Do you ever buy an album, and as soon as you start listening to it, you are immediately so so so glad you made the purchase and you know that you will never regret it? I just did that, and trust me, it is one of the best feelings in the entire world. I think the last time I did was when I bought Sufjan's "All Delighted People" EP. I can't say that about Sufjan's "Age of Adz" because buying it was more an act of faith than of absolute conviction. Of course, Age of Adz eventually grew on me more than even "All Delighted People", but at first I felt a little bit iffy about it.
Not so with Justin Sullivan's "Big Guitars in Little Europe."
Not many people know that after Sufjan Stevens, or perhaps beside him, my favorite musician is definitely Justin Sullivan, and his band New Model Army has been a big part of my life for over a decade. I may devote a different post to NMA and here I won't go into details. Suffice it say that NMA is a folk/punk band that's been around since 1980, and its central figure, Justin Sullivan, is a prolific, driven, and intense song writer. He's just an intense guy all around. One of the things I love most about NMA is their fire, their boundless energy-- especially in their live performances. I think NMA sounds better live than in the studio, which isn't something that every band can claim.
"Big Guitars in Little Europe" is a prime example of Justin Sullivan's raw energy when playing live. It's also a selection of some of the best that NMA has to offer, and repackaged into a two-man set-- just Justin Sullivan and fellow band-member Dave Blomberg rocking out on their guitars. I wouldn't recommend it to everybody, because New Model Army's sound is pretty far from mainstream rock. Also, some of Justin's dialogue between songs is on the tracks, and there's a couple of unfortunate bad words that made it into a couple of the tracks. If it weren't for the gratuitous language on a couple of the tracks, I would recommend this album without a hitch. Sometimes Justin's voice goes out a bit, but I can hardly blame him for that. It's just the natural consequence of singing that loud.
I don't normally do music reviews or anything like that on my blog. But as I sat down and started listening to my new purchase, I couldn't really help myself. It's always a great feeling to have your music purchase immediately validated. I would actually recommend the studio albums before "Big Guitars", because part of the reason why "Big Guitars" is so awesome to me right now is because it's some of my favorite songs, performed live in new, fresh, acoustic variations. Take "Space" for example. That song is ordinarily driven by one gnarly bass line that thunders all the way through. Hearing it on an acoustic guitar gives it an entirely different feel, and is a lot of fun to listen to.
Anyway, that's definitely more than enough for now. The point of this post is definitely not to encourage anyone to run out and buy it. More to express to the world that I'm happy with my purchase. If anyone were to be interested in New Model Army, I would first direct them to the studio albums "The Love of Hopeless Causes", "Impurity", "Eight", and Justin Sullivan's solo album "Navigating by the Stars", which is especially awesome. In "Big Guitars", the songs "Turn Away" and "Changing of the Light" are definitely the highlights.
Not so with Justin Sullivan's "Big Guitars in Little Europe."
Not many people know that after Sufjan Stevens, or perhaps beside him, my favorite musician is definitely Justin Sullivan, and his band New Model Army has been a big part of my life for over a decade. I may devote a different post to NMA and here I won't go into details. Suffice it say that NMA is a folk/punk band that's been around since 1980, and its central figure, Justin Sullivan, is a prolific, driven, and intense song writer. He's just an intense guy all around. One of the things I love most about NMA is their fire, their boundless energy-- especially in their live performances. I think NMA sounds better live than in the studio, which isn't something that every band can claim.
"Big Guitars in Little Europe" is a prime example of Justin Sullivan's raw energy when playing live. It's also a selection of some of the best that NMA has to offer, and repackaged into a two-man set-- just Justin Sullivan and fellow band-member Dave Blomberg rocking out on their guitars. I wouldn't recommend it to everybody, because New Model Army's sound is pretty far from mainstream rock. Also, some of Justin's dialogue between songs is on the tracks, and there's a couple of unfortunate bad words that made it into a couple of the tracks. If it weren't for the gratuitous language on a couple of the tracks, I would recommend this album without a hitch. Sometimes Justin's voice goes out a bit, but I can hardly blame him for that. It's just the natural consequence of singing that loud.
I don't normally do music reviews or anything like that on my blog. But as I sat down and started listening to my new purchase, I couldn't really help myself. It's always a great feeling to have your music purchase immediately validated. I would actually recommend the studio albums before "Big Guitars", because part of the reason why "Big Guitars" is so awesome to me right now is because it's some of my favorite songs, performed live in new, fresh, acoustic variations. Take "Space" for example. That song is ordinarily driven by one gnarly bass line that thunders all the way through. Hearing it on an acoustic guitar gives it an entirely different feel, and is a lot of fun to listen to.
Anyway, that's definitely more than enough for now. The point of this post is definitely not to encourage anyone to run out and buy it. More to express to the world that I'm happy with my purchase. If anyone were to be interested in New Model Army, I would first direct them to the studio albums "The Love of Hopeless Causes", "Impurity", "Eight", and Justin Sullivan's solo album "Navigating by the Stars", which is especially awesome. In "Big Guitars", the songs "Turn Away" and "Changing of the Light" are definitely the highlights.
I need to check that out. I still listen to NMA almost every day when I work out. They are amazing.
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