Cuts Across the Land

Cuts Across the Land Artist: Duke Spirit
Label: Universal
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2


UPC: 602498714751
EAN: 0602498714751
ASIN: B0009F9O1W


Release Date: 2005-05-16

Cuts Across the Land


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Tracks:

  1. Cuts Across The Land
  2. Stubborn Stitches
  3. Darling You're Mean
  4. Win Your Love
  5. Hello To The Floor
  6. Bottom Of The Sea
  7. Fades The Sun
  8. You Were Born Inside My Heart
  9. Lion Rip
  10. Lovetones
  11. Love Is An Unfamiliar Name
  12. Red Weather
  13. Dark Is Light Enough (Bonus Track)
  14. Scratching Around (Demo)
  15. So Good To Hear (Demo)
  16. Patients (Demo)
  17. Wooden Heart (Demo)
  18. Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (Demo)
  19. Hello To The Floor (Steve Lamacq Live)
  20. Lion Rip (Acoustic Virgin Razorcuts)
  21. Cuts Across The Land (Xfm Session)
  22. Win Your Love (Acoustic Virgin Razorcuts)
  23. Dark Is Light Enough (Xfm Session)

Album Description

UK only Limited edition digi-pak with 10 track bonus CD of radio sessions and live material. Cut Across The Land is an album sizzling in sounds not dead. Remember Mazzy Star, Jesus and the Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the Velvet Underground? Well, if not, you have missed on a powerful time in rock'n'roll. Cuts Across The Land is a full album of well rounded tracks from dirty blues to sexy rock'n'roll. It's made of the stuff that lasts, the stuff with soul, and as the indie kid bands return to university to grow up a little bit, The Duke Spirit will continue to have an audience in any country in the world forever more. Universal. 2005.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Railing against the tide.......2005-12-21

There has been a deplorable fashion in recent years in the British mainstream, and doubtless elsewhere, for insincere sounding plodding mid-tempo songs by groups of faux-sensitive men. At times there has been more heart-wrenching sensitivity on Top Of The Pops than in reality there is in the whole wide world. It is not what I am looking for in music, and it seems to be in girl-led acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Elastica and PJ Harvey that I find the dispassionate, unsentimental, occasionally sneering and oftwhile malevolent attitude that I like.
Duke Spirit are a shining example of an original girl-led band who are railing against the prevailing tide and providing a no-nonsense alternative. Liela Moss's vocals exude effortless cool and when any emotion fights its way past the punkish guitars and spirited tambourines, it sounds appropriate and sincere, plus she also blows a mean and well-placed harmonica. The band seem to have been influenced by all the right people from the sixties to the present, and have not been sidetracked by musical cul-de-sacs such as Britpop, and at 45 minutes the album is in no danger of outstaying its welcome.
Four of the band's A-sides are included on the album and the British edition adds as a bonus track their superb 2004 single Dark Is Light Enough.
The bonus disc Souvenirs offers 5 high quality eight-track demos of songs not included on the album, plus radio session tracks of five that are, including two acoustic performances for Virgin Radio's Razorcuts, and is well worth having.

5 out of 5 stars Highly recommended.......2005-09-24

Tasty and addictive, well-crafted. I was surprised by how solid this album is - not a single filler song or one ounce of fluff.

4 out of 5 stars Great Debut! It's growing and growing on me........2005-07-02

I heard about this band from reading a pitchfork review. They said it sounds like "Yeah Yeah Yeah's" and "The Kills". I can see the comparison, but it's not the greatest description.
I would say they sound like PJ Harvey fronting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club....but better.
When I first bought the album, I wasn't able to listen to it the way I listen to an album before judging it. When I finally got a chance to sit and listen to it by myself, I was blown away. The vocals are fantastic and the instruments blend great! The only things that prevent this from being a 5 star album is the lyrics aren't always great and I wish it would have been recorded more dry and rough. When you make an album like this it needs to sound as dirty as what the music is. That's what I love about Yeah Yeah Yeah's:Fever to Tell, the production fits.
I'm rambling, so let me just get a couple more things in about the album:
1. There isn't a bad song on the album.
2. Not many british bands sound like this (especially in London)
3. Get the bonus disc version, it's a couple of extra bucks, but worth it. Great demo and live releases.
4. Female vocals are great in dirty, sinister, dark albums.

4 out of 5 stars What it says... and live too........2005-06-06

The Duke Spirit - Cuts Across The Land
This `Special Edition' of `Cuts Across The Land, which has a bonus CD of live sessions, will cost a little more but I reckon it is well worth it.
This album was released in the UK three weeks ago, along with the normal version, after much anticipation. It is the debut LP from five-piece `The Duke Spirit' and it certainly doesn't disappoint. This edition is the one I bought and I also had the good fortune to see the band live at the London Astoria on May 21. I had high expectations and could have been heading for a big disappointment but I was blown away...

The heavier end of indie rock perhaps isn't something that the UK has been famous for these last few years but just maybe The Duke Spirit will change that? One thing that makes them slightly different is their lead singer, and main lyricist. Forget direct comparisons to other artists right now! The band are talented and amazingly versatile, which is just as well, because Liela Moss is the glue that makes `Duke Spirit' stick. Her vocals cut across the wall of noise of the harder tracks and infuse the slower numbers equally - she also adds some harmonica playing to `Hello to the Floor' (and would play drums too if given half a chance) - and that's just on the CD.

I thought about reviewing each track but decided it would only reflect my current personal preferences. My suggestion would be to get a group of like-minded friends over to listen to it and then play a game of "suggest the influences". Track #7 Fades the Sun is as heavy as this album gets and it reminded me of something from long ago but it took me ages to remember exactly what. The shocking truth, when it came, was the album `Glory Road' by Gillan (1980). If you like Cuts Across The Land and get the chance to see them live don't think twice; just buy a ticket and go!
So close to 5-stars for me but ultimately you decide.

Music Album:

  1. A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit Neil: An Indie Tribute to Neil Diamond ~ Various Artists
  2. To the Moon ~ Monster Movie
  3. We Are Fuck You/Punk's Dead Let's Fuck ~ The Finger
  4. Rick Medlocke & Blackfoot ~ Blackfoot , and Rick Medlocke
  5. 25 Demos ~ Margo Guryan
  6. Bisco Lives 2 ~ Disco Biscuits
  7. New York City 1976-80 ~ Come On
  8. Come to Me ~ Julie Grant
  9. My Degeneration ~ Flashlight Brown
  10. Vol. 2-Don Cherry's Hockey Hits

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Midas Touch: Live in Berlin ~ Gerry Mulligan

Alone, Again ~ Paul Bley

Worlds Apart ~ Peggy Lee Band

Life ~ Embryo

The Great Saxophones (1951-1970) ~ Various Artists

Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors ~ John Coltrane with Bobby Jaspar and I. Sulieman

Tito Schipa - Greatest Hits ~ Tito Schipa

Lord of the Dance/Riverdance and Other Famous Irish ~ Various Artists

Auf Ins Bierzelt ~ Various Artists

A La Queue Leu-Leu ~ Werrason