" range from the funk-lite of "Snow in July" to the Prince-like "The Way of the Girl," the Beatlesesque "Maybe," and the blatant Wallflowers rip "Unsigned Letter." The tune on which Brooks most resembles the cat in the hat we all know is the melancholy ballad "It Don't Matter to the Sun." The most provocative tune is "Right Now," which interpolates (really) the Youngbloods' hippie classic "Get Together" with Cheryl Wheeler's antigun screed "If It Were Up to Me." As himself, Garth Brooks has sold almost 100 million albums. If he's lucky, many of those fans will forgive him for Chris Gaines. --Rick Mitchell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Don't Listen to Country-Western Music or Garth Brooks, December 18, 2002

By	carol irvin "carol knowlton irvin" (chesterland, OH United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I inadvertently discovered Garth Brooks via this recording. This is because I don't own a single country-western album nor do I listen to country-western. Thus, Brooks was unknown to me. I picked this up in the library as a rock album and enjoyed it enormously. I then read about it and discovered that it was a country-western singer, Garth Brooks, doing the entire rock n' roll album under another name, the fictional Chris Gaines. I've since listened to some of Brooks's other albums (also from the library) and I like him a lot when he veers away from country-western into more of the rock mode. When he is in solid country-western mode, I can do without his singing. So if you are a country-western fan, you may well hate this album. If you are more of a rock or pop fan, Brooks is a really good discovery for you if you are willing to sort through his music, picking out the rock and pop and leaving the country-western in his albums. You can find 2-3 good songs an album doing this generally (on one I found an absolutely bang-up version of "Mr. Blue" and on another my absolute Brooks favorite, "I'm Head Over Heels in Love"). This particular album of his fits me best though because there is NO country-western music on it. So I like ALL of it. I am one of those people for whom virtually all country-western music sounds the same. I am beginning to enjoy aspects of C-W when rock and pop singers incorporate elements of it into their own genres, with Mark Knopfler perhaps doing that best. As a musical hybrid only, I'm liking country-western as it joins onto other musical forms. Brooks also has begun to branch out by appearing with other singers, such as Billy Joel. He does an absolutely incredible live job of "New York State of Mind" with Billy Joel that is not on this album but is well worth hunting down. Ditto for a live performance with Don McLean on "American Pie." I'm sure it is heresy to say this but I wish Brooks would leave country-western music so I wouldn't have to hunt and pick around for his songs.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Great Idea Poorly Executed, December 8, 1999

By	Mookie "star of TV's Manimal" (Indianapolis) - See all my reviews

I couldn't wait to hear this CD. I've never been a Garth fan or country fan, but I love all types of music and love to hear artists challenge themselves. Having said that, this album is the audio equivalent of watching Michael Jordan play baseball. I gave the disc two stars. Garth is a talented enough musician that even his worst is worth one star. He earned his second star just by doing this project. The guy doesn't have to ever record again. He could retire and go play Nintendo. Instead, he decided to have fun. The problem is that it's not as much fun for the listener as it was for him. Here's the situation: Garth took off 20 pounds (!) and put on funky clothes and wigs to become a different character named Chris Gaines. Gaines was to be his "rock" persona. The pictures are brilliant. Gaines looks like he might fit on a mix-tape with the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, maybe even Beck. The hysterically funny bio inside tells a different story. We're supposed to believe that Chris was part of a pop boy-band in the late 80's who went his own way and sounds a lot like Prince. Mind you, both these possibilities are intriguing and I couldn't wait to hear Garth get goth and/or funky. So what does Chris Gaines actually sound like? Imagine if Dan Fogelberg was still kicking. If Cat Stevens hadn't found Islam. If Harry Chapin had lived. Only one song on this whole CD sounds like it could have been popular in the 80's. The rest sound like mid-to-late 70's country-pop. The sad thing is, I think Garth thinks he made a huge leap from his usual fare. He learned to do some different things with his voice, he hired "rock" musicians (i.e., guys who have backed up Amy Grant and Peter Cetera), he bought hip clothes and had himself a ball. Me? I listened to it twice and took it back. Bottom line is this: It's not bad music at all. It's just not the music that it's supposed to be. Oh well, maybe next year he'll do a CD of Celtic folk tunes.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A drastically underrated CD..., June 3, 2002

By	Doug DeBolt (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When this CD first came out, I had only heard its biggest hit, "Lost in You," and didn't realize that it was Garth Brooks or that it was part of this unorthodox project. That song alone made me want to buy the CD, and I have listened to it regularly over the past two years. It's easy for us to comment today about what would or would not have been popular over the past 20 years, because we have such imperfect memories. We can say these songs could never have been hits and that they lack anything remarkable, but then again, how can you explain Men at Work, Men Without Hats and Devo?

The songwriting team of Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy and Tommy Sims (which won a Grammy for the Eric Clapton hit, "Change the World") also provided most of the studio work and background vocals. And one of the key producers was Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. This was not a half-effort, but instead was a genuine attempt on Brooks' behalf to do something new and unusual. Perhaps his greatest miscalculation was thinking that music fans -- including his most loyal -- would accept something so radically different. Rather, people have lashed out at him for this project as though he betrayed them, to the extent that the accompanying movie project (in which Garth would NOT have starred) has been shelved, if not scrapped.

For all of its flaws, "In the Life of Chris Gaines" is a grossly underrated album which deserves a listen on its own merits, of which there are many.