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| Sunday, October 15, 2006 |
| Live - Throwing Copper |
 Yeah, I know I didn't do one last week. Truth be told, I was a little busy with my other site and I didn't have the energy/time to post over here. Apologies to you all!! Anyway, my choice this week is the superb album by Live, Throwing Copper. I have to concede that, although I am a fan of the band in general, they are not on the same level as some other bands I like. However, this album is superb and holds its own amongst the many other great albums of this period. It is one of those rare things, an album without a single weak track. Consequently, no list would be compete without it.
I did not pick up on Live initially, it was only through raiding my sister's CD collection one day that I came across it and give it a listen. I was pretty blown away by what I heard. They seemed to have a good blend between REM style pop songs and Pearl Jam style rock. It opens with the, initially eerie sounding, Dam at Otter Creek. The opener builds slowly with a simple guitar riff before breaking into a passionate crescendo of noise and from here on in, the passion never lets up. This is followed by the breath-taking trio of Selling the Drama, I Alone and Iris. Three exceptional songs that any band would be proud to have in their back catalogue.
Lightning Crashes is one of the most beautiful songs that I have ever heard. Again building on a simple guitar riff, it once again breaks into a passionate chorus that makes your spine tingle. It is one of those songs (like Hard to Imagine) that actually brings a tear to my eye. They go up a gear with Top, All Over You and Shit Town (an ode to shit towns everywhere) before initially slowing it down again with the awesome T.B.D. Stage and Waitress are standard rockers, although Stage has a punkier edge to it, while Waitress is rather more mainstream (and possibly has the weakest lyrics on the album).
Pillar of Davidson is another beautiful song, similar to Lightning Crashes, and is one of the strongest albums on the album in my opinion. An epic song with a passionate chorus, it really makes you long for the days when music was about passion and feeling, rather than bland sentiments and fake grand standing. Not that I am going to mention any names! The album closes with the unusual White, Discussion, a song that breaks into essentially a four minute instrumental with Kowalczyk repeating the line 'Look where all this talking got us, baby', while the guitars wail around in the background.
Throwing Copper is a fantastic album, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the scene of the early nineties. I would also recommend their follow-up Secret Samadhi and The Distance to Here is also worth checking out (although I don't rate it as highly as their predecessors). Unfortunately, I kinda lost interest in Live after V, a very poor album that had very little to redeem it. Consequently, I haven't really checked out their latest stuff, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. |
posted by korova @ 4:41 pm  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Throwing Cooper was a great album, I still love it to this day. Pillar Of Davidson has always been my favorite on the album, and my favorite Live song. There is such a mix of sound on this album, something that they never really recaptured on any other album. And like you, I have lost interest after the terrible V.
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Hey Wes - yeah it is a very good album. It's a shame that their following albums were progressively uninspiring, they had so much potential.
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Pleasant surprise to see this on your list.
To be honest I didn't even give V a try and the more I hear about it the less inclined I am to try it. I have heard that the album they did after it was better, but still not as good as their older stuff. I did actually hear a single from it that sounded pretty good so maybe I'll get around to giving it a try one day.
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Throwing Cooper was a great album, I still love it to this day. Pillar Of Davidson has always been my favorite on the album, and my favorite Live song. There is such a mix of sound on this album, something that they never really recaptured on any other album. And like you, I have lost interest after the terrible V.