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Average Customer Review
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Slow burning and chilled., 15 Feb 2006
on first listen I didn't really like this CD, but most of my favourite albums are like that. it was after the fourth/ fifth time round that the songs started to seep in to my bloodstream. each passing note is carefully considered, but yet it sounds like it was recorded quickly with little fuss. the record works best when listened to from start to finish. I'm not sure how old this guy is, but adey has made a record in a traditional way that is best savoured with a glass of wine and the lights turned off. i really do find this a great - calming album to relax to. stand out tracks are find the way (similar to the first two and a half blue nile albums), shelter from the storm (i didn't even recognize the song), lost boat song (i really didn't like this song at first), the last remark (sounds like peter gabriel letting his hair-sorry peter-down), and the final song, .....mississippi is truly amazing (this is apparently the demo version).
this isn't every-ones bag, but if you like artists such as talk talk, early blue nile, kate bush - crossed with some home made lo-fi/americana - smog, bonnie prince billy, jose gonzalez, you will love this album.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
beautiful moments of emptiness, 10 Feb 2006
By A Customer
A friend gave me this album(promo)six months ago and I love the feel and emotional impact these songs bring...
The solitude of this album is one of abandonment rather than liberation. It traffics in silences and painful proximity: the songs are so well written - very understated. The close recording create flaws and weaknesses in much of the musical texture; the very mechanics of instrumentation seem to serve where the instruments themselves falter: the sound of air running through the harmonium, the scratching on worn guitar strings, the emotion of Adey's vocals. And the silences that seems to threaten the life of every song are poised as failures: the instruments or the voice or even the prosody of the lyrics simply give way into slight moments of emptiness. These are just my thoughts as I stand now. My love affair with this beautiful and vatic record is fresh, and like all youthful suitors I will tend to idolise and revere the object of my passion, to read too much into its gestures and motions, to ignore the world outside for a while; and yet I know that there are still many things to be found within the minutes of this record, in its antecedents and heirs, its sources and resonances. I am barely yet acquainted with All Thing Real. To steal for a moment; the rigorous succession of circumstances. This table, this bubble of light humming with music. This is where I start.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A quiet masterpiece., 6 Mar 2006
I just got this CD two days ago and I cant stop playing it.
I'm a big Talk Talk fan and I got this on the back of reading a posite review.
The songs run seamlessly together as if years went in to the making of the album. There isn't a bad song here -just heartfelt emotion.
Layers of perfectly constructed instruments.
This is what the long awaited forth Blue Nile album should have sounded like!
The main strength here is the originality - there are obvious influences , but Adey sounds like no-one else in particular.
Its some time since a new CD sounded so vital, different.
Steve Adey has new fan.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Wonderfully affecting, 12 April 2006
There isn't a bad song on this cd, and even the ones I don't find an affinity to are wonderfully affecting in some way. There are only ten of them on this disc, but I'd rather have ten near-perfect songs on an album than 18 or 19 tracks of varying quality with a few gems and a ton of garbage. Almost all of them are concerned with love -- its loss, its lack, its presence, what have you -- and all of them are put together with a tremendous sense of purpose. Steve Adey knows he is making great songs that are designed to outlast the vast majority of music out there, and he puts that careful certainty into every phrase, every gesture. Adey sings with enormous control and clarity, and he knows exactly what effects he wants to wring out of his words -- he pauses, inflects, and breathes as he must. Move anything around and the whole song would collapse.
Most of the best records are recorded with the sparest instrumentation, and despite having a wealth of studio technology, he opts for a spacious, crystalline, stripped-down sound with only the most basic ornamentation -- a little Nord-like bass on "Find The Way," the drunken drums of "Lost Boat song" (my favourite track), but never so much that it becomes distracting. The emotions are at the fore here.
I found myself remembering the music vividly and sharply during key moments, like when driving home during a misty and slightly rain-swept night -- moments that the album itself summoned effortlessly.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A superb album, 29 Mar 2006
By A Customer
This CD is simply wonderful. It is playing continuously at the moment through my headphones whilst I'm at work, to drown out the rest of the office and the rest of the world.
I came to this via the samples on Steve Adey's website and also from being a late-comer Blue Nile fan (it's not slavishly in the same genre, but there are some similarities).
I urge you to buy this and try it out. It's spellbinding.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
a journey well worth taking., 18 Mar 2006
You will only know how good this record is after the 5th or 6th listen. The lyrics are superb.The melodies are strong. The sound reminds me of Peter Gabriel's 'So' crossed with classic Nick Drake. Imagine Leonard Cohen or Smog produced by Eno! Adey's songs are about moving, changing and trying to find peace of mind. Last remark is a seminal love song wrought with honesty and conviction. The Lost Boat Song is a sea shanty. Evening of the day could have been written a century ago. All things Real is superb on headphones. The voice is unprocessed and up close - The instruments sound old and fit the song structures perfectly. This CD is a real find.
There are many twist and turns along the way - its a journey well worth taking.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
buy this CD!!!, 9 Mar 2006
I just go this on Monday. I bought the Mogwai album which is also great. I'm usually hard to please, but I would put this on late at night. Very chilled, but with amazing songs. The lyrics are a little too heartfelt for me personally, so if your going through a divorce or if you feel depressed )-: then don't buy this album. Its a very dark ingénue. Think - Sigur ros, Nick Cave, Pink Floyd, Talk Talk. Very emotional stuff - Buy this CD!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A promising debut, 12 April 2006
All things real begins with church bells and a dark instrumental piece cleverly titled Death to all things real.
The songs that follow are carefully woven together. At first the record sounds earthy, slumbered and ethereal with dark passages.
The Will Oldham song I see a darkness fits in perfectly, but I would question the wisdom of covering a song so perfectly executed by its creator.
The Dylan cover is more successful in that it sounds different from the original, but yet keeps the basic chord changes.
There are many layers, but never at the expense of Adey's voice. I would have liked to hear something more up-beat to change the mood which is constantly down-beat, but in a good way - (recalling Mark Hollis, David Sylvian and early Blue Nile).
All things real is an interesting album that will leave you wanting more. I will be curios to hear the follow up.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Phenomenal slow burning debut - I cant wait for the follow-up!, 11 Jul 2006
This debut record is simply phenomenal.
I listened once or twice and considered giving it away. But thankfully I held on to it. After a few plays it gets way deep under the skin. I play this record almost every night. Its a superb album that blocks out all external noise and makes most other music sound like a fridge buzzing.
It would be impossible to single out individual tracks as one of the strengths is the coherence and consistancy throughout. There simply isn't a bad song here.
Definitely in my top albums of all time. The follow up will be eagerly anticipated.
Hopefully Adey will come back on a bigger label who can bring this beautiful music to more people.
Absolutely phenomenal!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
listen to this album for its beauty and honesty, 20 April 2006
When I first got this album I immediately felt its beauty and loved Adey's voice but I found it so melancholy it was hard to get through. However, with each listen this changed. Now every time I play it I hear and feel new things. The album really needs to be experienced as a complete work. It is the most honest album I have heard in years. Give it time and you will reap its rewards!
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