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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Perfect CD?, June 14, 2001
I'm a fan of many kinds of music. I like everything from classic rock to modern music and everything from the light ballads of the Goo Goo Dolls to the hardcore beat of Linkin Park. But one thing I've noticed is that although I like hundred's of songs, rarely does an artist put out an album where you don't dislike one or two songs, and you skip ahead when those tracks start to play. I never buy a CD unless I feel I'm going to like all of the songs (This would explain my small CD collection). Then one day, during a late night of homework at college, a saw a little video on MTV from a band called Oleander. The song was 'Are You There,' and I fell in love with it instantly. Well, I did what any normal college student would do, and I decided to do a little online investigating with MP3's. After a couple downloads, I realized that I might finally have found the nearest thing to perfection; a CD with all great songs (perfection being a CD with only your favorites songs, which doesn't happen without burning your own). The next day, I was at the music store (proof that Napster can actually help you discover lesser known artist and lead you to buy their music). Unwind is now the pride and joy of my music collection. Here's the scoop. The second word that comes to mind when describing this album is 'complete' (the first being 'great'). It has good music from start to finish. Everyone I know thinks 'Are You There' is great. 'Champion' and 'Halo' are slower, powerful, touching melodies that grab your attention. 'Benign' and 'Tightrope' are also great, slower songs. The rest of the album is more punkish and still fantastic. In my opinion, 'Unwind' and 'Jimmy Shaker Day' were the low point of the CD, but after hearing them out once or twice, they grow on you and the next thing you know, you're tapping your finger along with them. Another plus was that the lyrics was clean. I don't care for, although I'll put up with, cursing thrown everywhere when you're listening to a song. It's clean enough for anyone, but don't mix that up with wimpiness. It's still got solid beats and most of the songs are pretty heavy (not heavy-metal heavy, but a good alternative/punk/rock type heavy). Definately do yourself the favor of grabbing this one, folks. And also check out Oleander's other album, 'February Son'. I don't have it yet, but I am buying it next chance I get, plus what I've heard of it (50-60%) keeps up with the Oleander quality. Unwind is great for anyone's music collection.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oleander does it again!, March 7, 2001
First I'd like to say that Oleander is one of my favorite bands. Very few bands have inspired the way that I write music more than Oleander has. I listen to a lot of music and while I don't think the band has completely rewritten the book of rock and roll I do believe they have added their own personal style to it and I think thats praiseworthy in itself. While a lot of bands are out there trying to ressurrect the ghost of Jimmy Page claiming that they're doing it for the sake of "bringing back the rock" these guys seem to appreciate the past but keep things in a direction of forward progress. Their major label debut was stunning, not a bad song on the album. Their harsh minor key musical warnings about going over the edge really grabbed my attention. All the while, they balanced it all out with a lot of upkey major sounding stuff that made a balanced creation. It was an album that could really stand on its own. I counted down the days and on March 6th I ran out to the record store and bought "Unwind," something I impatiently waited for. I've listened to the album about five times or so and I think its an excellent album that was well worth the wait. It seems that this time around that their style has gotten a slight bit of the pop treatment. While I felt that the treatment worked well for Fuel on their new release, I don't believe it served Oleander as well. The music seems a little more radio friendly than the cuts on February Son and lack some of that angst and aggression that really gave Oleander a distinct sound a couple years ago. What we hear on this album is a more mature and experimental Oleander. I think the experiment was rather successful for one. Where a song like "Lost Cause" or "Down When I'm Loaded" would have beat me senseless with balls to the wall rock attitude, songs such as "Benign" with its jazz chords and "Yours If You Like" with it's piano-like bridge picking really knock me over with some stuff I just don't see rock bands doing a whole lot of. Now that I think of it, I don't think I really see any rock bands doing a lot of that stuff. It may sound subtle but I think small experiemental things such as that do make a difference to the normal listener. Still though, they don't let us forget they're Oleander and how they got there. Songs such as "Are You There," "Jimmy Shaker Day," and "Unwind" still don't let us forget that these guys can rock out. They even add a bit of an epic feel to the agressive mix with "Goodbye" a song that kind of tugs at you emotionally. There's a lot more worth mentioning about the album but in a nutshell thats whats going on and I think it's something good. I would give the release 4 and a half stars but since there is no half star I'll round it up to 5 with the hopes that they're coming to see us here in State College, PA. I'll definately be there if they choose to come. Personally I think Three Doors Down should be OPENING FOR these guys just because they're so much better. Three Doors Down is a little more popular though so it wouldn't seem right to everybody else. However, this album has a lot of appeal. If you're an Oleander fan you will like it. Perhaps you won't like it as much as the first one but I do urge you to give it a good try before writing it off because this really is a good album that isn't a carbon copy of their first album. Doing a carbon copy would have been too easy. Pop-Rock fans would also find this a great buy even if they never heard of Oleander.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
extremely underated cd and band, June 26, 2003
Oleander has been overlooked for as good as they are. anyone who really listened to their debut, February Son, enough to appreciate it would agree. Their follow up, Unwind, is one of the best cds i've heard in a long time as a whole. the entire cd is good, which is rare. It's also a very versitle cd. it goes every which way. there are driving punkish grunge songs like "jimmy shaker day" and "unwind". they manage to keep their heavy quite nice vocally as well on "she's up, she's down" and the explosive "are you there?". they show that they can write beautiful songs as well. songs like "halo" and "tightrope" are amazing songs; musically and lyrically. "champion" is also quite nice. these are songs that once you hear, you feel the urge to listen again...and again. other songs such as "benign" and "goodbye" are so amazingly catchy and radio-friendly that it's quite shocking that this cd didn't do that commercially well. they're just so well-written and fit in w/ everything they play on radio. "yours if you like" is another song just like that. its just good. i really think they would've sold more cds if they marketed it in a different direction. a song like "back home years ago" would explode over radio. THE POINT: this really is one of the best cds i've heard. it's one of my personal favorites that i always come back to. Oleander have a sound you could call Stone Temple Pilots meets Nirvana. That works for me cuz they pull it off beautifully. BUY BUY BUY Favorite Songs (though, they are all quite nice):
1. back home years ago
2. are you there?
3. halo
4. tightrope
5. she's up, she's down
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