The Roches

Artist: The Roches
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075992739023
EAN: 0075992739023
ASIN: B000002KK4

Release Date: 1990-10-25

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Tracks:

We
Hammond Song
Mr. Sellack
Damned Old Dog
The Troubles
The Train
The Married Men
Runs In The Family
Quitting Time
Pretty And High

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Customer Reviews:

Their first and probably greatest.......2007-02-15

First heard it 25 years ago but still love it. If you don't know the Roches then listen to this. A beautiful achievement from a great, under appreciated group. Songs you can't forget: We; The Hammond Song; Mr. Sellack; The Married Men. Unique and wonderful. Long live Maggie and Terre and Suzzy!

Still Charming after 26 Years.......2006-12-17

This record was probably the best of Fripp's productions because he didn't do much. He absolutely made the right call by recording it in close-miked fashion, and let the sisters' music do the rest. The Roches were a staple at the old Bottom Line club in NYC, which closed last year. This remains lively and fresh every time I listen! ESSENTIAL.

Trust me ..........2006-09-06

... just buy this album.

If you are reading these reviews before buying, it means that your exposure to the Roches has been limited or hasn't happened yet. Take this step and change your life. Anything these three sisters have done together should be in your collection. The more you listen, the more the beauty, intricacy and sheer genius will unfold.

Turn your mind loose and count yourself lucky ... but be careful. You still have to go to work. You still have to pay your bills. You still have to interact with your family. It's possible that these recordings should be banned as a dangerous substance--seriously, don't operate heavy equipment while listening to the Roches. Just sit back, close your eyes, breathe slowly and deeply, and bask in your good fortune.

Oh, alright, this is supposed to be a review.

Let's see ...

Lead Vocals: Clean and lovely by each of them

Harmonies: Simply without peer

Lyrics: Clever and refreshing

Musical Composition: Some of the best ever produced

But wait ... I'm describing all of their albums.

Sorry to use so many superlatives but, if I thought it over, I would probably only add more.

There will never be anything like the Roches again. Their work should be required study in university music programs.

This debut album is an absolute masterpiece but get ready because it's not the only one.

Not a Bad Song on the Whole Flippin' Album.......2006-05-23

The closest to a bad song on this disk, in my opinion, is "Damned Old Dog" (and it's not terrible) -- the rest range from excellent to incredible.

My own favourites:

"Hammond Song" -- about Maggie and Terre's stint in Louisiana (during which, oddly enough, they were roommates with the sister of cowpunk guitarist Bill Davis, of Dash Rip Rock) and about love and sisterhood and all that good stuff and about disagreeing about them.

"Mr Sellack" -- you know they say "Don't quit your day job?" Well, this is about coming crawling back, begging for that miserable job you left in such magnificent style. The harmonies on this one are so extreme that even the Roches find themselves going falsetto for a couple notes. (Suzzy's gritted-teeth on-stage delivery of the lines "I won't be nasty to customers no more/When they send their burgers back I'll tell them that/I'm sorry..." was wonderful.)

"The Troubles" -- this one is indescribable, as they begin in unison, singing about an upcoming tour in Ireland, then each begins singing different verses in an interweaving manner that has to be heard to be believed, finishing triumphantly in unison with the words "Strawberry rhubarb pie!"

"The Train" -- just an acute observation of one afternoon on a commuter train; how we react to each other in our (increasingly) tense society.

and

"The Married Men" -- a cheerfully sardonic ditty about taking your fun where you shouldn't. A hit, i understand, for Phoebe Snow.

(And "We" -- their intro song; part of it (but not the last line) was used in a "Tiny Toons Adventures" episode in which they appeared as the voices of the Singing Roach Sisters, in town to give a concert in Hampton's kitchen. This cartoon episode, BTW, contains a Very Funny gag you cannot properly appreciate if you haven't seen them live enough times to get their stage peronas down...)

Incredible.......2005-07-14

The Roches is the best debut album ever made. And it all starts, and ends, with three voices and a couple of acoustic guitars. Loudon Wainwright or Robyn Hitchcock might be funnier; the Indigo Girls might be more passionate; but nobody blends humor and passion like these sisters from "deepest New Jersey." Listen to the swelling dynamics of the harmonies on Hammond Song, Damned Old Dog and Runs In the Family. Just when you think a song is a total lark, it turns a corner into bathos - that overused word "epiphany" strikes me as appropriate in several instances. "The Married Men" is typical of a Roches-crafted song. It's a song that has a definite point of view, whether it is the songwriter's own experience or that of a fictional character. It combines the wistfulness of the "other woman's" situation with the wry self-awareness of her predicament. There are no bass and drums on this album, and very few instruments other than the guitars. Yet there's a whole orchestra of harmony and emotion. I could go on and on about this album. Instead, just buy it.

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