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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pneumonia Catchy Yet Patchy, May 25, 2001
Fans of the Raleigh-based alterna-country band Whiskeytown can now breathe a collective sigh of relief. Not only has the dismantled band's music from its last trip to the recording studio finally seen the light of day, but the resulting album, Pneumonia, is well worth the delay. Pneumonia, recorded three years ago in a variety of settings, was held up because of legal wrangling between the band's old label and those of the individual members when they entered into new recording agreements. Whiskeytown ringleader Ryan Adams had said in a number of interviews that the album would never be released if he had anything to do with it. Fortunately, time heals all wounds and Adams' bitterness about the band's breakup has softened due to the passage of time and his recent success as a solo artist. In the end it was Adams' new label, Lost Highway Records (Lucinda Williams' pet project), which won the right to release Pneumonia. While Pneumonia may not achieve the classic status of the band's high-water-mark album Strangers Almanac (1996), it comes dern close. The sound of the album is less in the neo-country vein than previous efforts and much more cohesive than the band's live shows of the same era. The songs bounce from the horn-laden "The Ballad of Carol Lynn" to the orchestral soother "Under Your Breath," a song that would be equally at home on Adams' solo album, Heartbreaker. The songs are all great but any Whiskeytown fan expecting the bang and twang of Faithless Street might be a little disappointed. "Mirror, Mirror" is an exercise in pop tune-age that is as catchy as anything Adams has ever written. Backing vocals and horns swirl around the melody while electric guitars deliver power chords your grandmother could love. Produced by Ethan Johns, Pneumonia ties all of the disparate songs of Whiskeytown's swan song into a cohesive unit. The "Bali Ha'i"-like crooner "Paper Moon" (not the classic song of the same name) would have stuck out like a sore thumb on any other Whiskeytown disc but feels right at home on Pneumonia. Reportedly, bootleg versions of Pneumonia have been in circulation on the Internet for over a year. In addition to the Whiskeytown fanatics who have burned their own CD copies, the album has attracted the attention of Smashing Pumpkins completists because of James Iha's guitar and vocal contributions to Pneumonia. Bootleggers evidently have sacrificed sound quality in exchange for an edition of Pneumonia containing the songs "Tilt-A-Whirl" and "Choked Up" which were not featured on the final version of the album. In addition to Adams and Iha, the album features Whiskeytown regulars Caitlin Cary on fiddle and vocals and Mike Daly on guitars, pedal steel, lap steel, dulcimer, mandocello, mandolin, keyboards and vocals. Other musicians contributing include guitarist Brad Rice, bassist Jennifer Condos, keyboardist Richard Causon, guitarist Tommy Stinson, and producer Johns on a number of instruments. When it is all said and done, Pneumonia is more of an Adams' solo album than a Whiskeytown album in the true sense of the word. Caitlin Cary fans will probably be more satisfied with her upcoming solo album on Yep Roc Records since her contribution to Pneumonia is so sparse. Five songs from her new solo album were released on the EP Waltzie last autumn. Her album is produced by Strangers Almanac helmsman Chris Stamey and features Whiskeytown multi-instrumentalist Daly. Lost Highway Records will release Adams' new solo album this summer. The album's sound is supposedly closer to Adams' recent live forays with his electric band The Pink Hearts than it is to the acoustic country of Heartbreaker. Lost Highway has also secured the services of fellow Raleigh musician Tift Merritt for her full length debut. She recently turned heads at both the Merle Watson Festival in Wilkesboro and the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, with powerful performances of original songs. In conclusion, Pneumonia is a wonderful collection of musical vignettes. Ragged in places, symphonic in others. The sunny scrapbook quality of the album fails to hint at the inner turmoil of a band in the process of breaking up. But that's probably for the best.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DELAYED FOR TOO LONG, August 28, 2001
It's a real shame that this record has been sitting on the shelf for three years, because it's really terrific. I have the 2nd Whiskeytown album(Stranger's Almanac), which is good, but this record is leaps and bounds beyond it. It's stunning really, how effortless and assured the songs and performances are on the record, not to mention how much Ryan Adams' songwriting has matured. Pop, rock, folk and country all blend into a seamless whole and give the record a wonderful, loose, "lived-in" sound that reminds me of a little of classic Neil Young(After the Gold Rush,etc.). I would say that "Crazy About You" is my favorite track - a simple, lovesick pop song with a big hook. Not far behind is the closer, "Bar Lights", which has a nice swagger to it, plus I love it when Adams' sings the line "...the empty pool hall, you and I...". The album also features a handful of beautiful, nostalgic ballads that would make Springsteen proud. A wonderful album; right now, it's neck and neck between this and the Sparklehorse for record of the year, I think. Highly recommended, even if Adams was reportedly crazy enough to dump Winona Ryder.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Way to End Whiskeytown's Brief Career, December 26, 2003
The last Whiskeytown album was released in May, 2001, more than two years after the album was actually completed (and just months before Ryan Adams was to release his SECOND solo album, "Gold"). It sat on the shelf for that long after Whiskeytown's label Outpost imploded and before it found a new home at Lost Highway."Pneumonia" (14 tracks, plus "hidden" track, 57 min.), really sounds quite different from Whiskeytown's previous releases, and in spirit is closer to Ryan's first solo album "Heartbreaker" than, say, Whiskeytown's previous album "Stranger's Almanac". Excellent producer Ethan Johns (who also produced "Hearthbreaker" and "Gold") likely is one of the main reasons for that. Ryan has a hand in all tracks, writing 6 tracks by himself, and co-writing the rest with either Caitlin Cary and/or Mike Daly. Standout tracks include "The Ballad of Carol Lyn", "Jacksonville Skyline", the almost Beatles-esque "Mirror Mirror", the eerie "What The Devil Wanted", and "Easy Hearts", the very best on this album, with Caitlin's violins (for once) prominent and Ryan lamenting "I've Had a Pretty Hard Life/But Such an Easy Heart". Whiskeytown split in 1999. The following year Ryan issued "Heartbreaker", and the rest, as they say, is history. Caitlin has come on strong as well, with decent solo albums in 2002 and 2003. "Pneumonia" is a very nice album to finish that chapter, but I so wonder if we'll ever see a live album released from Whiskeytown's illustrous live sets...
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