Stairway2Drew's Full Review: The Distance to Here by Live
They've done it again!
Pennsylvania quartet Live, as far as this critic is concerned, never fails to please. They're one of the few principled rock bands left. They've consistently released great albums--MENTAL JEWELRY, THROWING COPPER, and SECRET SAMADHI were all wonderful recordings. Their songs are emotionally complex, musicianship tight, Ed Kowalczyk's lyrics poetic and spiritual, and his vocals beautiful. For the unfamiliar, Live is:
Ed Kowalcyzk : vocals, guitar
Chad Taylor : lead guitar
Patrick Dalheimer : bass
Chad Gracey : drums
THE DISTANCE TO HERE is Live's fourth studio album. Their commercial breakthrough came with 1994's THROWING COPPER. "I Alone," "Lightning Crashes," and "Selling The Drama" were, along with being amazing songs, deserved hits as well. Their follow-up, SECRET SAMADHI, is generally not as universally praised as THROWING COPPER, but it's still a great album in my eyes. 1999's THE DISTANCE TO HERE yielded radio hits in songs like "The Dolphin's Cry" and "They Stood Up For Love," but didn't do anything to make Live the most popular band in the world.
No matter, though, although God knows Live certainly deserved loads of success with this album--the music that is here is absolutely wonderful. I'm a considerably virgin music fan: I didn't REALLY start getting into this thing called rock and roll until around 1998 or so. Keeping that in mind, I wasn't particularly familiar with Live until THE DISTANCE TO HERE hit in 1999. And hit it did--power-packed single "The Dolphin's Cry" made me bolt upright in bed while watching MTV and say "hey, I have to buy that."
And buy that I did. I hadn't really adopted the policy I have now, which is "buy any CD you want at any price," so I didn't snag the disc only until I saw it in a Borders for $12.99. Ah, but I all but wore that disc out that winter. I loved THE DISTANCE TO HERE from listen one, and, having bought it in December, listened to it nearly non-stop through the end of the season. Even now, I find it next to impossible to listen to THE DISTANCE TO HERE without evoking images of snow and crisp winter air.
"The Dolphin's Cry" was probably the most obvious single for the album because of its similarity to an earlier Live hit. "The Dolphin's Cry," while it certainly stands on its own merits, bears more than a slight resemblance to 1994's "I Alone". There's a soft verse, a roaring chorus, a bridge, all sorts of things that "I Alone" had. It's really a wonderful song, though, and, as I said, stands on its own two feet. It doesn't ride the coattails of "I Alone".
The mystic "The Distance," the closest thing to a title track here, benefits from a strange keyboard solo more than anything, although vocals and lyrics are, as usual with Kowalczyk, strong in their own right. The melodic "Sparkle" upholds the album's overall hippyish "Love is all you need" theme. In "The Dolphin's Cry," Ed says, "love will lead us, all right, love will lead us, she will lead us." In "Sparkle," he says "love will overcome, if this love will make us men, love will draw us in to wipe our tears away" and proceeds to pack power into a few shrieks of "LOVE". The poetic, metaphorical "Run To The Water" and "Sun" are spiritual, power-packed songs that just beg to be listened to.
"Voodoo Lady" is rather spooky, an almost industrial-like sound permeating throughout the track. "We Walk In The Dream" and "Face And Ghost (The Children's Song)" are both pleasing as well.
Perhaps the best song on the whole album, though, is "They Stood Up For Love". It received a substantial amount of radio airplay, as I recall. I remember being ecstatic when they played it on 94.7, even to the point where I excitedly said, "That's my song!" It's possibly the most powerful song on the whole disc, quite a feat for an album which tries to pack as much punch into every song as humanly possible. The instrumentation and phrasing in this song is near brilliant. I absolutely LOVE this song, and have since I first listened to it.
But overall, the album is an intense, emotional ride. As far as this critic goes, this DISTANCE doesn't make me uncomfortable at all.
Okay, I'm going to ruin that perfectly good ending in order to make three statements:
1. That Tricky song featuring Ed Kowalczyk that they're playing an awful lot on MTV2 nowadays is really good. I should buy that CD.
2. Is it just me, or does Ed talk about hookers a lot? I mean, the word's there in "Sparkle," it's there in "Voodoo Lady"... Ed, if you've got a problem, come talk to me, man. I'm here.
3. You must buy the Australian 6-song "They Stood Up For Love" EP. It has the studio version of the song, yes, but there's also 5 acoustic tracks: "Dolphin's Cry," "They Stood Up For Love," "The Distance," "Run To The Water," and "I Alone". Friggin' "I Alone"! That's like from 1994 and they're unearthing this acoustic performance. That's so cool. The EP is tanfastic, and you should really find it. Order it. Buy it. Steal it.
I just love hearing my favorite songs re-done on a guitar with a hole in the middle, don't you?
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