Nick
07-25-2002, 05:23 PM
Hey, don't know if this was posted yet, but Amazon.com updated the This Side page. It has the track listing, as well as a review. It isn't too good of a review, but certainly not terrible. I'll give the reviewer that NC's original material isn't as lyrically strong as their borrowed stuff (IMHO), and he's right on with a comparison to Elliott Smith, who the whole band has mentioned as an influence, but I haven't heard the album so I can't really vouch for or against anything else he says. Here's what he wrote:
____________________
Whereas Nickel Creek's debut album established the young California trio at the progressive vanguard of traditional bluegrass, this ambitious, risky follow-up finds their acoustic artistry straying far afield. Mandolin player Chris Thile and the Watkins siblings--guitarist Sean and fiddler Sara--continue to impress with their intuitive instrumental interplay and lush vocal harmonies. Sean Watkins's title cut achieves the sprightliest blend of traditional bluegrass instrumentation and contemporary pop craft, while the ruminative melancholy of Hanging by a Thread and Green and Gray sound as though Thile has been listening to a lot of Elliott Smith (and reading the published poetry of Jewel). The album also features Pavement's Spit on a Stranger, Carrie Newcomer's Should've Known Better, and a traditional British ballad, House Carpenter. However, much of the collection's original material lacks the maturity to match the trio's musical gifts, as songs incorporating influences ranging from neo-psychedelia to alt pop often suffer from self-consciousness. Kindred-spirit producer Alison Krauss plainly gave the project a long leash, and the results can be viewed as either sophomore slump or creative growth spurt--or perhaps both. --Don McLeese
____________________
Also, the Amazon.com page seems to offer a stream of the full album if you preorder from the site. Personally I'll wait until I have the thing in my hands, but it seems like a nice legal way to catch the album early, assuming I'm understanding it correctly.
Nick
____________________
Whereas Nickel Creek's debut album established the young California trio at the progressive vanguard of traditional bluegrass, this ambitious, risky follow-up finds their acoustic artistry straying far afield. Mandolin player Chris Thile and the Watkins siblings--guitarist Sean and fiddler Sara--continue to impress with their intuitive instrumental interplay and lush vocal harmonies. Sean Watkins's title cut achieves the sprightliest blend of traditional bluegrass instrumentation and contemporary pop craft, while the ruminative melancholy of Hanging by a Thread and Green and Gray sound as though Thile has been listening to a lot of Elliott Smith (and reading the published poetry of Jewel). The album also features Pavement's Spit on a Stranger, Carrie Newcomer's Should've Known Better, and a traditional British ballad, House Carpenter. However, much of the collection's original material lacks the maturity to match the trio's musical gifts, as songs incorporating influences ranging from neo-psychedelia to alt pop often suffer from self-consciousness. Kindred-spirit producer Alison Krauss plainly gave the project a long leash, and the results can be viewed as either sophomore slump or creative growth spurt--or perhaps both. --Don McLeese
____________________
Also, the Amazon.com page seems to offer a stream of the full album if you preorder from the site. Personally I'll wait until I have the thing in my hands, but it seems like a nice legal way to catch the album early, assuming I'm understanding it correctly.
Nick