Search - Eva Trout :: Eva Trout

I haven't been this inspired by an artist since Indigo Girl

09/28/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I fell in love with Eva Trouts voice the first time I heard the song "Beautiful South" on t.v. I haven't been this excited about an artist since I discovered the Indigo Girls over five years ago!! Her music is a perfect combination of emotion, music and voice."

Very fresh, upbeat, great voice. Fun summer tunes!

John Grunwell | 07/02/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc has been fun to listen to. Sounds a bit like 'Till Tuesday, but fresh and a slight - slight- twang that adds Australian character. Her voice is honest, soothing, heartfelt. This disc will be fun to listen to."

Very Pretty Pop Ditties...

John Grunwell | Washington, D.C. | 01/05/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I remember being affected by this album's lead single, "The Beautiful South," the very first time I heard it during the summer of 1998. It would always follow on the heels of a Harvey Danger song that was ubiquitous at the time ("Paranoia, paranoia, somebody's comin' to get me...") on a strange, now-defunct (?) music video channel. I've had the CD in my collection since then, but have thought to review it only now, more than seven years later, because it's been on my mind in the past few weeks and I've been listening to it over and over. There's something entrancing about Eva Trout, but it's hard to say exactly why. At one level, everything about them *could* seem tired and banal. The lyrics are at times a little like that of a college sophomore poet (i.e. hackneyed, awkward and discomforting in a hard-to-define way), but most are passable or even pretty good. Of course, we all know that mediocre lyrics can become much less so with great music, and that's often the case here. Essentially, there isn't a single unique thing about the CD or the band (unless you count the pretty female voice with an "I come from the land down under" accent and an "I-love-women" tip), but they combine a great many classic pop-song elements into very nice, even beautiful, ditties. Listening to the CD last night (at least two times, if not more...), it also occurred to me that with their big choruses, moody lyrics, tempos, acoustic arrangements, and even the chord progressions and melodies, any one of these songs could have been performed in a slicker, more heavily produced fashion and would sound *JUST LIKE* the Goo Goo Dolls in their incarnation as heartachy-breaky pop music balladeers. Towards the end there's even one song sung by a fellow who sounds VERY similar to the snarling, punky singer from GGD, rather than the sweet, raspy-voiced dude ("I won't tell 'em your name..") we typically hear on their singles. The song even has the propulsive beat and strangely-worded subject matter that the GGD guy's songs have. Eerie. Another great element that this CD has in abundance is the sharp contrast between the verses and the choruses. As pretty and melodic as the verses are, they are really just there to serve the choruses, which explode in the gleeful way so familiar to fans of artists like The Beatles and Crowded House, but often with a hint of nostalgia or melancholy. There's a certain feeling of inevitability in all their songs, like they're channeling folk-rock archetypes. All in all, the positive elements of this album FAAAAAAR outweigh any negatives. As I write this, I've had Eva Trout choruses stuck in my head all day, and the worst thing is that I don't even know most of the lyrics, just things like "if blah blah-blah blah blaaa-ah blaaaAAAaaaah, I'd be rich" (which features a great, deep harmony on the word "rich" which gets me right in the solar plexus). To be totally honest here, just last night, having heard this song a bazillion times, the entry of the chorus for "The Beautiful South" I found myself weeping. Laughing at myself too, as I wasn't sad, just deeply affected by the song. It's just such a darn good combination of melody/harmony/text, and I don't even know what the heck it means! Where is this south? South of what? Southwest DC? Southern Alberta? South Beach? Southern Chile? Wherever it is, I want to go there. In conclusion, the Goo Goo Dolls join forces with the Indigo Girls and dump their fancy studios in favor of bare-bones recording sessions undertaken whilst camping on the Great Plains. Soaring! Great stuff. Buy the CD. Even if it sucks, you can buy it for less than two bucks, and you can hardly beat that price!"