Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good, but a big step backwards!, 29 Oct 2008
Seasick Steve is a fantastic bluesman, I'm a huge fan, and I listen to Doghouse Music constantly, but I'm really sorry to say that this album just doesn't quite do it for me.
Doghouse Music is a superb album - simple, straightforward, totally un-produced and packed with real feeling and passion. Thats what Seasick Steve means to me - his views and experiences of a different world, (one I hope I'll never know) are powerful and honest, and he can really play that guitar too.
It was obvious that this album would be more commercial, more produced, because Steve is now a massive worldwide phenomenon (rightly so) and so there is alot more at stake. There are some great tracks on this record, and Steve does his best to shine through, but the band are wrong for him, the arrangements are wrong for him, and the mix is wrong for him too! If you listen really carefully, you can hear the fantastic rolling rhythms of doghouse music in the guitar riffs, but almost every song is drenched in bass and drums, and it is they who set the rhythm, NOT Steve! At times you have to strain to hear his guitar at all, due to the terrible mix, and even the vocals are too quiet on several numbers.
For me the problem is that this is just a blues record with Seasick Steve in the band. If you took him away, all you would have is a bunch of session players jamming the blues, and since he's drowning in the mix half the time, thats all you have got on some of the tracks. No band can ever accompany Steve as well as he can accompany himself, and with such a polished, managed sound it ends up sounding rather clinical. A waste of a unique talent!
On the other hand, Steve seems happy with it, so good luck to him...but it just isn't anything like what I was hoping for.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT ALBUM,but the bonus disc is a waste almost !, 6 Oct 2008
Seasick Steve is a one off,a throw back to the great Mississippi hillblues.This album his third and the first on a big label,I expected a commercial overload,but no.Sure he's got Grinderman,Nick Cave and a track with K.T.Tunstall(which is an absolute treat),but its still SSS doing his thing and doing it his way,so this is an album of pure delight,from a very Eric Bibb type song in Walkin' Man to the cracking track with Grinderman(Just like a king) to some classic blues as well as his chat and stories for good measure.All in all another slice of musical magic from the man.The bonus disc has a couple of pretty good songs and a whole lot of filler,Train is recorded on a train but SSS voice is almost impossible to hear,the track recorded in a diner well is a waste of time,as is the one called Lunch.Surely Warner could have done better than this as a bonus disc ,some live material would have been great,but this is so disappointing for the extra cost,or was the extra for the pull out packaging,very nice but again not worth the effort.So in all a fabulous main album but a wasted bonus disc.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great main CD but poor bonus content, 8 Oct 2008
This is my first forray into blues but I must say I'm liking the cutaway sound of Seasick Steve. The problem I have with this album stems purely from the bonus disc, which is a complete waste - how Warner could warrant such an extortionate price is beyond me. The bonus disc consists of 3 completely pointless filler tracks containing mostly non-descript background noise with some spoken audio. There are only 2 songs on the CD which I don't think come close to matching those of the main CD. The packaging has a foldout section of a train travelling along a cityscape, which cleverly forms a picture when folded down or out. This is a novelty but again not worth the extra money - and where is the booklet???? There are also 3 extra tacks on the main CD not found on the standard version, of which I particularly like Levy Camp Blues. But again, not worth such a hike in price. Perhaps the minimalist packaging and bonus content fit with the style of music on offer here but I can't but help to feel short changed. If I'd known all this before purchasing I would have been persuaded to get the standard version of the album instead.... isn't hindsight such a bittersweet thing. Very good main CD though, just loving Walkin Man in particular. But I can't hide my discontent at the bonus content and extortionate rise in price.
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