Search - David & David :: Boomtown

Boomtown

baseballdoctor | 02/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As most that have listened to this album will agree, it is a must. To follow suit with the rest of the reviews, I too heard Boomtown on a small college radio station, late at night, and had to know who they were. After walking accross campus and talking with the DJ of the station, and begging for another cut, I had my prize, a bootleg copy. That was in 1986 at Humboldt State University, and I still have the album fourteen years later (now on CD). The music that these two have made, I feel, still stands up with some of the best of today. Give it a listen, and you will have found one of those rare albums that is good all the way through."

Ten years and still moves me.

baseballdoctor | 09/06/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first picked up this album after hearing Boomtown on a college station. What followed was a ten year love affair with this disc. I'm on my third one, listen to it all the time and I'm still amazed that it never made more waves. Bedtime Stories followed up and left me wanting more. With the release of Triage I got it and more. These three albums should be in every rock lovers collection."

The Great Disillusionment: A Neglected Masterpiece

Gary F. Taylor | Biloxi, MS USA | 04/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 1980s were often described as "the ME decade"--an era characterized by materialism, self-indulgence, and self-satisfaction. Popular music of the decade tended toward heavy synthesizers, dance-friendly beats, and concert appeal, with such acts as Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson dominating the charts with slick, glossy, and sexy pop. But in 1987 David Baerwald and David Ricketts took a musical look beneath the veneer at the underbelly of greed, drugs, and alienation that fueled the day. BOOMTOWN would be their only recording together, but they needed only one: it is a masterpiece.



The three opening selections are typical: languid, sultry vocals are accompanied by crisp yet senusous instrumentals in which undercurrent guitars mix with a touch of synthesizer and remarkably strong percussion--and which present tales of self-destruction, disillusionment, failure, and internal pain. "Welcome to the Boomtown," which actually made a hit as a single, sketches portraits of drug dealers with wry humor and deep cynicism; "Swallowed by the Cracks" presents three friends whose youthful dreams are crushed by reality; and "Ain't So Easy" gives us a man attempting to convince his woman to remain after he has beaten her. The material remains dark and laced with cynical humor as it continues, referencing everything from loveless marriage to social collapse, and then ends on a faintly optimistic yet distinctly gray note: "Heroes" seems to imply that the only escape is a complete walking away from the values that create such situations, but it offers no clear idea of what other options might be available.



The lyrics tend to play against the surface smooth of the music, creating ambiguities and juxtapositions quite unlike those found in most other recordings. David & David were clearly influenced by the likes of Roxy Music in the liquidity of their vocals and Lou Reed in the unexpected nature of their lyrics, but the way in which they combine the two are unique. Few, if any, have mined the same material and styles to such tremendous effect--and although BOOMTOWN is distinctly of 1987, it also transcends 1987 without the faintest show of strain; it is as musically accomplished as ever and in terms of material as topical and relevant as it was twenty years ago. Strongly recommended.



GFT, Amazon Reviewer"