Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vintage Whiskeytown, 1 Mar 2002
By A Customer
This is the best alt.country, Americana or whatever-it's-called-this-week album. Yes, even better than "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Being There". And "Nixon".If you like a little country with your rock, and a bit of a pop sensibility, this is for you. Ryan Adams is a great songwriter, and I think this is his best collection. There are cracking honky-tonkin' tunes like "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart", scorching rockers like "Turn Around" and "Waiting To Derail", and country-pop like the sublime "16 Days". There is also "Houses On The Hill", which is a beautiful, haunting song about wasted (in both senses) lives. A lovely, gentle thing, with a dark heart. The peach, however, has to be "Dancing With The Women At The Bar", an ambivalent and melancholy ode to the siren call of wine, women and song. Terrific stuff. It's all wonderfully arranged, and the rock and country elements blend very well. It's a more polished item than its predecessor "Faithless Street" (also well worth a listen), but much more country, not to mention varied, than Ryan Adams' recent "Gold" album. If you like Wilco, the Olson-era Jayhawks, Los Lobos, the Burritos, or even the sountracks to "O Brother Where Art Thou?" and "Down From The Mountain", a wee dram of Whiskeytown may be very much to your taste.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best ever, 11 Aug 2007
I am moved to write my first ever Amazon review by the fact that this CD 'only' gets 4 and a half stars. It is five star, simply, categorically and definitely; in fact, it is one of the - I don't know, 20 or 30 - greatest rock (in its broadest sense) recordings ever made. And I use the word 'rock' carefully; it has great tunes, with a strong rock sensibility, despite country instrumentation at times, and lyrics that range far wider than most modern artists dare. Probably the best use of the word 'artefact' in a rock song?
Every song is strong, and the whole CD works as a whole - it is best listened to as a whole, not on 'shuffle'. It rocks, it is joyful, it is sad, it stirs the emotions - what more could you want? Despite the brilliance of 'Heartbreaker' , it remains Ryan Adams best ever work, and it will grow in stature through the years. If you like the Stones, the Clash, Johnny Cash, REM, ....oh what the h**l, basically if you like great music, just buy it.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alt-country genius on a compact disk, 27 Feb 2002
By A Customer
This is undoubtably one of the best collections of songs ever commited to any medium. It is an album that makes you want to laugh, cry, love and die.
Considered by many as Whiskeytown's break through album it is their second album.
The lyrics, mainly written by Ryan Adams, but with co writing credits on the album going to various other members of the band, are thoughtful in the extreme. The tales of heartbreak told in these songs leaves the listener bewildered that something so beautiful can come out of something so evidently painful.
The music itself is distinctly country in origin, owing great inspiration to the likes of Gram Parsons, but it never really goes too far that way, always reigning itself in with a rockier sound.
Truely an album that all self repecting fans of the so-called emerging alt-country scene should own.
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