Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN ABSOLUTE GEM OF A RECORD!, 29 Nov 2004
The Red House Painters are one of my favourite bands. They are one of those bands that few people seem to know but when I introduce their records they want to hear everything by them. This, the second album was originally a double lp on vinyl, it takes a few listens but the rewards are massive. Definitely a record for bright Sunday mornings, the atmosphere created is immense and the songs are superb. To me, the band seem to be influenced by artists like Simon & Garfunkel or Nick Drake. Their records, in my opinion, will always have a shelf life and the band deserve much much more recognition than they are getting at the moment.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beatifully Imperfect, 16 Dec 2007
Dearly loved by a devoted following of fans for their beautiful, soulful, semi-acoustic brand of melancholic Americana, Mark Kozelek's Red House Painters were frustratingly just short of delivering that one killer album, but this sprawling 75-minute double (often known as the `Rollercoaster Album' to distinguish it from the band's second self-titled release) may well be their best effort.
Kozelek's rich voice has never sounded better here and the musicianship is excellent throughout. The lyrics, often intensely personal on tracks like `Katy Song' and `Grace Cathedral Park', describe the acute pain of failed relationships but also evoke a sepia-tinged nostalgia on songs such as the gorgeously wistful `Rollercoaster'.
All of those songs just mentioned are amongst the finest in RHP's canon, but there are many more beauties here, like the lovely `Things Mean a Lot' and the acoustic `Take Me Out'.
The highly personal nature of Kozelek's songwriting probably makes a surfeit of self-indulgence inevitable, but do we really need two versions of `Mistress' (fine song though it is)? Also, I defy any RHP fan not to admit that `Funhouse' is painfully turgid.
Minor criticisms though, in the context of the record overall, which I loved as a callow youth upon its release and still really enjoy now.
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12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Epic melancholia., 10 Feb 2003
This eponymous release was voted one of the Top Ten most depressing albums of all time in Uncut magazine in 1998, so I had to check it out. This 14-track album extends on debut Down Colourful Hill- the only criticism is that if not in the right mood, this is possibly too dense a listen...But I'm mostly in the mood, so it's not a problem. This album fits right in with such releases as Low's Secret Name, Ride's Nowhere, Madder Rose's Bring it Down, Jeff Buckley's Grace,the more morose parts of The Cure's Wish, anything by Nick Drake or Mark Eitzel... This is the album bombastic miserablism like Dog Man Star & A Northern Soul is trying to be- the version of New Jersey is more acoustic, the band-version found on the 8-track eponymous album of the same year (this alternate take thing is evident also with Mistress & can be seen to be imitated by Radiohead on their recent Kid A/mnesiac albums). The most perfect song for me is Down Through- the missing link between Nick Drake & Galaxie 500- Mark Kozelek's voice is perfect wrapped around this gorgeous acoutic lull (think REM's Fretless or AMC's Jesus' Hands). There are other perfect songs- Grace Cathedral Park, Katy Song & Rollercoaster sounding like early Ride on downers playing a Led Zep song. It's sparse, enchanting material. For anyone who has fallen for the joys of Jeff Buckley's Grace, a song like Dragonflies is easily as strong as his version of Hallelujah or a track like So Real. This song almost sees RHP rock out; well, almost... Red House Painters also has one of those brilliant 4AD covers, a dreamlike image of a rollercoaster reminding me of the one Major Giuliani tore down in Long Island & films like Annie Hall (1977). This is mood music of the finest order- something needed more than ever in these days of mediocrity like Coldplay & Turin Brakes...
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