Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Silent League division two, 25 Oct 2007
Of Stars And Other Somebodies by The Silent League is a curious proposition .It has many of the components , for me at least, of a truly great listening experience. Mellotron,s oboe's brass sections , orchestral flourishes the whole nine yards and then some are thrown at these songs , yet somehow it leaves me a little under whelmed . It's the songs(Well Duhhh!!) I've decided after listening to it several times. They just aren't that memorable. It's like having a film full of great actors with a fabulous director but the scripts half baked.
That said this album does have it's moments. "Victim Of Aeroplanes " is an agreeably sprightly number with a fulsome brass backing and a nice effusive and rich sound. "Before You Started" mumbles uninterestingly along for a couple of minutes but the last third where the vocal backing sweeps in is fabulous. "Let It Roll" is a pleasant piano led ballad with increasing incremental detail. "Untied" has another amenable lilting melody while "Out Of Reach" stands out because of its coarser sound and scabrous guitar. "A Dry Hallway" the albums final track is another plaintive ballad with a lullaby arrangement .
Too much of the album though drifts by in a hazy narcotically perfumed wash of diffuse harmony and detailed but unmemorable instrumentation. It's never particauly irksome or jarring but it never lingers or makes you want to listen to it again and you can never ,at least I cant, remember any of the songs once the albums finished. Singer and main songwriter James Russo has a nice enough but again run of the mill higher register voice .
So if its pleasant un-threatening dolorous pop/rock music you want this is excellent. Those of us who want music that lifts the roof off the house rather than ruffles the duvet and plumps up the odd cushion should look elsewhere. The Silent League have got the basics right but they really should learn to shout about it a bit more.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Silent League - Of Stars & Other Somebodies, 13 Jun 2007
Hailing from Brooklyn NYC, The Silent League return with their sophomore effort Of Stars & Other Somebodies. Led by Jason Russo, formely of Mercury Rev, the eight piece band have set about making an album of grand proportions. Taking the blueprint from their debut release The Orchestra, Sadly Has Refused, Russo has carved and crafted a musical journey of intimate, confessional songs set to the backdrop of seventies infused soft rock with lush orchestral embellishment and delicate arrangements. It's by no means an immediate album. In fact, it took me at least five listens before the songs sunk into my psyche. But once there, the music on offer here is simply enchanting. Warming your soul like a gigantic comfort blanket.
The eight musicians here don't clutter the recording, instead the subtle flourishes of instrumentation each act as a piece to a jigsaw puzzle, with Justin Russo's delicate and melencholic vocal being the final and vital piece that completes the picture. Album highlight Before You Started, is a gentle meditation, soothing yet incredibly uplifting it could easily have been an album track from Mercury Rev's classic All Is Dream. This is followed by Let It Roll, which hits the spot nicely in all its soft rock FM glory. Its not all this soft focus melencholy though, Victim Of Aeroplanes sounds like Arcade Fire covering The Band, whilst Out Of Reach rocks out enough to keep things moving along nicely. Attention is lost slightly on the meandering The Tolka Not The Liffy and A Prayer For The Nihilist doesn't quite hit the mark, the backing of hammond and horns only disguises the fact that its actually just a pretty dull song. These are just a couple of niggles though, there is more than enough to get your teeth into here. The melody in Untied could have come from a Jayhawks album, and the weeping brass in Second Canary Test comes across like a long lost cousin to The Bands' Unfaithful Servant.
So what was a rather patchy debut, The Silent League now seem comfortable in their own skin and what this album lacks in originality it makes up for in terms of songcraft. Justin Russo really does have a knack for crafting simple, enchanting melodies that wouldn't work with just an acoustic backing. In fact the beauty of this album is in its orchestration, at times its simply staggering.
Richard Thane
www.thelineofbestfit.com
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful album, 17 Jan 2008
I recently went on a trip to Upstate New York and played Of Stars and Other Somebodies to death. It really is an incredible album - and a beautiful soundtrack to a trip round the Catskills. Prayer For The Nihilist is amazing. This album is on a par with The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused, and the Silent League deserve to be HUGE.
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