Category: Music
Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
UPC: 650687123327
EAN: 0650687123327
ASIN: B00004YNOK
Release Date: 2000-08-30
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Category: Music Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 650687123327 EAN: 0650687123327 ASIN: B00004YNOK Release Date: 2000-08-30 |
Blown Away Fools
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Tracks:
Album Description
Produced by Rolling Stones keyboardist,Chuck Leavell and acclaimed Allman Brothers Band producer Johnny Sandlin, This double-length debut from the veteran rural Georgia combo, Siamese Left, covers a spectrum of styles including pop,rock,country and experimental among others(often all at once) With the help of several guest musicians Siamese Left has created 19 tracks that highlights and underscores their no-nonsense, "we play what comes out" approach. This IS the Siamese Left sound.Customer Reviews:
IT BLEW ME AWAY.......2001-04-27
SUCATASSH.......2001-04-23
SIAMESE LEFT, This Could Be Their Best Year Yet.......2000-09-23
From the opening of BEST YEAR YET you know you're in for something special. This acoustic based number has a riff and drum intro that is captivating. With the same shuffle quality as The Beatles "I've Got A Feeling", this is the perfect beginning to the album because it lets the listener know he's in for something unconventional without overwhelming him too soon. But if you think its going to be a relaxed ride, I KNOW brings you out of your easy chair. With all the subtlety of cannons, I KNOW rocks, and rocks hard (note the drums on the intro). With dripping sarcasm, Bates sings this number with the arrogance of a man who thinks he knows all there is about life, and then on the third track, shifts gears to give a vocal attitude as nonchalant as a sleepwalker. EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT, though, sounds musically like psychedelia dying to get out, but doesn't quite make it. But this song does show that Siamese Left is not a run-of-the-mill garage band from the sticks. Although I would have preferred a different priority on the production (e.g. a hotter piano on the first break) this track is evidence the band has a musical vision well beyond the safety of being ordinary. COUNT ON ME has a wonderfully "sloppy" quality that can only be obtained by loving what you play and playing it with reckless abandonment. It's pop, but pop with a rural attitude. LIVE FOREVER takes a decidedly slow turn and is the type of tune that one remembers when the day slows down. Smith sings with what appears to be genuine confusion over a relationship that's gone south. And the sad melody is highlighted by the empty room you hear from a live recording. MY BAD picks the album back up to a happier mood but is the most disappointing song on the collection. The track opens with a swirling guitar which was obviously intended to convey a merry-go-round quality, but instead, comes off as studio gimmickery. Then, unfortunately, Bates' vocals are so hot they overshadow what could be a catchy tune otherwise. Stay until the end, though. The final verse has an energy and harmony that makes you wish the entire song was as good. (Smith's background vocals and harmonies with Bates are terrific throughout the album) BLUE CLOSET DOOR is so "swampy" and surreal you feel as though you're alone in an isolated house in the middle of a haunted corn field. True, that's bizarre, but so is the song. The message is a good one, though. When Bates sings "call on your demons and your demons will come...open up the closet and your demons will run" you realize the corn field is only haunted if you bury your fears rather than release them. (Maynard on bass and Lee on lead are particular standouts on this campy number). ROSES ARE RED has Smith alone with his acoustic guitar. The lyrics are especially good here, showing the bitter-sweet pangs of a love sick boy who doesn't know how to express his emotions. It's a beautifully simple number and is another example of how the band is not afraid to take chances. To refer to CANDLE BURNING as a country song would be an injustice if that description conveyed the current Nashville scene. A perfect example of the band's fresh "rural pop" sound, this number really shines with Leavell's keyboards. The next track, TAKE THE TRAIN, showcases exactly how talented Lee is as a "color man" on lead. No, that's not a real train whistle as the song opens, it's Lee. Between him and Smith's driving drums, this track has real urgency. It recalls southern rock in its atmosphere, yet without the cliches'. CULVER'S PRAYER is the best road song in decades. Smith's vocals really do sound like a sleepy-eyed traveler for most of the song...until the last verse when the sense of adventure that got the song's character on the road in the first place comes roaring through. TAILSPIN is a haunting song featuring Leavell at his best and some pleasingly distorted vocals by Smith. The next four songs are enough in themselves to justify buying this album. DREAMS WITH HONOR is classic pop: clean, catchy and infectious. TELL ME THAT ONE has a distinctive production and might be called folk-rock if not for Lee's color which transcends the song to new and greater heights. (Bates, taking over bass on this number, is also spectacular). IT'S ALL COMING DOWN is brilliant. Emotional and intense, yet subdued to a point so as not to suffocate the listener. AIN'T IT ABOUT TIME recalls CANDLE BURNING in its "rural pop" flavoring and is easily better than anything on the radio at present. SHE LIKES takes us into the last three songs on this groundbreaking album. Rather than a time-worn ode about a girl's love for her man, this tune's character proudly announces (with blissful ignorance) how the object of his affection laughs at the way he dresses and smiles - never realizing she is laughing AT him rather than WITH him. Musically, its arrangment and unexpected chord changes provides further proof that this band possesses a bold approach and maturity well beyond pre-fabricated MTV or top 40 radio. HOUSE WITHOUT A HOME should come with a warning label preceding it. This intense track is like the results of a train wreck - horrific in it's imagery but impossible not to notice. The grim-reaper beat, droning guitars and searing vocals by Bates makes this track as seductive as it is oppressive. The last song, a reprise of BEST YEAR YET, is nothing like its twin. Unlike the album's sarcastically toned opener, Smith gives this vibrant pop number his best vocal performance with an excitement and expectancy about the future. Its sunny optimism is a perfect close to a magnificent album.
Perhaps not since "The Beatles" (a/k/a The White Album) has a band been so unapologetically diverse. Yet, not diverse for diversity sake, but rather, an honest approach where each song is viewed as a separate musical and lyrical entity. Wow. Now that's a refreshing idea! A band that actually crafts its music to reflect an inspiration rather than a preconceived format.
If "Blown Away Fools" is any indication of the future for this obscure band from nowhere, GA, it will indeed be their best year yet.
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