We Were Born in a Flame

Artist: Sam Roberts
Label: Universal
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Extra tracks
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 044003820920
EAN: 0044003820920
ASIN: B00009EUGQ

Release Date: 2003-06-17

We Were Born in a Flame

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Tracks:

Hard Road
Where Have All The Good People Gone
Brother Down
Higher Learning
Dead End
Taj Mahal
Every Part Of Me
The Canadian Dream
Rarefied
On The Run
Dont Walk Away Eileen
No Sleep
This Wreck Of A Life
Paranoia

Similar Items:

Chemical City
The Inhuman Condition
Fight Songs
We Were Born in a Flame
Charlie Mars

Amazon.com

A Montreal native and former hockey player, Sam Roberts gave up dreams of becoming a star Canadien [stet] to embark on a musical career. Given the track record of most jocks behind the mic, this doesn't exactly portend great results, but Roberts's full-length debut is pretty good. Roberts writes tuneful folk-rock and power-pop tunes, many of them built around a percussively strummed acoustic guitar. Musically, he covers some of the same musical territory as Travis, but overall the effect is more extroverted and aggressive, less wispy and melancholic. Three of this CD's best songs are lifted by an earlier EP, <I>Inhuman Condition</I>, but there's not a bum track among the 13 included here (although an unnecessary '70s rock-star guitar solo comes close to ruining the otherwise gorgeous and seductive orchestral pop of "Taj Mahal"). Canada seems full of musical artists who don't quite translate outside that country's national borders, but the bright, confident appeal of Roberts's full-length bow is far more universal. <I>--Keith Moerer</I>

Album Description

Up-and-coming rocker, & Montreal, Canada native Sam Roberts, with his 2003 debut full-length. 14 tracks with song lyrics & color photos of the band included in the sleeve. Universal.

Album Details

The 2004 Juno "Album of the Year" Award Winning Album from the Great Hope of Canadian Music (And Former Hockey Star) Includes Two Tracks Not Found on the USA Equivalent Edition. Besides the Song Order Being Entirely Different, this Disc also Includes the Songs "Climb Over Me" and "Canadian Dream".

Customer Reviews:

Great CD.... even better artist!.......2006-08-06

If you're reading this review you must already have an interest in Sam Roberts... good for you! He's the greatest thing to come out of Canadian music in my opinion. I say this not only for this album, but also because of Chemical City.
'We were born in a Flame' is a collection of great songs, and I highly recomend checking it out. Sam Roberts will be considered 'classic' one day. I don't want to go off and compare the sound to other artists, there's too many... but I do hear hints of Beatles. I'll leave it at that.

Montrealrock.......2005-04-03

As a fellow Montrealer to Sam Roberts and parts of his band, maybe I'm slightly biased - but this is just an incredible piece of music. Sure, there's nothing really all that new being done here - but who cares when the product is such smart, passionate and driven rock music.

There is not a single weak point in this album, which combines rock & roll fundamentals with folk influences. Many have heard the string of singles (...Good People Gone, Brother Down, Don't Walk Away Eileen, Hard Road) which just get stronger and stronger after repeated listenings. However, this album really shines in the range of all the other songs. Favorites of mine are "No Sleep" and the truly excellent "Paranoia" - a song which took a while to grow on me, but finishes off this album with a long, driving instrumental that builds to a pretty rockin' finish. The whole thing leaves you wanting more, which hopefully Sam and Co. will finish soon as they record the new one in Australia.

Admittedly, the album may be a little soft for some rock fans who'll be left wondering how to really classify this album. All I can say is that there are two Sam Roberts Bands, the first is the mellow and groovy material presented here on the album, the other is the intense live performances which pump up the rock factor several notches. Between beers and swigs of whiskey, the band is relentless in delivering awesome concerts. Rock cliche? Yes - but I don't care.

Right... and a Juno is like a Canadian Grammy except sometimes they are actually awarded for talent instead of publicity.(Which unfortunately was not the case when Nickleback won one - I'd like to apologize on Canada's behalf for those posers)

We were all born...to own this cd.......2005-03-08

This is a great great record and should be on any critics short list for best alternative record of 2004 (or 2003. Essentially the same album was released by Universal - Canada in 03 and it sold 50,000 copies winning Mr. Roberts a Juno award for the song Brother Down.) This cd is extremely well-conceived and is a finely executed work that deserves more attention than it is getting. There are some other bands that have the same type of groove (Jet, Powderfinger, Paris Texas - maybe) but Sam Roberts is probably the best of all of these.

He is an amazing songwriter and his tunecrafting skills stand up well next to early Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney (of course realizing that he is just a beginner.) His hooks are instantly catchy and you will find yourself tapping your feet within the first 30 seconds of "Hard Road" - the opening track. Along with Brother Down, Taj Mahal, and Every Part of Me, Hard Road is a stand-out track and contains some gripping and intelligent lyrics (something of a rarety in today's reductionistic and formulaic music world!) He is young but writes with eloquence about the ubiquitous human efforts at finding the easy life and avoiding the bumps of the real world. He opines, "There's no road that ain't a hard road to travel on." Like Pierce Pettis (another overlooked genius) he is able to chronicle the travails of life in this fallen world without offering therapeutic platitudes like "believing in yourself" or something similar. While true hope and significant answers are missing, art does not by nature have to be redemptive. On this record, Roberts chooses to narrate the problems of humanity and creation rather than offer solutions, but in doing so he manages to escape falling into the Disneyesque moralism so prevalent in popular media and music.

Along with compelling and inquiring lyrics, and great songcraft, Sam Roberts is also an interesting musician and decides here to play all the instruments except for percussion. This rarely works (Lenny Kravitz' "Let Love Rule" is the only other recent success that I can think of) but Sam Roberts pulls it off and the record ends up sounding like it was recorded with a talented studio band. Production and mixing efforts are handled by Brenndan McGuire, but to discover this you have to search; his name is buried in minute font in the credits of the Universal release. To my knowledge, he is a newcomer, but he is talented and should get some more work after this excellent outing at the helm.

Enjoy this record, Sam will be around for a while.

a lasting, relaxed rock band.......2005-01-23

i bought this cd back in 2003, and now it's 2005. i still listen to this cd about once a month. now if that doesn't say something about the quality of the cd, i dunno what does. now, sam roberts has a beautiful simple voice, perfect for for rock. now, if you ever have the chance to see the boys live, do it! they have a great, hard rocking sound at shows. "brother down" is a catchy single, "taj mahal" is the most beautiful love song, delicate but still solid. "no sleep" is haunting and amazing, with two french verses talking about a beautiful girl. the music is happy, but listen to the words, and the cd will blow you away.

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Tricycle ~ Flim & the BB's

Soul Clinic/Blues Shout ~ Hank Crawford & Leo Wright

Keyboards Wild Dj's Smile ~ Weldon Irvine

My Cat Arnold ~ Karen Mantler

Copenhagen Calypso ~ Kenny Werner

Jazztronik a ~ Jazztronik

Tradition Creole ~ Lawrence Black Lawrence

Maria Chantal ~ Mujos Rochereau & Nico

Virginia La Monaca Di Monza ~ Carlo Crivelli

Canta Lo Sentimental ~ Elena Burke