Rating:  -
WHY DOES REVIEWER 25354 GO INTO UNINTERESTING DIABTRIBES ABOUT HIS "KEEN" AND "CLEVER" INSIGHTS? JUST TELL US IF YOU LIKED OR HATED THE CD AND WHY.
PLEASE LOOK AT HIS OTHER "REIVEWS" AND YOU'LL SEE WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. BESIDES REVIEWING BOOKS HE'S NEVER READ HE GIVES EVERYTHING A LOW RATING. IT MUST BE BECASUE HE'S SO MUCH SMARTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE!
I'M SURE HE'S A STRUGGLING SCREEN WRITER IN LA.
Rating: -
This is a definite must-have for any Chill fan. You can obviously see the influence these artists had on Everything but the Girl. If you want to relax to some pool-side and beach-house beats this is the CD for you to add to your collection.
Rating:  -
So there I am, cycling down Mira Mesa Boulevard on what promises to be a long, music-induced session. Passing The Wherehouse I suddenly get the bright idea of stopping to get the new Annie Lennox CD. What new Annie Lennox CD, you may ask? Well, there's the trouble.
So I go up to the counter. Two female employees. One is on the phone, turned away from the counter, the other is, I discern as I approach her, in tears. I say, "Did I come at a bad time?" The young lady is too discombobulated to render any service, or to notice my ironic tone, so her friend grudgingly tears herself away from the phone to find out what this provoking intrusion on her private time is all about. I tell her to just point me in the Annie Lennox direction and she does and I go over to check out the CDs. As I am walking away, the girl returns to her phone conversation and it becomes clear that she is acting as an intermediary in some teenage heartbreak of which the tearful girl is the tragic heroine. I hear her say, "No, I don't think she should talk to him right now. Did you know he pushed her down on her throat?" As I'm walking away I bemusedly think to myself that I can see where this guy is coming from.
But anyway, like I say, there is no new Annie Lennox album and so as plan B I decide to get the EBTG mix album, having heard "good things." Don't ask me where because I don't remember.
So I take it to the counter and manage to buy it while the soap opera is raging to fever pitch. The tearful girl decides she just can't hold it together out here anymore and so she flounces off like something out of a French Novel.
"Bad breakup," her friend tells me.
I say, "Well, when you get to be my age you'll look back and realize it was all utterly meaningless." The girl looks at me with sullen incomprehension as I take my change and leave.
So I put the CD in the player and cycle off down the road and there I am cycling in a state of spiraling demoralization, hitting the forward button again and again as I hit one unbelievably wack track after the other. And then it begins to dawn on me that I've just wasted [good money] and music that I really do get something out of is apparently the work of two people whose taste in music is absolute drek. Never having been a big fan of house, I find myself cycling as if in syrup or making my way through a dense fog. Each track takes the groove to lamer and lamer levels. This compilation should have been titled, "Fuddled music for nowhere people." Finally I give up in disgust and put on John Digweed.
Rating:  -
The great thing about the back to mine series is that you get a nice introduction to some music you may not have been aware of before.
I'm an old guy (37, though fortunately I'm very immature) and so it's not like I'm hanging out at clubs listening to what the DJs are doing...
This listen was well worth it simply for hearing Donny Hathaway's gorgeous "Someday We'll All Be Free." I was totally unaware of his music even though he is from BEFORE my time.
Most of the rest of the tracks are great too.
Rating: -
confession time - i've loved ebtg since i was turned on to them in college..."driving" was almost a coming-of-age song, and to this day the acoustic (from the album of the same name) versions of "apron strings" or "come on home" still make me smile like a kid... and seeing them live and acoustic in st. paul, mn was one of the best concerts i've ever been to. make sure you take the time to check out their own recordings, to be sure...hell, the cover of "love not money" is worth the price alone, but i'm not sure you can find it in print now...(if you can, ~get~ it, now...)
all that said, when i saw that mr. w. had raided the closet for a "back to mine" collection, i knew it was a no-brainer...if you've EVER gotten a (let me put this in straightforward terms...) really, really (and i mean REALLY) cool little tape collection from a friend/family member, and thought to yourself...wow - this is some damn good stuff...well then, be prepared to be mondo-wowed.
i hadn't heard of a single song on this album prior to its release, but am now a sworn and true beth orton fan ("stars all seem to shine")...and every other track on this will have you grinnin' like you were twelve with skates on, feelin' the flow, doin' the happy funky dance...it's an incredibly "cool" (yes, that's overused, but nothing else really applies here) set of tunes, with a laid-back and funky underlying theme...
the whole "back to mine" series is worth a listen...good stuff all over, but i have to say, this is the best of the bunch (as of 2002, anyway - hope they keep comin'), and if you are a fan of their own songs, you'll love ben and tracey's choices from their own stash, right here.
recommendation - buy it new, open the wine, invite friends, and just grin for an hour or so...
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