|
Jubilee Offer: Patriotic Classics for £2.50 |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Track Listings
| 1. Peter Pan RIP |
| 2. Ophelia |
| 3. Modern Blues |
| 4. Only Love |
| 5. All Dressed Up |
| 6. Cavalry |
| 7. Ruby |
| 8. Figure It Out |
| 9. Barbara Ella |
| 10. When A Brave Meets A Maid |
| 11. To Wait Till I Come |
| 12. Winters Call |
Product Description
Review
A band that most critics would certainly kick out of bed and quite possibly down the stairs too, Kula Shaker have little to lose in terms of reputation. The band were something of an awkward oddity in their day, sitting cross-legged between surfy honkers Reef and Weller worshippers Ocean Colour Scene in the charts, putting out radio-friendly psychedelic indie and irritating the bejesus out of journalists. Their fourth album (the last was three years ago–don't you remember?) is blessedly free of the weight of expectation that so burdens others. But is it any good? It's not bad.
Peter Pan R.I.P. is a pleasant opener–a little twee (with a lower-case T), but agreeable. Ophelia and Only Love are gentle and pretty. Much of the album tends towards the acoustic, and although this is often shorthand for maturity, well, this stuff is mature. Critics loathed Crispian Mills for his earnestness and privilege, but if the earnestness remains there isn't a great deal of ego apparent.
Kula Shaker were never about forging ahead creatively, to put it politely, and it's hard to bat away the prominent references that rise like steam from the songs, especially when some hooks sound directly pilfered (All Dressed Up inescapably resembles Long Train Runnin'). There's a whiff of eau de Dylan about much of it, although there's also a healthy hint of Badly Drawn Boy.
The mystical elements that made journalists wince when the band were at their popular peak are still in evidence, if more subtle–sitar-esque strings pop up here and there, but there's nothing approaching Govinda levels. It's generally inoffensive and often very catchy, and if the band are derivative and musically scattered then they are at least true to themselves.
But Pilgrim's Progress ends clunkily–the meandering guitar-strangling caterwaul of Winter's Call is apparently meant to serve as a grand majestic finish, but sounds more like session musicians titting about trying to outdo each other in wide-eyed instrumental keening. However, overall it's a very decent album which might even win them some new fans.
--Sarah BeeFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
Some fifteen years after the release of their debut, the Britpop survivors release their fourth album, the follow-up to 2007's low-key comeback Strangefolk. Released once again on their own Strange FOLK label, Pilgrim's Progress continues frontman Crispian Mills' obsession with 60s psychedelia and its heavy debt to traditional Indian culture, but generally has a softer, more acoustic sound than their earlier work. The web single Peter Pan RIP is included.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As one reviewer notes, this album certainly has its fair share of tristesse, which I think is a French term not simply for sadness, but glorious melancholy. There are a few KS tracks of old nestled in here - Figure It Out has more than a dash of the transcendentals about it from the glory days of the band. But there is a general mood of world weariness about it - not real world weariness, but more of an intentional, theatrical, constructed mood, which I think is quite a wonderful place to visit for the duration of the album.
Recorded in the freezing depths of Winter in Alonza Bevan the bass players' farmhouse somewhere in Belgium, perhaps this backdrop influenced the mood, and it can feel a little incongruous getting to know the charms of this album during a surprisingly humid British Summer. It does work though, and I have really enjoyed listening to this album from start to finish, regularly over the last month or so.
Pilgrim is, as others have noted, very acoustic in feel, and pretty understated for a band that hit the paydirt with huge raga like anthems. There is still a pervasive sixties influence at work, at times it's reminiscent of darkish Doors tracks, then acoustic Led Zep, then there's a sixties Dylan-ish feel to the wonderful Modern Blues, and shades of I Want You (she's so heavy) in the magnificent Winters Call. No surprises there then.
Crispin Mills's songwriting continues to mature, and I think many of these folky, slightly psychedelic songs - Ophelia, Cavalry, Ruby - are very intriguing and captivating. The overall direction this album has taken builds more confidently on the ground begun to be covered by Strangefolk. Alonza Bevan produced some of the best tracks on Strangefolk - and here he handles production duties again I think, which really adds a great deal to the albums' beauty.
It is such a shame that the UK music press continue to have it in for Kula Shaker. They remain simply a very fine band for people who love music in this vein.
Recorded in the freezing depths of Winter in Alonza Bevan the bass players' farmhouse somewhere in Belgium, perhaps this backdrop influenced the mood, and it can feel a little incongruous getting to know the charms of this album during a surprisingly humid British Summer. It does work though, and I have really enjoyed listening to this album from start to finish, regularly over the last month or so.
Pilgrim is, as others have noted, very acoustic in feel, and pretty understated for a band that hit the paydirt with huge raga like anthems. There is still a pervasive sixties influence at work, at times it's reminiscent of darkish Doors tracks, then acoustic Led Zep, then there's a sixties Dylan-ish feel to the wonderful Modern Blues, and shades of I Want You (she's so heavy) in the magnificent Winters Call. No surprises there then.
Crispin Mills's songwriting continues to mature, and I think many of these folky, slightly psychedelic songs - Ophelia, Cavalry, Ruby - are very intriguing and captivating. The overall direction this album has taken builds more confidently on the ground begun to be covered by Strangefolk. Alonza Bevan produced some of the best tracks on Strangefolk - and here he handles production duties again I think, which really adds a great deal to the albums' beauty.
It is such a shame that the UK music press continue to have it in for Kula Shaker. They remain simply a very fine band for people who love music in this vein.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This represents something of a change of direction for Crispian Mills and co. Pilgrim's Progress moves firmly in the direction of a more acoustic and pastoral psychedelic sound and I'm pleased to say the band sound refreshed: this to me is their best effort since Peasants Pigs and Astronauts. The album opens in rather restrained fashion with the cello-accompanied Peter Pan RIP which is followed by the perhaps Traffic-influenced 'Ophelia'. We're in more familiar territory with 'Modern Blues' though which shows that they have still lost none of their ability to create a rocking groove. What elevates all this from very good pastiche is the fact that the compositions are not only uniformerly excellent but they are played with utter conviction and Mills' voice has lost none of its sweetness (in fact I think this is perhaps his finest vocal work of all KS's albums). For example 'Only Love' could in lesser-skilled hands have ended up a second-rate Crosby Stills & Nash tribute but here it sounds entirely authentic and all their own. What is truly remarkable when listening to this album is the sense you are listening to a genuine 'lost gem' from the very period these guys so evidently have so assiduously mined their inspiration from (this album could sit comfortably on the CD shelf next to a lot of classics from the period and hold its own, I kid you not). The song sequencing and atmosphere of the album suggests that a lot of thought has gone into evoking an overall 'feel' - and it works beautifully. The musicianship and arrangements of the songs are - as you might expect - first rate and once again a wide array of instruments and sounds are employed to evoke the sound of the era.
In conclusion I feel this album is a remarkable achievement. Kula Shaker burst out of the traps with their explosive and psychedelically playful album 'K' (which I think will eventually establish itself as a classic). Nothing since that the band has produced (or Mills with his 'hiatus' band THe Jeevas) has matched that musical tour-de-force - until now. Make no mistake, this is quite a different album to its predecessors but it succeeds brilliantly. No fan of Kula Shaker could fail to be disappointed with this album and by rights it deserves to attract the attention of a much wider audience: anyone who enjoys classic rock will find not only much to admire here but - quite possibly - much to love too. I doubt whether this album will dispel the 'retro Britpop curio' label that they were saddled with after 'K' which is a great shame: this is some of the most exciting new 'old' music I've heard in a long, long time. Brilliant.
In conclusion I feel this album is a remarkable achievement. Kula Shaker burst out of the traps with their explosive and psychedelically playful album 'K' (which I think will eventually establish itself as a classic). Nothing since that the band has produced (or Mills with his 'hiatus' band THe Jeevas) has matched that musical tour-de-force - until now. Make no mistake, this is quite a different album to its predecessors but it succeeds brilliantly. No fan of Kula Shaker could fail to be disappointed with this album and by rights it deserves to attract the attention of a much wider audience: anyone who enjoys classic rock will find not only much to admire here but - quite possibly - much to love too. I doubt whether this album will dispel the 'retro Britpop curio' label that they were saddled with after 'K' which is a great shame: this is some of the most exciting new 'old' music I've heard in a long, long time. Brilliant.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There is always something a bit magical and mystical about Kula Shaker and this album seems to really convey this. It's like falling into a crazy psychedelic time warp and when you fall out the other side you are in Kula land. It's music that takes you places beyond space and time. Wild, imaginative, authentic, rocking, grooving, timeless, traveling, melding ideas and musical adventures and coming out with something quite unique and yet familiar.
Their albums always seem to be more than just a collection of music, it takes you on a journey to long forgotten places and gives you that warm feeling of recognition that seems beyond the everyday. It's the most relaxed and introspective of their work so far and has a real Winter season feel... there is also a spaghetti western feel in places mixing with almost a George Harrison Beatles meets bluegrass vibe with the familiar Kula Shaker creativity weaving through. A melting pot of influences coming together to make something different yet familiar. Really atmospheric... it has kind of a feeling of a yearning or a searching.
Kevin's review that "this album could sit comfortably on the CD shelf next to a lot of classics from the period and hold its own, I kid you not" is really accurate. There is a really authentic feeling to this album. It has atmosphere and feeling in bucketloads. A work of art. Brilliant and beautiful and Modern Blues is positively addictive.
Their albums always seem to be more than just a collection of music, it takes you on a journey to long forgotten places and gives you that warm feeling of recognition that seems beyond the everyday. It's the most relaxed and introspective of their work so far and has a real Winter season feel... there is also a spaghetti western feel in places mixing with almost a George Harrison Beatles meets bluegrass vibe with the familiar Kula Shaker creativity weaving through. A melting pot of influences coming together to make something different yet familiar. Really atmospheric... it has kind of a feeling of a yearning or a searching.
Kevin's review that "this album could sit comfortably on the CD shelf next to a lot of classics from the period and hold its own, I kid you not" is really accurate. There is a really authentic feeling to this album. It has atmosphere and feeling in bucketloads. A work of art. Brilliant and beautiful and Modern Blues is positively addictive.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A minor classic and masterpiece of modern psychedelia.
Very different from the first album, (so don't expect more of the same) but maybe even better. It is a very diverse album, with influences ranging from the Kinks, Incredible... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Hengist
Kula Shaker - Pilgrims Progress
I just cant stop playing this album. Intelligent and class act! I only wish Kula Shaker wrote and performed more often to delight my ears.
Published 3 months ago by mickelmuss
the revenge of the shaker.....
For some reason it seems cool to dismiss this band.
I've always liked them since day one,summer tunes in 96... Read more
I've always liked them since day one,summer tunes in 96... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Simon Tough
Great Album, Great Band.
I Wish they come to Argentina some day, they are one of the best band these days and the LP is top, best ballad of the year -> Ruby.
RAZ
RAZ
Published 17 months ago by RAZ
How come nobody told me about this...
Kula Shaker are back! Waddayamean? I turn around for 10 years and suddenly not one but two albums to gorge on. Read more
Published 18 months ago by amoscow74
We needs to make a virtue of necessity...
I met this group with their second album "Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts" (1999) remaining fascinated by the musical syncretism exhibited in the 12 tracks of its: in them, it was... Read more
Published 21 months ago by harrisong
In progress & in balance
Haven read some reviews, I was a little bit cautious with their brand new album. I understood it wasn't going to be rocky album with songs like the great "Grateful when you're... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Koos
Give it time, and it'll grow on you
It's a grower! First listen was disappointing. Then it just gets better and better! There are a number of tracks that are in essence pretty simple, but have just got something... Read more
Published 21 months ago by music music music
Bad Buy overhyped
Was looking forward to this cd. i have three other cd's by Kula..This is a very dissapointing album. Didnt even get to the end before ejecting it. Very monotonous. Read more
Published 22 months ago by old hippie
A must have.
Crispian and lads have done it again. A wonderful LP. The music has changed since the heydays of Britpop, but what an LP. Dosen't matter to me, I love it just the same. Read more
Published 22 months ago by James A. Murray
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
