5 comments about I Am Shelby Lynne.

1. Except for the first annoying, obviously made for top 40 radio play , 'no lies' which i recommend evreyone immediately skip over, this album is absolutelY OUTSTANDING ! Not too many females have attempted the genres that Shelby Lynne has. Let it be for her listener to determine that !



2. I first learned of Shelby Lynne in a Rolling Stone Magazine article just after this record was released and decided to seek it out. I cannot say enough good things about this album. Quite simply, I FEEL the emotion that she has about the song topics and talk about continuity! This is one of the most cohesive albums that I have ever heard! It is 8 years later and my wife and I still listen to this once a month. We have gotten so much mileage from the CD we should have paid $100 for it. Its actual price of (about) $12.99 is a complete bargain. Don't pay attention to the jilted country fans in these reviews. Thanks to this album's brilliance I bought the rest of her catalog and the records before this one are bland and too simple. "I am Shelby Lynne" is heads and shoulders better than her earlier work. Bravo!



3. I can't add any better words to all the rich descriptions said about her and this album from others, except that she is one of a kind. Anything she does is unique and connects. The only other singer/songwriter I felt drawn to because of his unique sound and story-telling is Cat Stevens. It's because they both sing with raw emotion and passion and their lyrics are so dang profound! Get this album. Get all of 'em!



4. I purchased this CD after hearing and loving Shelby's "Just A Little Lovin" set, and I was not disappointed. "I Am Shelby Lynne" is really a great recording with a nice variety of music, yet it all features a laid back, no pretense, total disregard for what should be popular, and in place of commercialism, one gets a totally honest set of songs, well crafted and well performed. I understand now why people have been raving about Shelby Lynne all these years, and I regret that it took me so long to discover her extraordinary talent.



5. This is the first time ever I don't know what to say about a CD. Whatever I write will fall way short of how brilliant and full of life 'I Am Shelby Lynne' is. Even the terms "brilliant" and "full of life" don't do this CD justice.
   
   So, all I will write is you owe it to yourself to buy this CD. Your life will be richer for it.

5 comments about Anywhere But Home (w/ bonus DVD).

1. First I would like to say that my fan fare of Evanescence is quite new, I've only gotten into them over the past 6 months or so, but I do have all their albums. anywhere but home is a pretty good CD/DVD. The live CD captures the energy of the concert and for the first time I found an artist that does not take any songs or addition commentray out of the CD that was included in the Live DVD. What you see in the DVD live concert is what you get in the Live CD. The DVD is great. The concert has that evanescence feel and it is filled with great behind the scenes footage. They have before the show, during the show clips, after the show, and life on the road as well as some bloopers and funny story's. A Must Have for Any evanescence fan.



2. This is a great value. The included DVD of backstage on their tour and the music videos makes this a great value for the price.



3. i bought this mainly for the excellent music videos it has four of the groups best including my immortal(the crowd goes wild for this song in concert) then to find the concert video was superb the audio was awsum.this is one of my favorite groups and miss amy has such a range she goes from classic to hard rock in style with her exquisite silky voice not to mention she wears the Gothic look so well. anywhere from home,is a classic album from the start .definitely got my moneys worth this time



4. Awesome DVD. If you like Evanescence, you are going to love this concert video.



5. When i first heard of this i kinda expected worse but when i got it it was actually a lot better than i imagined.I have seen Evanescence live before in NM and i thought that Amy sang a hell lot better than she does on this cd/dvd. She kinda sounds funny in a way and doesn't really say whole words, she kinda starts a word and doesn't finish.lol. but still, overall she put on a good performance in this dvd. I think the videos in the extras are sweet. I love "Going Under" Amy looks so damn HOT! well i rate this a good buy, and for a good price!

5 comments about A-Sides.

1. Soundgarden have easily succeeded with A-Sides, this is the best compilation I've found from a grunge band. With a whopping 17 songs this is worth every dollar. Adding the unreleased "Bleed Together" is a great addition and the chronological order is fascinating. You can really notice the band mature and craft better songs. You can spot their more commercially successful songs halfway through, so you get a lot of their older sound stirred in a bit. Most greatest hits lack older material from bands and strive on their most appealing songs.
   
   Highly appealing for the price. "Black Hole Sun" is a classic, but take a deeper look into songs like "Flower" or the epic "Jesus Christ Pose" (Chris Cornell hits his highest note in his career in the songs later moments!)The sound is great, the song selection offers a variety of well produced tunes to metallic throwbacks. Their is fast songs, their are slow songs, their are even punkish songs!
   
   Soundgarden are on the biggest grunge bands and remains obvious when looked upon this album!



2. Soundgarden may be a bit overrated, but who cares? They are cool. I'm not big on their early work, but Badmotorfinger and Superunknown were easily two of the coolest releases of the '90s, and guess what? Half this album is taken from those two releases! DUDE! These are some classic songs! I don't think ANY '90s frontman, except for maybe Eddie Veder, had more old-fashioned charisma than Chris Cornnel, and few of the guitarists could play like Kim Thayil. Just listen to "Spoonman" (which is actually very, very funky stuff, especially for a grunge band), and you'll know what I mean. It's damn intelligent, too. It's got this really tricky, really complicated rhythm. Soundgarden was charismatic AND smart - in my eyes, a great combination. And the songs here rule! The psychedelic grunge of "Black Hole Sun" is my favorite, because Cornel does some great wailing near the end, and Thayil totally rocks out. Plus their drummer, Matt Cameron, loses his mind. It's great. But hey, just about all of this is! Have you heard these songs? "Jesus Christ Pose"? "Pretty Noose"? "Rusty Cage"? "Outshined"? "Fell on Black Days"? "Burden in My Hand"? "Flower"? "Loud Love"? Whoa... it's hard-rockin', intelligent, good music! A few songs I think are greatest-hits quality are missing - "Superunknown", "Room a Thousand Years Wide", "Big Dumb Sex" ("Hey, I know what I'll do! Fork you, farg you, fjordk you!" Funny song!), "Fourth of July", "Head Down", and so on - but that can only be expected on a greatest-hits album, and besides, this is a very specific one. It's all a-sides. Good 'uns, too! Pick this up if you're a '90s rock fan. I know I am.



3. Soundgarden was a good band but they won't make history.
   If you like grunge rock, you'll like it.
   To me, few songs are unforgettable like "Outshine", "Black old sun" or "Burden in my hand" but it takes a lot more to remains in the major league of rock music.



4. A best-of album from Soundgarden is like a best-of album from Led Zeppelin: it's ridiculous. In many ways Soundgarden is the Led Zeppelin of the grunge era. Both bands are about power and mystique, each offering up a relentlessly heavy edge that overshadowed their contemporaries like Manute Bol standing next to Spud Web. Also, both bands went extinct way too soon. In Soundgarden's case, they issued only five albums and two eps. While their earlier work (1985-1989) was an inchoate combination of sweaty hard rock and shifty punk music, sometime during the process of the "Louder Than Love" album (1989) the band just locked into a sound that can never be duplicated. Everything that followed this period (-1997) was simply brilliant. So, who can argue with a greatist hits collection? My main gripe is that their record label has been incredibly stingy about their treatment of Soundgarden's catalogue, not to mention the Temple of The Dog album, which should be remastered and offered with live tracks/outtakes. This is not just great music, it's music that defines an era, defines a feeling. It's the exalted prototype for an entire movement. And why is the awesome "Birth Ritual" from the Singles soundtrack or "Heretic" from Pump Up The Volume missing? Whatever bohemeth now owns Soundgarden's catalogue needs to remaster everything and release something from the live vaults. It's been a decade since this, their most recent offering, was released. Gimme a break.



5. If you don't already own Superunknown, then you might as well pick up this album as opposed to buying three or four Soundgarden albums. There are some great tunes missing, but there always are. All the major hits are here.

5 comments about Feast of Wire.

1. I can talk about this song or that, or how Calexico has a distinctive and beautiful sound, and all that. Here's how I know this album is good. After I got it, I played it for an entire week to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.
   
   It gets under your skin it's so good. It changes pace and style from song to song, so you don't get bored, and songs don't all convolve together into just one indistinguishable pile of music. It'll keep in your mind even after you turn it off, and you'll look forward to getting back home so you can listen to it again.
   
   And then, you should go to el Guero Canelo and get the best Sonoroan hotdog ever.



2. This is a folk album and Calexico isn't afraid to do something different. The album has a very southwestern feel and even goes south of the border on several songs. I am not an instrument expert, but I do know there are some instruments in here that I only hear in Sergio Leone films. With such an array of instruments... Joey Burns vocals are almost ignored. But it is his voice that really lifts this album from being an experimental effort to a darn-close masterpiece.
   
   A few instrumentals throughout the album might slow some listeners down. But it won't stop most from enjoying this album. Quattro (World Drifts In) is probably my favorite track and is classic Calexico with a several horns for good measure. Close Behind plays like a folk song with visions of Love's Forever Changes (1967). And that album seems to be a great influence on Feast of Wire. The great thing is that Calexico really invents their own style and sound. They may resemble something else, but Feast of Wire is still their own. Above or below Garden Ruin, this album is one of Calexico's best.



3. I'd heard of Calexico, but had never purchased an album. Then I saw them play at the Republic in New Orleans the night before they were to play the annual Jazz Fest. They BLEW MY MIND as a live band.
   Seriously one of the best shows I have ever seen. Then they did it again the next day on a huge stage at Jazz Fest!!!! The crowd was very into it.
   So after debating (with myself) which of their discs to purchase, I chose "Feast of Wire"....
   My companion and I were hoping to sort-of recreate their live shows with a cd for our road trip out of New Orleans, but were sorely disappointed.
   This cd is boring overall and does not capture their live energy, which is their greatest asset. Also, there's too much synth-sounding "things" on this album....I was hoping for a more organic sound --- more like their live sound. Apparently all albums before this one are more what I was looking for!!



4. I absolutely love Calexico's version of "Alone Again Or" on the Austin Music Fest CD from 2004, and was more than pleasantly surprised at this CD. The best part about it: it's NEVER boring.
   
   Too many CDs (especially Pop music cr*p) sound like they took one song, and replayed the same tune over and over, substituting banal lyrics and calling it "art."
   
   Guess what kids? THIS is art. Thoughtful lyrics, complex arrangements, and combinations of styles like Jazz, Country and Latin make this a superb CD.



5. i'm not sure what the reviewer scott taylor listens to (and music is a vey personal thing, like religion i guess), but in my mind this is one the finest, most creative, hauntingly beautiful, and wonderfully mesmerizing albums i have heard in a long time. 'black heart' is a killer. please check out the dvd also if you have not seen them live. they are daring, challenging and diverse. some of my other favorites that exceed musical boundaries are coltrane, hendrix, miles, king crimson etc. so, judge for yourself, but give this one a chance if you truly love creative music.

5 comments about Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

1. King David has elected to leave his indie throne to be a happy as hell motivational speaker, in this new age of crisis. Doubleplus Ungood.
   
   Could Cassie be his Yoko? Oy Vey I have issues with the Jooh's.



2. Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008, Drag City) Silver Jews' sixth studio album. ***1/2
   
   Silver Jews is not an immediate sound you latch onto. In fact, it's nearly required that you be a fan of Johnny Cash and the Pixies to get into it. All their albums, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea included, are ones that grows with each listen. The opening "What Is Not But Could Be If" sounds like a lecture with lyrics like "What could appear in morning mist/With all associated risk/What is not but could be if." Alternatively, it can be completely idiotic, such as "Party Barge," which ends with Cassie Berman repeating "Send us your coordinates, I'll send a Saint Bernard."
   
   Two moments are truly musically awe-inspiring; the vocally downing "Suffering Jukebox" and the folk sounds of "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat." The former is remarkable for its extended chorus, which again sees Cassie Berman letting loose with pleading lines. While it isn't as introspective as other Silver Jews releases, that's by no means a good or bad thing; if anything, it offers a balance to some of their more melodramatic work and lets David Berman's sense of humor shine through more. This isn't music that you'd hear at a party, but its sound is timeless. Namely, music like this ages very well. (Suffering Jukebox)



3. A Stephen Merritt meets Ian Curtis with the dramatic antics of Dave Vanian (gone country) conglomerate with undertones of something very darkened by youth. I liked it, to a degree.
   Vocals seem overbearing for the orchestration sometimes.
   
   Really dig that cover, though!



4. I've always been a sucker for the Silver Jews' more accessible, more countryish songs. Some of my favorites are "Tennessee," "How to Rent A Room," "Black and Brown Blues," and "Random Rules." Well, this new album sounds like it was made just for me. It's so accessible that David Berman has even provided the chords for each of the songs, including a little chart showing where to put your fingers on the guitar neck, so you can play along with them if you'd like.
   
   Cassie Berman is now a full-fledged member of the band, so those who don't like hearing a girl singing with the Silver Jews will have to either get over it or move on. I've always thought that her sweet voice provides the perfect counterpoint to Berman's gravelly baritone. And her bass playing blends right in.
   
   After only three listens, "Suffering Jukebox" is an early favorite. It is classic Berman: a sincere ode to a jukebox that is ignored and neglected. And "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat" begins with the kind of couplet only Berman could write: "Squirrels imported from Connecticut just in time for fall/How much fun is a lot more fun? Not much fun at all." There is a long story-song called "San Francisco B.C." that may at first appear to be following in the footseps of "The Farmer's Hotel," but whereas the other song was slow-moving with impenetrable lyrics, this one is built around a peppy country riff and tells a funny story in which a bad haircut figures prominently. ("It was neatly trimmed but a patch was bare/I knew it wasn't new wave, it was human error.")
   
   I agree with the first reviewer that this is the Jews' most optimistic album yet. It has a lot in common with previous songs like "Animal Shapes" and "I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You" and very little in common with songs like "K-Hole" and "There Is A Place." Berman seems to have gotten past the darkness that dominated the previous album, "Tanglewood Numbers." Even when he sings about addiction (I think), he wraps it in candy metaphors: "Living in a candy jail with peppermint bars/Peanut brittle bunk beds and marshmallow walls."
   
   As always, there is plenty of great wordplay, and as never before, there is a forward-thinking perspective, summed up perfectly in the final song, "We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing." The title says it all, really. This may be the Jews' best album yet.



5. There's something different about this one. Musically, you can kind of tell that it's a real band rather than just a bunch of friends and pickup musicians. This group has been playing together and it shows. The drums play on the beat instead of slouching behind, the bass is locked in solidly, and the guitars and keyboard chug, sizzle and gallop atop that solid platform.
   
   Lyrically, it strikes me as quite different from David Berman's earlier work, though I haven't yet put my finger on exactly what is different about it, other than the two narrative lyrics ("Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer" and "San Francisco, BC") -- I don't think Berman has written real stories into his songs like these before.
   
   In a sense I miss the slacker voice of the earlier albums, with imagery thrown together in a way that almost appeared random, but was obviously the product of a lot of well-hidden craft. Musically, those songs fitted the lyrics. The band never sounded sloppy, but they never sounded so tight that you doubted their casual attitude towards the music.
   
   But this one is a lot tighter, both musically and lyrically. And while the themes of self-doubt, despair and suicide are still there, they are a little further below the surface, and the suicides ("Candy Jail", "My Pillow is the Threshold" if I'm reading those songs right) are no longer the singer's but those of people he knew. It's really a much more optimistic album than any that came before, including Tanglewood Numbers. It's not cheery, but it seems to offer some solutions, rather than just problems. This is best seen in the songs that bookend the album. The first one offers a philosophy of future possibility rather than past/present despair, and the last also looks to a future with a realistic eye on the possibility of a mature love that just might last, if.
   
   It's nice to see David Berman's head in a happier, healthier space after the anguish and despair (buried beneath casual ironic cool but unmistakable) that filled the grooves of Bright Flight.
   
   A great album.

5 comments about Your Man.

1. Josh Turner has an incredible voice, a great sense of humor, charisma and is very traditional in his country music and all of this shows in his recordings! I first heard Josh way back when I HATED country, but I switched the radio to a different station from my norm for a change of pace... and I heard "Your Man" and I loved it so much... I kept listening to the radio over and over to listen to Josh and I fell in love with countrym but especially Josh. I've seen him in concert and he is amazing. "Your Man" is definitely one of my favorites of his but I love all of them on this CD. Buy it - you won't be sorry!!



2. Anyone who enjoyed Conway Twitty will love Josh Turner. His songs are outstanding and seem like he's singing about your life. His voice is so sexy, I just love it.



3. But, it's not like I love every song on this cd. It's not bad, but not my favorite. A couple of really good songs, and a few I skip over.



4. My experence was perfect, My CD came in two days with standard shipping. I am very happy



5. I bought this for my dad for Christmas. The first package I received was the CDs I ordered and the package was damaged. I called Amazon and they sent me to replacements right away. My dad loves these CDs.

5 comments about It's Not Big It's Large.

1. I think I need to listen to this a little more, but I found myself getting bored with, and skipping, tracks a little too often. Too many of them are repetitive, a al "Private Conversation", except they don't have that energy and aren't as catchy. They're also slow. Slow + repetitive = not all that interesting (unless maybe you want to meditate to it).
   
   "Up in Indiana" at least has some energy. "South Texas Girl" is really good once you really hear it, and it's still a pretty good album, but musically it feels a little muzak-ish.



2. Great CD, enjoyed the Big Band cut and all the tunes from Lyle. One of my favorites.



3. I have been a fan of Mr. Lovetts for at least 10 years and am never disappointed in any of his CD's and this one is no exception. Some of the songs are repeated in this selection and at first I questioned this, however after listening to this CD a few times you realize that the arrangements are slightly different and in some cases the lyrics are sung to different melodies entirely, which gives the whole song a completely different feel to it. I would recommend this CD to anyone who is a fan of country or even blues music.



4. this is what i feel about this one, a little bit of indecision. The 3 stars rating is maybe too low, but closer to the truth than the 4 stars rating. I have to say mr. Lovett told us a little lie this time, as you can hear the large band isn't so large, except for the first two tracks, so if you remember the large band album in 1989 or "live in texas" there isn't much of it in here. Anyway, you can find the usual warm, confidential, really great use of voice by Lyle and the usual wonderful team of musicians, nothing to say! About the songs: there is a little lie here too. Two of them are repeated twice, in obvious different form, and a couple seem to come from the same idea, so the track list may seem shorter than written on the cd. But i must say the are enough great songs to justify your time and money, with a special mention to "south texas girl" with Guy Clark, "ain't no more cane" and "the alley song" though, like Van Morrison, Lyle tends to rewrite always the same song, but i love both of them! So, this one is not the cd you can't do without, but especially if you don't know Lyle Lovett you can start here then go back to "the road to ensenada", "joshua judges ruth", "and his large band", "pontiac" and the live album. So if you can't have it don't lose your sleep, but if you buy it enjoy it my friend!



5. Great sound! Lyle's music is so appealing to those of us who like great craftsmanship with a slightly twisted edge.

5 comments about Third Eye Blind.

1. I only wish there were still mainstream bands like this over 10 years later. This is a great album from start to finish with many of Third Eye Blind's biggest hits. Listening to it always puts a smile on my face.



2. It's hard to truly understand how great this album is just by reading reviews, even though many people have given it great ones. I started listening to Third Eye Blind about 10 years ago when I was around eleven. Years before I would adequately understand all the subjects the songs would cover in this album, and I still loved it (the same goes for their follow-up "Blue") And the subjects are expansive; from sex, relationships/breakups, drug abuse/rehabilitation, suicide, regrets, and more. Some songs are definitely up to personal interpretation, but that's just another great thing about this album.
   
   Flash forward to now and I'm still in love with this cd as much as I've always been and I think I appreciate it even more. Even though my tastes have changed in those years, Third Eye Blind is one of the bands I'll never stop liking. And this cd is one of the best in my collection of hundreds of albums. In my opinion, if you've ever heard their radio hits "Semi-Charmed Life", "How's It Going to Be", "Jumper" or even "Graduate", you won't be disappointed by the rest of this album. The non-singles are just that good and that is in no way saying that this album is one dimensional, but every song is so catchy and easy to like.
   
   Can't wait for the recently announced 4th Third Eye Blind album "Ursa Major".
   
   Highlight songs:
   It's so hard with an album like this to determine just a few but in my opinion, the songs "The Background", "Motorcycle Drive-By" and "God of Wine" are worth the price of the cd alone.



3. I bought this album back in the late 90s like everyone else. I was 12 years old when I first heard "Semi-charmed Life" on MTV. Like most I simply heard an incredibly poppy hook and was drawn in. All these years later I still listen to this album on a monthly basis. It's a shame this band's time in the lime-light was so short lived. Especially since their last release (2003's Out of the Vein) was so phenomenal. But this is the band's origin and also their most triumphant achievement. The songs are literally oozing with artistry and profound lyricism. Even the much lesser known tracks (Burning Man, The Background) would be top-notch tracks on a lesser bands album. Ironically, the singles shine the brightest here. Jenkins' manages to capture genuine (and humanisticly mundane) emotion. Songs like "Jumper" and "How's it Gonna Be" contain verses of profound emotion that swell into anthems of the late 90s generation. They don't make 'em like they used to. Here's the proof.



4. Perhaps the bar was set a little too high, because 3EB has never been able to match what they put down here on their first CD. The radio hits are well known, diverse, and well-crafted...however the songs deeper on the disc also merit a listen. This is a very good pop/rock album



5. I discovered this album when I was 13 years old and thought I was quite the little afficianado. Eleven years later, I know there is so much more wonderful music out there than I will ever experience and relish experiencing the new and innovative. However, there is a special place in my heart that I hold for the music that touched me during those formative years. All of this album, but especially the last 3 songs resonate still with their depth of emotion and beauty of lyric. Two of my favorite lines are: "Summer dies and swells rise/The sun goes down in my eyes/See this rolling wave/Darkly coming to take me Home/And I've never been so alone, and I've never been so alive.", "and the siren's song that is your madness holds a truth I can't erase/all alone on your face" - Just perfect.

5 comments about Murmur.

1. REM is constantly one of the best Rock n Roll bands ever. Spanning over three decades (more to come) and releasing so many CDs that I have an entire row of my CD rack dedicated to them, this is one of my favorites. You can really see how they became superstars after listening to this one. There's nothing else I can say but BUY THIS CD AND LISTEN TO IT UNTIL YOU WEAR THROUGH IT AND NEED TO BUY ANOTHER ONE.



2. I have been in North Carolina in the heat of midsummer and stood in the overgrown valley where there used to be trains at midnight; whistle blasting behind the voodoo woman's red and white cottage. It is the incredibly sweet ache of nostalgia for a memory you can only retrieve in soft-focused fragments. Some piece of yourself that you lost that will never return. That is what this album has always been to me.



3. Murmur was the R.E.M.'s first full-length debut (Chronic Town was their first -- an EP, after many years of performing in small clubs) and the timing was perfect. This Athens, Georgia band was what music fans needed as far as something different in the pop/music culture was concerned.
   
   Michael Stipe's vocals are superb. He also writes most of the lyrics, though Peter Buck does contribute a lot and their chemistry together is one that doesn't come around too often. Their music was refreshing because it dangled somewhere between pop rock/mainstream music and the underground alternative rock, which later paved the way for many up and coming underground alternative rock bands.
   
   They had amazing song writing skills, which can be heard on songs like "Pilgrimage" with bassist Mike Mills' interesting atmospheric beats and "Laughing" and "Talk About Passion", because they display Michael Stipes' sweet and appealing vocals. He has a voice you can't hate even though at times it can be a little mumbled. They soon became a favorite of the college radio circuit with this release. This album is definitely recommended because of the band's chemistry and ability to write emotional, catch,y yet on the "alternative" side, perfect rock gems.



4. I love soo much music, across many decades, and styles. But at the end of the day, Murmur is my most favorite album of my life. I can't quantify that statement, or substantiate it, it just plainly IS. I saw them several times; reckoning, fables, then later on green. every show exquisite. BUT nothing, not as single musical moment can match a quiet, personal headphone listening to Murmur. It resonates through my soul. And I am glad. It was Soooo out of synch with the plastic fantastic world of that time, so bold, thrust so deeply my pea brain.
   
   Odd too. No women I have shared my life with at various times has appreciated this. No friend. I have known none that have appreciated what Murmur is. But I find my friends on reviews like this. Its nice to know others recognized what this was, and remains even today. I have ripped it several times my self, but going to buy this version as its a deeper re mastering.
   
   <3 all fans of Murmur. For you just know.



5. One of my favorite albums that I always seem to come back to. This was my first and REM album before getting hooked on them and getting Reckoning. It doesn't seem to have any weak parts. Starts strong with Radio Free Europe and then moves to my favorite part of the album, tracks 3 through 5. Overall, I highly recommend this album to any fan of REM, especially if you are just starting to get into them.

5 comments about Daydream Nation.

1. A beautiful breed of melody and dissonance. Give it a few listens before casting judgment: their note patterns are anything but traditional, and one must forget the usual Western constructs of music theory before appreciating the brilliance of this album. My favorite tracks are Silver Rocket, The Sprawl, Cross the Breeze, Candle, and Kissability. I am a huge Sonic Youth fan, and this is my favorite. If you're new to SY, a good album to try afterward is Sonic Nurse or Goo. Once you appreciate their sound-- the discordance as well as the beauty-- you can get into their earlier gems such as EVOL or Sister.



2. This is it, as far as I'm concerned; the ultimate justification for the existence of Sonic Youth as a band.
   
   I was mildly precocious as an Irish teenager because I was buying import copies of 'Sister' and 'Confusion Is Sex' when my peers were digging the rad new sounds of U2's 'The Joshua Tree'. I remember going to see REM in Dublin in 1989, when they were just about to become absolutely huge, and the pre-show music was this album, which I already owned. I wore a Sonic Youth t-shirt to that gig. It didn't survive the amount of sweat I generated that night.
   
   Yes, part of me was being a pretentious git. Truth be told, I was at least as baffled by Sonic Youth as I was entranced. I honestly loved songs like 'Making the Nature Scene' and 'Schizophrenia' and 'Pipeline/Kill Time', but then there would be half an album's worth of stuff that I couldn't figure out at all. Then, bless them, they made 'Daydream Nation'.
   
   A few years after this album came out, I would go to parties as an unenthusiastic cub journalist and overhear conversations in which older journalists would have perfectly serious discussions (really!) about how Nirvana's 'Nevermind' was 'the defining album of our generation'. The hell with all that, I thought; I knew that there were two recordings that spoke to and for me as somebody who came of age around the time the Berlin wall came down. One of them was Dinosaur Jr's 'Freak Scene'. The other one was 'Daydream Nation'.
   
   For me, this is like the White Album and Sgt Pepper combined - not so much a rock album as a huge, sprawling environment, a city unto itself, which I can only take in a bit at a time. There's the gorgeous, high-energy nostalgia of 'Teenage Riot'; the mysterious 'Providence'; the scary 'Hey Joni'; the fabulous trash of 'Silver Rocket' and 'Eliminator Jr'; the enigmatic call to arms of 'Cross The Breeze'...I could go on. And on. And on. Most importantly to me, there's Lee Ranaldo's stunning finest four minutes ever, 'Eric's Trip', one of the most dizzying marriages of songwriting craftsmanship, toneless half-singing and guitar mayhem ever recorded.
   
   'Daydream Nation' was so good that it actually killed Sonic Youth for me. I never bought another album by them again until years later, when I got 'Experimental Jet Set' on the strength of its dreamy and menacing non-hit, 'Bull in the Heather'. Hardly the behaviour of a true fan, I admit it.
   
   They finally played Dublin, at midnight in the scuzzy Olympia Theatre, some years ago. I was there. They rocked, but I was in my late twenties by then and I was just boggling at all the teenagers for whom this was clearly one of their bands. I stood there drinking beer out of a plastic cup and marvelling that Ireland had become a place where Sonic Youth might actually play a gig. Too late for me, though.
   
   This is still one of the great American rock albums. It's certainly in my top ten.



3. Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation ****1/2
   
   
   Before my first listen to Daydream Nation was over I was wondering what they hell is going on here? This was somewhere around the song 'Candle' that I began to ask myself that. I was thinking this is one of the most intellegent and revolutionary albums I have ever heard, but I was also thinking this is one of the strangest albums of all time, which I guess is why they call a band like Sonic Youth alternative. You see I always liked Sonic Youth, well most of their songs anyway, but I couldn't totally appreciate them at first, which to some may seem frustraiting knowing a band is great and not being able to understand why, while for me I loved that and found it highly rewarding when I finally did get it.
   
   Songs like that almost hit single, and album opener 'Teen Age Riot' leave no wonder as to what it is that is so amazing about Sonic Youth. This is perhaps the most commercially exceptable song that I have ever heard Sonic Youth record and yet there is still nothing commercially exceptable about it. 'The Sprawl' and 'Kissability' pure Kim Gorden songs done in that almost spoken word form that she would later become known for. 'Erics Trip' might be the best song on the album as it offers everything presented in all the other songs on the album just wrapped into one. 'Total Crash' follows 'Erics Trip' as that hardest rocker on the album full of great sound collages and guitar work from Thursten as well as some of his most impressive lyrics. 'Candle' still to this day blows me away at how amazing it is. A song that must be heard to appreciate. While it is not the best song on the album it may be the most inspired. Closing the album is 'Trilogy' a three part song starting with 'a) The Wonder' is a rocking soud collage of feeling while 'b)Hyperstation' is a socially commited-melow-dramatic cinama of a song with 'c)Eliminator Jr.' as conclusion to an essay recycling everything in the album already into one final closing statement by Kim Gorden.
   
   Every noise, every word, basically everything heard on Daydream Nation is ment to symbolize something in America during the time of this albums release in 1988 when the country was still Reagan Nation. This genius piece of music deserves only the highest of praise. Daydream Nation was the first album to really put Sonic Youth on the map and earn them the massive cult following that they now have. Worth every bit of hype it ever was given.



4. The original grunge album, only even more abrasive and cathartic - "Silver Rocket", for instance, has an instrumental break entirely devoted to feedback, and I don't know what to call those noises on "Eric's Trip", but they sure sound cool. And, of course, it's at least as good as it's made out to be. See, the thing about Sonic Youth is that they're one of those bands you've definitely heard of, but might not know a thing about. Okay, there's a good chance you know "Teenage Riot", a big hit and justly so, making excellent use of a tension-building intro. After the intro it gets even better, launching into a slightly disorienting but very worthwhile rocker. It's as focused and taut as a seven-minute song can get, and that's to its credit, since a couple songs, such as "The Sprawl", which starts as a solid Kim Gordon rant, gallop off into the sunset of feedback and totally lose me. For me, the guitar jamming sounds a lot better on the punkish "'Cross the Breeze", which transitions from a beautiful, VU-influenced introduction into a suspenseful guitar jam into a pump-the-gas rocker, complete with fantastic angry vocals from Gordon. Or "Total Trash", which has one of the catchiest and most distorted riffs I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Nice bassline, too, if you can pick it out. And guitar buildup. I like guitar buildups. There's also some nice, if slightly bruising, near-pop on "Hey Joni". After that ends, the record's lone low point begins: the sound collage "Providence", a piano part with a bunch of tape loops played over it. Not my idea of a good time. But that's okay, because right after it is another solid rocker with a beautiful introduction and great vocals from Thurston Moore, "Candle". Near the end comes the bizarre but enjoyable "Kissability". After that co9mes the "trilogy". I don't know what to make of "The Wonder", which is packed with grungy, raw distortion. It sure is unique, though. The second part of this little suite is "Hyperstation", which uses feedback in a very creative, ominous way and contains the title phrase, for whatever that's worth. Both suite and album close with a jokey ZZ Top sendup, "Eliminator Jr.", one of the many examples of quirky humor on this disc. This really stands out when compared to the hair-metal and synth-pop that was dominating the charts in the '80s, and it's really held up well. It's not all that listenable, but it's plenty rewarding.



5. I already knew the album, as I had listened it it in the past in MP3 format. This was the ideal moment to purchase a physical copy and as a consequence it was as expected. Great service, though.