We Live Here

Artist: Pat Metheny
Label: Geffen Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 720642472927
EAN: 0720642472927
ASIN: B000000OU4

Release Date: 1995-01-17

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Bebop General

| Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

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| Jazz | Styles | Music

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Bebop & Post-Bop

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Smooth Jazz

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Listmania:

Forget RAP CRAP, BIMBO POP & "ALTERNATIVE" NOISE. Try MUSIC!
An Intro to the Genius that is Pat Metheny
My Favorite Pat Metheny CD's
The Best of Bossa Nova
Play That Bass!
My favorite recordings by, or featuring Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny's Best Albums Ever
My favorites of Pat Metheny (boy, this is tough!).
Metheny CDs I Return to Most
BEST OF METHENY

Tracks:

Here To Stay
And Then I Knew
The Girls Next Door
To The End Of The World
We Live Here
Episode D'Azur
Something To Remind You
Red Sky
Stranger In Town

Similar Items:

Secret Story
The Road to You: Recorded Live in Europe
Letter from Home
Imaginary Day
First Circle

Customer Reviews:

One of my favorites.......2006-12-03

As a HUGE Pat Metheny Group fan, I own about 8 of his CDs and listen to them regularly. "We Live Here" is one my favorites...along with "Still Life Talking" "Letter from Home" "Secret Story" and "Speaking of Now".

The group's membership has changed composition over the years, with Pat Metheny (of course) and Lyle Mays the only two core players that have been on every PMG album since their self-titled release in 1978. Others have come and gone, with some mostly staying (such as drummer Paul Wertico and bassist Steve Rodby). On this album, we've got those four plus David Blamires (vocals, brass, guitars, and misc others), Mark Ledford (brass, vocals, whistling, mallets, guitars, and misc others), and Luis Conte (percussion). With 7 guys, it's the largest of the various iterations of the PMG and in contrast to the PMG of early days when it was simply a quartet, these additional members allow the group to achieve sonic textures that simply couldn't be achieved with fewer players...particularly with the multi-talented Ledford and Blamires adding so many little nuances like marimba, flugelhorn, and rhythm guitars. Their voices blend quite nicely as well, contributing that signature "oo ah ee" stuff to Pat's signature guitar work. It's just one of the many things I like about this album.

The group also adds some things not heard on other albums such as strategically placed sound effects (thunder and rain, along with an approaching subway train and an electric motor) which again add some interesting texture and complements the music nicely. It never feels forced or results in a sound that is over-produced and unachievable outside the confines of a studio...as can be witnessed by getting a copy of the DVD by the same title...the group flawlessly replicates on stage what is heard on the album.

I particulaly like "Red Sky" and "To The End of the World" (my favorite), but every track is good...with none meriting the "skip" button. It is a fantastic album when you just want to unwind after a hard day...with a glass of wine and the fire crackling. I also like to take this album on road trips. There's nothing quite like winding through the curves of the Pacific Coast surrounded by this music, creation, and a powerful car.

While a lot of people within my circle of friends are unfamiliar with Metheny, when I put on one of his albums they invariably say, "this is GREAT music...who is that?" (including my 70-year old mother). The music appeals to such a wide range of ages and tastes because in so many ways it defies categorization. It's jazz, but without falling into the cheezy "smooth jazz" genre and yet not falling into the traditional jazz category either. The PMG is a group that has really defined its own sound and carved out a unique niche in the world of jazz.

And it's a niche that I love. I think what I like best about the PMG in general, aside from the beauty of the music and the obvious talent of the musicians (these are guys who take their craft extremely seriously), is that it's just plain interesting music...never boring. I also like the fact that the group departs occassionally from the 4/4 rut and ventures out into some unusual time signatures, always navigating them effortlessly and grooving them fluently, led by Paul Wertico's amazing abilities...particularly his cymbal work.

I can highly recommend this album to PMG lovers and newbies alike. You won't be disappointed.

a great cd.......2006-05-26

don't listen to people whos say its musically shallow or too accesssible. the solo's are great...honestly, the cd probably contains some of metheny's very best recorded solos, specifically, red sky and to the end of the world. and for people complaining about the drum loops...that was the whole point of the album!..it was to see how the groups music measures up against modern rhythms.

Never overrated.......2006-04-20

This record may be an upset for purists. Well, this can be no jazz, can be no contemporary, can be what Metheny is not accustomed to do. But, who cares? The disc is fantastic, whetever the optics you have. Don't forget this has a Grammy award (something Pat has in more than a dozen).

I can say I have been late to Pat Metheny. I have listened to Yellowjackets and Weather Report with both joy and interest and I have made an idea of what fusion or contemporary jazz was. Some other groups are more predictable, like Fourplay and Rippingtons, but they still got the punch. They move into latin jazz, adult and even funky, so the "label" is not clear.

Describing this disc is not simple. The quality is exceptional, the rhythm is catchy and some songs deserve a lot of hearings to discover all that is behind. Some could say it has an abuse of programations and canned melodies but still you can hear the best Pat's guitar and Lyle's keyboards.

"Girls next door" has not only rhythm, melody and virtuosism. It has such a delicious bizarre mood that makes it an irresistible song.

"To the end of the world" is incredible and hypnotizing. You don't want the 12 minutes to reach to an end.

"Here to Stay", is a rich melody that introduces de disc. It is the sort of thing you are going to discover further.

The overall disc sounds really modern and accessible for new public. I repeat that this is not a good thing for purists. Remember that when you are trying to discover a new artist you need to understand his proposals and then you can go further.

Accesibility doesn't mean low quality. Metheny has got a lot of recordings, better or worse (well, it is difficult to find a bad recording from him). But if you want to know about him, I strongly recommend to start with this "We Live Here". You won't regret.

Afterwards, you will be loving it for a lifetime.

This is my favorite album of all time.......2006-03-07

This album is musical, not weird like so many cuts on so many of his albums. If you like hard core jazz with unexpected changes that appeal to some, then don't buy this. But if you like songs that have some of the best melodies and palatable chord progressions there are, this album is unbeatable, in my opinion. His album Still Life is almost as good as this too, fyi. His other albums have too many weird songs mixed in on them. But when this guy wants to write a melody, he is unbeatable, and that's what he does here. I have listened to this CD back to back for weeks if not months at a time, with no other CDs in between times, believe it or not.

Not your father's PMG.......2006-02-04

Before all of us purist Metheny-adicts go Berkshire and accuse PMG of selling out to the evil Kenny G, let's have a little faith that Pat actually knows what he's doing here and that this is an honest effort to expand the already broad horizons of the PMG jazz landscape.

I know. The entire album is set to what initially sound like canned drum machine loops that would seem to render Paul Wertico's presence moot. It is initially tempting to think that Warner Brothers pressured Pat into producing something that would appeal to the main-stream smooth jazz radio audience, but I don't think this is the case.

For all of it's obvious and deliberate pop orientation, there are enough pure jazz notions in all of the compositions to render the CD still head and shoulders above anything any "smoothy" journeyman could ever hope to produce. It's almost as if Pat was saying, "OK. I'll come down on your level just this once and with nine fingers tied behind my back I'll still show you hacks how it's done."

Even in this dumbed-down format, the chord progressions are musically mature, the instrumentation lush, and the soloing far more harmonically advanced than anything the rest of the smooth crowd wishes it could achieve.

In the end, "We Live Here" is a production up to PMG standards that passes the listenability test. I am still more likely to grab "Watercolors" or "Letter From Home" first, but for a change of pace and to ameliorate my wife (who does not share my intense appreciation for jazz but does like this CD) on those long car rides around Dallas/Fort Worth, WLH easily passes muster.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Elevatin' Da Game ~ Robinson Boyz

A Century Ends ~ David Gray

Quite Often ~ Trent Dabbs

Restless ~ Snowy White

Special View ~ The Only Ones

Soak Up the Sun Pt. 2

Jerusalem ~ Steve Earle

Songs I Hate

Fat Boy Pizza Breasts ~ Mancow (Bb)

Anuthatantrum ~ Da Brat