Pros: nice variety. Not just guitars, but strings, piano and Dan's great vocals.
Cons: Well, to be honest I usually skip the last two songs!
Recommended: Yes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is definitely a must-have album for anyone who appreciates good music. Not too hard, but enough to make you want to turn it up and sing along.
The opening number, "Closing Time", became Semisonic's signature song some three years ago, but is hardly the greatest song to come off of this album! Just a hop, skip, and a jump to track 2, "Singing In My Sleep", a deceptively upbeat tune that seems to be about frontman Dan Wilson reflecting on a past relationship, and listening to a tape of her favorite songs. "I've been living in your cassette, it's the modern equivalent, singing up to a Capulet on a balcony in your mind. In the city, the lion sleeps, pray to Sony my soul to keep, were you ever so bright and sweet, did you ever look so nice? And all the stars pray for me, mmm.. I can hear you sing it to me in my sleep."
The third track, "Made To Last", Semisonic are already taking a turn for the mellow route; a very charming little song. At one point near the end of this song, Dan draws in a breath as though he is about to sing something, and instead the band kicks in, while Dan remains silent. It's kind of an interesting effect, as though the music is really coming from inside him.
I sure wasn't expecting to hear a song like "Never You Mind" from this band. The opening piano line is something you can't really describe in words, sort of like something you would hear on Sesame Street, but not anywhere near as cheery. It's more eclectic than anything, but I already know I'm going to be resorting to that word way more than I want to when trying to describe some of these great songs. The tempo is upbeat, the drumming is sharp. I ask you, what's not to like about this song?
My two favorite songs from this CD have to be the duo right in the middle, "DND" and "Completely Pleased". "DND" is a very soothing marriage of guitar and strings, blended into another strange but tantalizing melody. "Completely Pleased", on the other hand, is the hardest song you'll get here. Starting off with a quiet rhythm guitar (think Sugar Ray, "Fly") and soft falsetto vocals, the drum fill-in warns you when the chorus is about to strike, and okay, maybe it's just a horny teen song, but the distortion only matches the distorted feelings you get when you want to make someone come...pletely pleased. (Sorry!)
"This Will Be My Year" boasts a witty lyric to start off, "Thursday's crush is a Friday night rush and a Monday morning cry, it's a tale that you keep chasing, and it gets away everytime." It's an upbeat and happy-sounding tune, followed by "All Worked Out", which sounds more like a workout session for the instruments than an actual song at times. Seriously, they play the living daylights out of this song! "California" is a groovy, bluesy number with occasional tremors in the music, a nice original guitar riff that kind of reverberates throughout the whole song, and of course, Dan's pronunciation of "California" as "Californai".
Overall, this collection of tunes is a great mixture of the hard, the soft, the happy, the sad, the mysterious, the direct, well it's all here. So pop it in, sit back and close your eyes, see where it takes you!
Great Music to Play While: Driving
