Customer Reviews

The Trick To Life

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

So maybe, when you first here this, only certain tracks will grab you like "Worried About Ray" and certinaly "Goodbye Mr A". But when you give this a chance, and maybe listen to it when your on your way home from work or when your just a little bit bored, this won't let you down. Just great, upbeat, uplifiting songs. You can't help sing along or smile to what I would say is a mixture between The Feeling, The Scissor Sisters and Mika.

If you want tracks, that make you cry for hours, or ones you will remember for eternity, go and search for Elton John or something. But if you are willing to give this a chance, you like happy music which is a bit different, then you are in the right place.

Heard it, bought it, loved it!

These guys do what they do well with echoes and influences from past sounds lyrics and beats - no crime in that.

They don't take themselves too seriously and seem to have an honest approach to their music.

The album has a good variety of entertaining and catchy tracks - great to listen to in the car (or whilst cleaning!).

It's an album which lifted my spirists and got me singing, toe tapping and air drumming (not whilst driving!) in quite an embarrassing fashion - great fun!

Nice is a good word for this album as it is nice and tuneful and totally inoffensive. Catchy singles of course and a little eccentric in places but on the whole nice

I seen them live at Fatsams in Dundee. Very good, well worth going to see. These guys are a bit odd but it's nice to see band with a sense of humour.

Played this album through from start to finish and didn't find a single reason to skip tracks (a rare occurrence this past wee while).
Not since my first hearing of my very first Snow Patrol album have I been So Impressed ... The singles are great, that true, they're what brought me to buy this album, but the other tracks All have Something going for them ...
Some are a little 'wacky' while others, like 'Sadness Runs Through Him' are amazingly 'deep' and have lyrics which catch you up and pull you in.

Bottom Line?
Best album in Ages.

This, in my opinion is a very accurate representation of just how good the hoosiers really are - or were, sadly. the music they produce seems to be of a very high quality. You feel like you know every song off by heart the very first time you listen to each of the songs. a definite buy. Five star for a reason.

This is a brilliant album, and ought to win a reward. Nearly every song is a classic, and even my least favourite song has parts to it that i really enjoy.
I still don't understand why people don't like this.
Here are my ratings of the songs:

Worried About Ray 10/10
Worst Case Scenario 8/10
Run Rabbit Run 7/10
Goodbye Mr A 10/10
A Sadness Runs Through Him 10/10 (Joint Best Song)
Clinging On To Life 6/10
Cops & Robbers 9/10
Everything Goes Dark 9/10
Killer 10/10 (Joint Best Song)
The Trick To Life 6/10
Money To Be Made 5/10

... And if you think that 5/10 isn't very good then remember that i'm marking these in high standards anyway, and i'm only comparing them to each other.
All in alll... THIS ALBUM IS FANTASTIC!!!!!

This album is certainly not a work of genius as some would enthuse. It is however a great pop album with some irritatingly catchy tunes, it is a pity that they are not a bit more original, several of the tunes seem like long lost ELO tunes Goodbye Mr A/Mr Blue Sky for instance. But as a first album it's not bad.

It is the truly wonderful and uplifting 'Goodbye Mr A' - their second and most recent single (at the time of writing) that made up my mind about taking a chance on this cd. I say chance, because these types of albums are very hit and miss. This comes in four different coloured artwork covers. I got the yellow one.

On first play, I was very pleasantly surprised. It was instant enjoyment - it hit home straight away. Their sound is like a cross between the Feeling and the Kooks or ELO and 10cc (depending on the decade) and has a lot of bouncy keyboard and bass playing on it, with plenty of hooks and melodies to enjoy. There are also more quirky influences on this, such as: The Cure and Sparks. So far, apart from the first two singles (including 'Worried About Ray'), I'm really enjoying 'Worst Case Scenario', 'Run Rabbit Run' and 'Cops And Robbers', but no doubt over time I'll have more favourites.

So to sum up, this is utterly charming stuff, that does exactly what it says on the tin, and judging by this album's healthy dose of infectious pop, there's definitely no need to worry about Ray anymore.

The Hoosiers say this about themselves, "we want to be indie but we're not cool enough". Well, I don't know about cool, but 'The Trick To Life', like last year's album by The Feeling, is probably a little more steeped in classic 60s, 70s & 80s bands' influence for the indie tag to really stick. Instead bands such as Supertramp, E.L.O., Sparks and XTC come to mind when you listen to this English/Swedish trio's debut.

It could be argued that The Hoosiers cross a fine line between influence and wholesale borrowing of melodies/chord structures/sounds from different classic songs. The infectious 'Worried About Ray' borrows heavily from the verse of The Turtles' 'Happy Together', the energy-packed, bouncy, melodic 'Goodbye Mr. A' brings back more than echoes of E.L.O.'s 'Mr. Blue Sky' and, perhaps most unsubtle of all, 'Cops And Robbers' is very reminiscent of The Cure's 'Love Cats'. Perhaps that's why I like this album so much - they wear their influences on their sleeve and the music itself is very pleasing to the ears and the soul.

Not all of their very listenable debut is gold and they're probably at least three excellent songs short of replicating the success of The Feeling's monster hit album last year, but it is, without doubt, great to hear a band making such feelgood, pure pop/rock tracks which could probably appeal to music lovers of all ages and, of course, any album that has a handful of songs which can make a smile break out across your face is worth recognition.