Horses through the ice!

[lollardfish]

So I bought (digitally) the new Great Big Sea album, and it's definitely the best in quite awhile (since the live CD). The sad part is that Sean's ballads have reached Alan love song level for me. Which is to say, I hear the first notes of "sweet forget me not," and I groan and quickly skip the track. I used to like Sean's ballads - what happened? Is it me? Him?

I think I'll learn three or four songs from it this weekend, if I can. I've been so disintrested in music for the last while.

Comments

[creidylad.livejournal.com]

I have some downloaded for free and legal type song of GBS's I think I got from amazon some time ago. Just recently I was listening to it again and it suddenly "clicked" for me and I'd like to buy one of their albums -- what do you recommend?

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

So here's the issue: When Great Big Sea does traditional songs, shanties, rockesque covers, and stuff like that, they are awesome.

When Alan sings love songs that he wrote, they are dreck. So almost every album has a piece or two of dreck on it. Maybe the girls like it ... but not any girls I know.

Albums worth having -

"Great Big Sea" - Their first. Very traditional. A little raw.
"Up" - Their second. A great album all around, but ...
"Play" - The best studio album. A few losers, but the best rock songs, the best traditional songs. This album changed my entire concept of "folk rock," and was the single biggest influence on my own music.
"Road Rage" - Them live. It's great. They have a new live CD/DVD out too that might be great.

After Play, the band tried to become pop starts, and mostly failed. I stopped buying their albums and turned to other means to "acquire" the few songs I liked (Gather ye Napster rosebuds while ye may!). Now, with "The Hard and the Easy," the traditional flare is back, and I like this album very much.

So - "Play" is their best studio album, and (thanks to Jodi), the album that changed my own music. I'd buy it. Road Rage is pretty great though.