Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely Worthwile..., June 28, 2006
Let me start out by saying that I absolutely loved (and still do) their last record, Now Here Is Nowhere. I was blown away by their sound, that I have to say, is pretty unique. It wasn't until about 6 months ago when I first was lucky enough to hear them. So, as I got more and more into them, I was thrilled when I learned of a new album due out.
First day out, you bet it was mine. Let me explain why this album is so great: Their songs are more venturous and (yes, I know I'm not the first to use this word to describe them) epic than any band I've heard in the last 5-6 years. Their composition blows me away. The band has got incredible patience; no other band could compose a 9 minute long song that does not rush a single note (see: "Daddy's in the Doldrums"). They have time to throw in a catchy first single that isn't too poppy to scare away older fans (see: "Lighting Blue Eyes"). There's long openers that seem all too familiar, that you swear you can sing along with upon the first hearing (see: "Alone, Jealous, and Stoned"). There's sad, emotional ballads (see: "1000 seconds). There's ground-breaking music that I've never heard anything else even remotley like (see: "I Hate Pretending). Etc, etc. I cannot stress how good this ablum is. Please, please don't go and just download the songs I just mentioned. This is without a doubt "one of those albums" that you need to listen to the entire thing. Each song individually is really, really well done. But the album as a whole? Absolutely amazing. One of, if not the best ablum of 2006.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jam goes to College, June 14, 2006
I have invented the term sophisticated psychedelia to describe this album. It has all of the levity, the strange spacyness, and mystery of psychedelic jam music but with none of the fat, none of the wasted notes, the dawdling, ambling or lingering. It is a perfect harmony of logical preconception and far-out whimsy. And yet this description does not include the other element, the darkness that is both cerebral and visceral, and which pervades the entire album. It's cerebral element comes from the spare yet smart lyrics and its visceral quality is expressed by the fairly deep beats which are used in many of the songs.
These descriptive sentences are the closest I can come to intimating to you what the experience of 10 silver drop is like and yet they are total rubbish, for there is no real way for me to tell you what you are in for when you put the newest silver machines disk in your stereo. Just buy it and play it, and I assure you, you will be astounded, and you will play it over and over again. My only complaint about this album is that it is too short, but I would have this same complaint if it was 3 hours long. I cant get enough of this great thing.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I never thought a moment spoke so well, January 29, 2007
It was sort of coincedence that I discovered this band. I think it had something to do with the persistant suggestion of Amazon's recommendations department combined with the fact that I saw it on the shelf at some music store (I want to sound cool. It was actually a Barnes & Noble), picked it up, bought it, took it home, and fell in love with the band. It just so happened, and I didn't discover this until much later, that one of the members of Secret Machines was in Tripping Daisy, a band I deeply mourn and often pine for.
Layered, dense and emotional. Medatative, and anything but rushed. The tracks on this album are long but don't meander much. They carry their somewhat ambivalent emotional weight (moreso than their previous efforts) without falling into sentimentalism. There's this seductive, almost trancey cohesion throughout the whole piece, and it really manages to pull the listener in.
What I don't get about this, what I don't get about most of popular music, in fact, is that very few people out there are listening to this music. Secret Machines are right there in major-label obscurity. What's up with that? I mean yeah, the songs are sort of long, but I never thought that was a good excuse for obscurity. They're way better than the mass of popular music. In fact, they're way better than the other similarly themed, slightly off-kilter acts you can catch on the more artsy radio stations out there. Plus, what with the power of the internet and all, why is good music like this still floating on the boundaries of the musical world?
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