- Audio CD (27 Mar 2006)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: EP, Import
- Label: Fantastic Plastic
- ASIN: B000EHSY6Q
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Vinyl | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 94,930 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Ake |
| 2. Trains To Brazil |
| 3. Made Up Lovesong No.43 |
| 4. Over The Stairs |
| 5. Who Left The Lights Off, Baby? |
| 6. Cats Eyes |
| 7. Go Away |
| 8. My Chosen One |
Product Description
GUILLEMOTS From The Cliffs (2005 US issue 8-track CD compilation of tracks recorded for the Fantastic Plastic label between 2003 & 2005 including the singles Trains To Brazil and Who Left The Lights Off Baby? sealed digipak picture sleeve)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This EP by the Guillemots is my first taster of this fairly new band. I say EP because that's how it is billed, I think correctly, because it is a collection of singles and other material recorded between 2003 and 2005 rather than being a collection of songs recorded with an "album" in mind.
However, I am going to call "From the Cliffs" an album - whilst not conceived as such it has been cleverly produced and has that magical cohesive quality of all the best albums: each song sits very neatly in its own place within the whole; you feel that changing the running order just slightly would detract from the overall enjoyment. Take the opening and closing songs, "Sake" and "My Chosen One", both sung beautifully to an unaccompanied piano - perfect album planning and placing, giving the album a wonderful musical symmetry.
You can already tell that I like this! It is glorious - it is one of those albums you can listen to whatever the mood. It has quiet, slow, gorgeous songs that will comfort you should you be feeling down but will delight you should you be happy; and boppy, joyful ones that will always lift you, even if you're already high! Irrespective of pace, the music is always melodious.
Guillemots are a four piece group: its main creative influence appears to be the main songwriter, Fyfe Dangerfield, who also dabbles in the production. However, the glory of this album comes not just from the four members of the band but from the collection of 11 other musicians that have contributed. The instrumentation of the arrangements is rich and wonderful. Always appropriate, you get violin and viola dominating large sections of the spooky "Over the Stairs" and joyous brass and woodwind on the boppy numbers such as "Trains to Brazil". In their lighter moments Guillemots sound like Paul Weller's Style Council on their happy tunes such as "Shout to the Top", but they have more musical substance and variety than the Style Council (and they are certainly not political! - love is the most constant theme here).
I always find categorising music into genres difficult and Guillemots' is no exception. They are more pop than rock, indeed it's not until the penultimate song "Go Away" that we hear some angry, rock guitar. But it would be facile to classify this as pop - the songs have significant depth and together with the complexity of instrumentation you are edging into "progressive" territory. So I'm settling for progressive-pop.
Guillemots released a (proper) album in 2006 called "Through the Window Pane" which is now high on my CD list, waiting for the kitty to fill up!
However, I am going to call "From the Cliffs" an album - whilst not conceived as such it has been cleverly produced and has that magical cohesive quality of all the best albums: each song sits very neatly in its own place within the whole; you feel that changing the running order just slightly would detract from the overall enjoyment. Take the opening and closing songs, "Sake" and "My Chosen One", both sung beautifully to an unaccompanied piano - perfect album planning and placing, giving the album a wonderful musical symmetry.
You can already tell that I like this! It is glorious - it is one of those albums you can listen to whatever the mood. It has quiet, slow, gorgeous songs that will comfort you should you be feeling down but will delight you should you be happy; and boppy, joyful ones that will always lift you, even if you're already high! Irrespective of pace, the music is always melodious.
Guillemots are a four piece group: its main creative influence appears to be the main songwriter, Fyfe Dangerfield, who also dabbles in the production. However, the glory of this album comes not just from the four members of the band but from the collection of 11 other musicians that have contributed. The instrumentation of the arrangements is rich and wonderful. Always appropriate, you get violin and viola dominating large sections of the spooky "Over the Stairs" and joyous brass and woodwind on the boppy numbers such as "Trains to Brazil". In their lighter moments Guillemots sound like Paul Weller's Style Council on their happy tunes such as "Shout to the Top", but they have more musical substance and variety than the Style Council (and they are certainly not political! - love is the most constant theme here).
I always find categorising music into genres difficult and Guillemots' is no exception. They are more pop than rock, indeed it's not until the penultimate song "Go Away" that we hear some angry, rock guitar. But it would be facile to classify this as pop - the songs have significant depth and together with the complexity of instrumentation you are edging into "progressive" territory. So I'm settling for progressive-pop.
Guillemots released a (proper) album in 2006 called "Through the Window Pane" which is now high on my CD list, waiting for the kitty to fill up!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Guillemots are probably the most unique band on the face of the earth right now. It is almost impossible to classify their sound, which ranges from soaring ghostly hymns to clattering noise making confusion. But in every sense they are wonderful and original, and why not, when your frontman is named Fyfe Dangerfield, almost anything could happen.
The sublime and languorous 9-minute epic Under the Stairs is testament to the incredible musical texture that weaves and binds this album together in the brightest colours. It starts with a whisper, an intangible sound that fills you with a sense of wonder, punctuated by the sudden melancholy howling of Dangerfield and clattering of chimes in places, but then always seems to drift off to a dark and warm corner where you are cradled in it's warm embrace and left to dream of mystical creatures filling the night with their strange forms.
Every song on this album is equally magnificent, and totally unique, each sound belongs to itself and the rich towering voice of Dangerfield lends itself so perfectly to the band's incredible talent for mixing traditional instruments with various kitchen implements to create ballads of haunting beauty and grand, foot-stomping anthems. If you are not hooked straight away, give it a chance, for it will soon infiltrate and bind itself to you like a climbing plant with the most intensely radiant flowers...
The sublime and languorous 9-minute epic Under the Stairs is testament to the incredible musical texture that weaves and binds this album together in the brightest colours. It starts with a whisper, an intangible sound that fills you with a sense of wonder, punctuated by the sudden melancholy howling of Dangerfield and clattering of chimes in places, but then always seems to drift off to a dark and warm corner where you are cradled in it's warm embrace and left to dream of mystical creatures filling the night with their strange forms.
Every song on this album is equally magnificent, and totally unique, each sound belongs to itself and the rich towering voice of Dangerfield lends itself so perfectly to the band's incredible talent for mixing traditional instruments with various kitchen implements to create ballads of haunting beauty and grand, foot-stomping anthems. If you are not hooked straight away, give it a chance, for it will soon infiltrate and bind itself to you like a climbing plant with the most intensely radiant flowers...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Just how cool are these guys!!! the answer, very cool indeed.
They are just so different from anything else out there right now. In a world soaked with manufactured nonsense they are simply a breath of fresh air. "Made up love song #43" "Trains to Brazil" and the beautiful "Over the stairs" will make you smile from ear to ear so just put it on and sit back and enjoy.
They are just so different from anything else out there right now. In a world soaked with manufactured nonsense they are simply a breath of fresh air. "Made up love song #43" "Trains to Brazil" and the beautiful "Over the stairs" will make you smile from ear to ear so just put it on and sit back and enjoy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
BRILLIANCE...........
This is one of the first Guillemots records and is staggeringly undervalued and under-rated.... The songs are deep wide high and intricate compelling and moving to me it stands the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by jmf
A great album
This is a great band, they are different, and very good live. This album is an excellent showcase for their music, varied tracks, all excellent this album grows on you the more... Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2009 by I. H. C. Mellor
80s Nostalgia
Beautiful stuff, think Deacon Blue meets The Blue Nile and you're almost there. Bath music at its best.
Published on 2 Aug 2006 by The Mozster
from thec cliffs
ok you may say its done before....
but.......
awesome...........
upliftling..........
but.......
awesome...........
upliftling..........
Published on 1 Aug 2006 by G. Mann
Promised much but failed to deliver
A real pity, considering the potential for experimentation and innovation displayed on the more uptempo tracks. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2006 by Mr. M. R. Avery
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