Glee
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Sometimes Canadian pop music is virtually indistinguishable from the flavor made in the U.S., while at other times it seems like it could just as easily be the latest sound emanating from Poland’s hit parade. Bran Van 3000, a Montréal-based (and largely anglophone, thank you) musical collective whose 1997 debut album Glee has already gone gold up north, fluctuates between those two sensibilities. Led by filmmaker/video director James Di Salvio, Bran Van 3000 have just the c… More >>
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10Mar
Bran Van’s Glee sounded like no other 1998 album.It mixed different kinds of music styles like rock , pop , hip hop , soul and funk all done with an extra-cool attitude which was impossible to resist. “Drinking In LA” was one of the best singles of that year , relaxing and highly enjoyable . Then there was goofy yet lovable lazy-boy DiSalvio on “Couch Surfer” , sensitive female touches on “Everywhere” , Beastie Boys-like rapping on “Forest” and ofcourse that amazing cover of Slade’s “Come on feel the noise” . This is a record which can make you smile and feel good everytime you listen to it and , in addition to all that it will certaintly take you a long time before you get bore with it (it includes 16-17 songs , you know… ) . Bran Van 3000 are the friends we would all want to have to cheer us up.
Rating: 5 / 5
As seems to be the case everywhere else (from reading the reviews), Drinking in Hell-A was the only song that achieved any airplay in Ireland. I finally got around to getting this album about a year later. And while I still think Drinking’s simple yet poinyant lyrics on the waster lifestyle (I know exactly what they mean) is by far the best song, this isn’t to say that the rest of the album is weak. It consists of a (quite large) number of top-rate songs, with (perhaps too many) filler tracks, and the odd gem that is just so daft as to be genius (“Couch surfer” – an accurate description of my friend’s flatmates and a highlight of the album, “Exactly like me”, “Old School”). The filler ranges from the tragically underdeveloped (listen to the rockin’ beat and smooth vocal delivery in “Problems”, which disappointingly finishes after only a bare minute,) to the utterly bizarre and/or pointless (Gimme Sheldon, Highway to Heck, Lucknow, Oblonging). However, it’s when the band allow a track to open up properly that you find gold. Cases in point: “Forest”‘s dark lyrics but singalong chorus, with some French thrown in for good measure, “Supermodel”‘s tuneful jangly guitar and silly Southern-accent lyrics about a diner waitress and her sweetheart, “Afrodiziak” and “Carry On”‘s Carribean flavour (which I initially wasn’t into but now like) and “Mama don’t smoke”‘s simplicity and lovely harmonies, offset by bizarre lyrics (compare Eminem “I just found out my mom does more dope than I do.”) Sometimes, though, the genre crossovers are just a bit over the top, e.g. Willard’s country opening suddenly launches into heavy drum’n'bass(!), Old School jumps disconcertingly from metal to Seventies bouncy hip hop. But despite all this, the band pratically always demonstrate at least a competent understanding of the style they’re using. It is here that the band’s great strength lies. The real question is what their follow-up would/will be like – we could see what they’re capable of now that their large number of experimental tracks are presumably out of the way. However, “collectives” like these have a habit of kind of dissolving without trace, and it’s been about 4 years since this was released so I can only hope that they are, in fact, still around and are working on Glee part 2 as I write.
Rating: 4 / 5
I have had this album for 2 years and I still can’t get enough of it. Any time a friend hears it they are always amazed and they end up buying it for themselves. Basically its impossible to get sick of an album with such a wide variety of styles. But beyond that, the band truly demostrates a profound understanding of these styles, as they twist them around slightly, egaggerating them a bit. Combine this with the fact that the lyrics are just comedy, its simply impossible to not have fun listening to this cd. But at the end of the day its the pervasive and rich talent that keeps this album from being campy or cliche. Definitely goes with the desert island cd’s.
Rating: 5 / 5
I just bougth the cd ‘cos I lost my “drinking in L.A.” version, altough it was hard to find, GLEE absolutely does it for me. The way the cd is mixed (country, house, hip-hop, eclectic) is amazing. This is truly by far the best cd I’ve ever bougth. I just hope we could get more “out of trend” music, you know, not everything shown on MTV is art.
Rating: 5 / 5
This CD is perhaps the most listened to in my collection. I like every song. These guys are a lot of fun. They are meant to dance to. The highly rhythmic & loud music that carries you into a frenzy of dance where you loose yourself in it. (Private joke you’ll get if you got the CD) the depth of sound is great all in all a wonderful selection. Hopefully the movie gig going on will get them some exposure because I’d love to hear more of this funky cool vibe.
Rating: 5 / 5
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