This CD should be subtitled “Portraits Of The Artists As
\nSeverely Young Men.”<\/p>\n
Zoe’s re-release of Canadian folk\/Celt\/rock outfit Great Big Sea
\n(hereafter known as GBS) comes hard on the heels of successful CD
\nreleases and tours, and completes GBS’s catalog’s release in
\nAmerica. While for completists it’s nice to finally be able to get
\nour hands on
\nGreat Big Sea<\/i> without having to pay ruinous import prices,
\nthis is, to be honest, the weakest of the band’s CDs.<\/p>\n
Originally recorded in 1993,
\nGreat Big Sea<\/i> is where GBS was finding their identities and
\nvoices. The song choice is still a little awkward – there’s more
\ntraditional songs than they would ever do again, and to be honest
\nonly “Excursion ‘Round The Bay” remains a classic, still performed
\nin some of their live shows — and the production is at best
\nadequate. However, the energy is as bright and insistent as later
\nCDs, and frankly there are times when this CD is downright fun in a
\nraw sort of way.<\/p>\n
The highlights remain the original songs. “Someday Soon”, while
\nperhaps being a little na\u00efve, is a sweet, straightforward
\ncommentary on dishonest politicians and broken promises. “What Are
\nYou At?” is a rollicking, delightful paean to how good it can be in
\na strange town to hear a hometown accent. “The Fisherman’s Lament”,
\nwith lyrics written by Sean McCann’s father Edward, is a ‘death of
\nthe fishing industry’ song, somewhat reminiscent of Billy Joel’s
\n“Downeaster Alexa”, that is heartbreaking. Among the traditional
\nsongs, only the aforementioned “Excursion” and a driving, fierce
\n“Drunken Sailor” stand out. The other traditional tracks aren’t
\nbad, and if this weren’t a GBS CD I’d probably be kinder to them.
\nNevertheless, if I wanted to hear Ye Olde Generic Celtic Fiddle
\nMusic I could go down to that mood music display in my local Target
\nand press the buttons that aren’t already broken.<\/p>\n
In the long run, Great Big Sea would become one of the greatest
\nCeltic bands of all time, and even this early in their career there
\nare flashes of greatness.
\nGreat Big Sea<\/i> is worth it, if only for the historical
\nreference point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":27090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6007],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38422","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-great-big-sea","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38422"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38422"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}