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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Fire At The Pageant |
| 2. Container Ship |
| 3. Honda Civic |
| 4. Oliver Stone |
| 5. Ponzi |
| 6. Back In The Dancehalls |
| 7. Dallas |
| 8. Cus's Catskill Gym |
| 9. Refrain |
| 10. Best I Ever Had |
| 11. River Jordan |
Product Description
Review
The Felice Brothers, inevitably for an American outfit trading in rootsy, wordy balladry, generally delivered in a belligerent nasal sneer, have become accustomed to being measured against Bob Dylan. Celebration, Florida, the Woodstock group's fifth album, marks the point at which those who've made those comparisons should commingle in a hearty chorus of "Judas!": as never before, The Felice Brothers have gone electric, and other things besides.
A marker for the wilful oddness of Celebration, Florida is thrown down on opening track Fire at the Pageant: one part of its call-and-response chorus is carried by a deliberately atonal children's choir. This departure from The Felice Brothers' familiar template is not, as is made repeatedly clear, an aberration: it is followed by Container Ship, a gloomy noir which sounds like the soundtrack for a horror film set in an abandoned fairground, and Honda Civic, an upbeat New Orleans blues shuffle recalling the demented accordion-led outings of DeVotchKa.
Celebration, Florida is named after a Disney-built new town, an apparent attempt to bring into being the sort of apple pie-munching community mythologized in Disney's output. It looks and sounds approximately akin to Seahaven, the Potemkin setting for The Truman Show; as such, it serves well as an antithetical backdrop to lyrics as disquieting and dissembling as the music. Oliver Stone is not homage to the titular director, but a beautiful Tom Waits-ish, hazy remembrance of things past. Ponzi resembles Dylan only inasmuch as it evokes his (largely) misbegotten 80s output, upping the ante further with a shout-along chorus borrowed from Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and a keyboard part heisted from Visage. Almost inexplicably, it works.
Celebration, Florida is not an unalloyed triumph. Too much of it commits the common error of mistaking innovation for inspiration - Back in the Dancehalls and Cus's Catskill Gym in particular might have decamped the drawing board somewhat prematurely. At its best and last, however - the epic, funereal closer River Jordan - Celebration, Florida is an engaging diversion down a road which might be worth investigating further.
--Andrew Mueller
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Uncut, May 2011
Inventive, playful and utterly engrossing, Celebration Florida has much to revel in. ****
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Felice Borthers, perhaps tired of endless Basement Tapes comparisons, clearly intended for their fourth album to try something a little different. In that intention, they have certainly succeeded, but the result is only partially successful. Darker sounding than earlier material, especially on songs like 'River Jordan' which closes the album, Celebration Florida is by no means an easy or comfortable listen. The intention to experiment frequently leads to a curious amalgam of styles that doesn't always quite work, from the bizarre synths of 'Back In The Dancehalls' that sound like offcuts from OMD, to the cacophanous 'Honda Civic', with its industrial sounding kitchen sink approach.
While there is nothing wrong with being loud and raucous, Celebration Florida frequently loses its sense of stringing a good tune together by chucking too much at each one, or, as in the case of 'Best I Ever Had' of Ian Felice's vocals simply not being in tune at all. Such an approach, where the desire to convey a narrative outstrips the underlying melody is a tough one to pull off, as demonstrated many times by Richmond Fontaine who often only just manage it. On several of the songs here, industrial clatter and drum loops detract from, rather than enhance the material. When compared to the two albums released by Simone Felice with The Duke And The King, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that The Felice Brothers are the poorer musically for his departure.
Celebration Florida is a brave attempt from the band to move forward in a positive new direction, and the album is undoubtedly brimful of ideas and experiments. There are also some good tunes lurking beneath the top dressing, most notably the straightforward 'Oliver Stone', but the album takes several listens for many of them to seep through and take hold. Whether there is enough here to warrant the effort involved in repeated exposure is a moot point. On initial evidence, The Felice Brothers' fourth bears all the hallmarks of an album destined to be critically acclaimed but largely unplayed.
While there is nothing wrong with being loud and raucous, Celebration Florida frequently loses its sense of stringing a good tune together by chucking too much at each one, or, as in the case of 'Best I Ever Had' of Ian Felice's vocals simply not being in tune at all. Such an approach, where the desire to convey a narrative outstrips the underlying melody is a tough one to pull off, as demonstrated many times by Richmond Fontaine who often only just manage it. On several of the songs here, industrial clatter and drum loops detract from, rather than enhance the material. When compared to the two albums released by Simone Felice with The Duke And The King, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that The Felice Brothers are the poorer musically for his departure.
Celebration Florida is a brave attempt from the band to move forward in a positive new direction, and the album is undoubtedly brimful of ideas and experiments. There are also some good tunes lurking beneath the top dressing, most notably the straightforward 'Oliver Stone', but the album takes several listens for many of them to seep through and take hold. Whether there is enough here to warrant the effort involved in repeated exposure is a moot point. On initial evidence, The Felice Brothers' fourth bears all the hallmarks of an album destined to be critically acclaimed but largely unplayed.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
With the departure of Simone Felice, there were always going to be changes to the musical direction of the Felice Brothers. This was presaged on their `Mix Tape' album, which was available at gigs and their web site originally. It too was slower and darker than previous offerings. This goes further and darker. It owes more to Tom Waites and even Lou Reed than any country/rock influence, but strangely their roots are still visible or rather audible.
It kicks off with `Fire at the pageant' which has a chorus of kids asking for the noise to stop, and a raucous feel that initially grabs you and then goes into a very introspective number with `Container Ship'. `Honda Civic' is a mix of old and new with a thumping bass line and horns and accordion and I kept thinking, whether it would work `live' or not.
Track 5 `Ponzi' has Simone back with them doing backing vocals as Ian does the majority of the singing here, and most of the time he oozes soul and regret in equal amounts. `Ponzi' is where a paradigm shift takes place as the synths kick in, there is a Visage `Fade to Gray' riff at one point. It is full of club beats and strange twists, but I could still see their fingerprints all over it. I actually said `wow!' the first time I heard it. `Back in the dancehalls is full of driving rhythm and has a fiddle backdrop, that really works.
There are no real barnstormers here or any `Frankie's Gun' type tales. These are deeper and darker; track 7 reminded me of `Ambulance Man' from `Yonder is the clock', with its laconic brooding. There is no lyric sheet, but as ever the vocals are so clear that you won't need them. There is harmony, melody, attitude and soul searching especially on the last track `River Jordan' which contains some strong language, but it very real and honest almost a confessional. After a number of listenings I still can not find me wanting to hear more, I am going to stick with it and hope that it will grow and become a stayer.
If you are a traditionalist for Americana then you will most likely be disappointed, but if you want to see the next chapter in a developing musical career and approach with an open mind, then this may find a home with you.
It kicks off with `Fire at the pageant' which has a chorus of kids asking for the noise to stop, and a raucous feel that initially grabs you and then goes into a very introspective number with `Container Ship'. `Honda Civic' is a mix of old and new with a thumping bass line and horns and accordion and I kept thinking, whether it would work `live' or not.
Track 5 `Ponzi' has Simone back with them doing backing vocals as Ian does the majority of the singing here, and most of the time he oozes soul and regret in equal amounts. `Ponzi' is where a paradigm shift takes place as the synths kick in, there is a Visage `Fade to Gray' riff at one point. It is full of club beats and strange twists, but I could still see their fingerprints all over it. I actually said `wow!' the first time I heard it. `Back in the dancehalls is full of driving rhythm and has a fiddle backdrop, that really works.
There are no real barnstormers here or any `Frankie's Gun' type tales. These are deeper and darker; track 7 reminded me of `Ambulance Man' from `Yonder is the clock', with its laconic brooding. There is no lyric sheet, but as ever the vocals are so clear that you won't need them. There is harmony, melody, attitude and soul searching especially on the last track `River Jordan' which contains some strong language, but it very real and honest almost a confessional. After a number of listenings I still can not find me wanting to hear more, I am going to stick with it and hope that it will grow and become a stayer.
If you are a traditionalist for Americana then you will most likely be disappointed, but if you want to see the next chapter in a developing musical career and approach with an open mind, then this may find a home with you.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Well it takes a bit of listening to appreciate this album and a certain amount of indulgence for the band's own self-indulgence. But if you want to keep ploughing the same old furrow then it's not for you. Meanwhile there's enough here to make you feel music can be unpredictable but rewarding and that bands are still free to be different. Great stuff.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Moving, Thoughtful, Involving
This is really good stuff. From the opening discordant, rumbling, gothic, Fire At The Pageant to the brutal but beautiful closer, River Jordan, you're in for a roller coaster ride... Read more
Published 6 months ago by John Woodcock
Love the band but not this.....
Great great band with some excellent songs but this has gone astray...they will return!
Review needs more words according to Amazon so here are more words I thank you...
Review needs more words according to Amazon so here are more words I thank you...
Published 8 months ago by W. G. Kirkham
Just doesn't work
I've waited a fair while to write this review because I love all the Felice Brothers' previous albums (and all live perfomances I've seen to date) and I was really eager to like... Read more
Published 10 months ago by James
Come back Simone!
Having just read other reviews, maybe I should wait until I have listened to this disc a few more times...but I don't know. Read more
Published 12 months ago by M
It Ain't Frankie's Gun!
Well, this was a bit of a surprise. I'm not geeky about this, so I will just say that to my ear, this is different to anything I have heard the Felices previously do. Read more
Published 12 months ago by D. Miller
Nobody Tells a Tale Like Them...........
An absolute masterpiece from the Felice Brothers!!!!None of their contemporaries
come close on a lyrical basis.
come close on a lyrical basis.
Published 12 months ago by Tam.
just not good enough
This is an album of two parts
The first is the first 6 tracks, where the guys seem to be trying to find a new direction and failing grandly. Read more
The first is the first 6 tracks, where the guys seem to be trying to find a new direction and failing grandly. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Rampant Chutney Consumerism
Interesting and largely successful!
The Felice Brothers prove with this album that they're not one to cash in on the growing trend of "pop-folk" music. Read more
Published 12 months ago by joeBella
Brilliant! But it takes some listening.
This is what I originally wrote on here about Celebration Florida:
"I so wanted to love this CD as I have with all previous Felice Brothers CDs but.... Read more
"I so wanted to love this CD as I have with all previous Felice Brothers CDs but.... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Lemonhill Rising
Felice Brothers - The dark side of the tune
3.5 stars
Following three great albums of robust Americana which saw the Felice Brothers pick up the mantle of the Band and develop it in new directions it was... Read more
Following three great albums of robust Americana which saw the Felice Brothers pick up the mantle of the Band and develop it in new directions it was... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Red on Black
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