Search - God Lives Underwater :: Up Off the Floor

GLU's official last album

Travis M. Owens | Syracuse, NY USA | 09/30/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is actually a collection of songs made 4 years before the album's release as they were slated for a previous album but the rocard label they were on went out of business before the new album was finished. So while GLU's previous album was in 1997 (7 years since this album), song wise, there was only a 2-3 year gap after the previous album.



The songs are really great and are finished but there are two major flaws with this album. The first is splitting hairs (or whinning) but the album only has 10 songs where I always see 12 as a minimum. The second problem, and a very big one at that, is that the recording quality is HORRIBLE. The songs are muddy sounding and are not clear. You can hear that the last track was created well after the other 9 tracks as it is much clearer although not perfect. I was very tempted to give this album 3 stars because of the recording quality is really poor, but the songs are pretty good so I figured 4 was a reasonable score.



Song per song ratings on a 5 star scale...

1. White Noise - 4 stars

2. Tricked - 4 stars

3. 1% (The Long Way Down) - 4 stars

4. Whatever You've Got - 4 stars

5. No Way (You Must Understand - 4 stars

6. Slip to Fall - 5.5 stars (possibly one of my fav GLU tracks)

7. History - 4.5 stars

8. 72 Hours - 3 stars

9. Miss You More Than Anything - 4.5 stars

10. Positivity - 4.25 stars"

Sound quality is average, but the songs are very good!

Christopher Trudeau | 10/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"God Lives Underwater are back! Although, they really aren't. Up Off The Floor serves as a fitting epitaph for one of the more underrated Hard Rock/Industrial bands of the mid to late nineties. I was a big follower and proponent of the band, catching them at 5 shows in my area, as well as getting to play on stage at one of the shows with them. Turzo and Reilly were, in my opinion, masters of melding strong melodic hard rock with intelligent industrial stylings. Their first two CD's, the self titled EP and Empty were strong examples of industrial laced hard rock with accessible pop hooks. 98's release 'Life in the so called Space Age' found GLU focusing more on the electronics as well as garnering them some MTV exposure. While in my opinion, it wasn't their strongest effort, it was a success, and showed the band's breadth of talent. 'Up Off the Floor' feels more like a companion to their first two discs. Going back to the hard rock guitar and drums that were the 'norm' for them. All the songs have a catchy appeal to them, and if this CD were released during the band's 'heyday', it would have been a big success. Unfortunately this CD serves as a reminder of what could have been. Musically, it is one of their best efforts. However, the CD recording quality is average, with the levels being on the somewhat lower and muffled side. I can only imagine how this CD would have sounded like with the financial resources and production quality of a major label backing it. Nevertheless, the CD is a must have for any fan of industrial based hard rock and of course any God Lives Underwater fan. I'm glad they finally got the disc out, warts and all... and it serves as a reminder to me of a fun time in my life where GLU would take the stage of the cramped Coney Island High in NYC and rock out with the best of them."

A testiment to how production can save or ruin an album.

B. Morales | Las Cruces, NM United States | 10/17/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"After much speculation, 'Up off the Floor' finally makes it's way into stores after about a 4 year delay. I recall downloading all the tracks off the website they were hosted maybe 2 or 3 years ago and thinking it was a real good effort. The album was a nice mix of 'Empty' riffs with '...Space Age' electronics. After getting tired of hearing when this would be released, I lost track of GLU until I stumbled upon this in a store a few weeks strictly by accident. I was of course exited, but once I listened to this, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.



First off...the production is atrocious. Simple as that. The songs could easily be mistaken for early demos. It sounds as if the already decent qualtiy songs were downloaded from the website a while back, had the bitrate lowered, then rerecorded through several layers of towels. Back in '99 I spent several bucks on a 1500 records sampler which had a slightly shorter version of '1% [The Long Way Down]', and that version sounds aeons better than what this album provides. There's no impact to the instruments or bass murdering drum beats that we were spoiled with on the previous GLU records. The album just feels dirty. Any 2 bit local band can release a cleaner sounding CD. This could easily be 3 1/2 stars had we gotten a decent mixing effort.



I would assume that the band breaking up had a hand in the record getting released like this, but still, there's obviously better versions of these tracks out there. Why the album was released in this state just confuses the hell out of me.



Anyways, there IS a semi-decent album underneath the muffled instruments. There just aren't any real phenominal tracks. 'Miss you more' is the best song, followed by '1%' and 'White Noise'. Their cover of Bowie's 'Fame' from the 15 Minutes soundtrack would have been a nice addition to the album, as well as their most excellent cover of 'Flies on the Windscreen'.



Overall, this isn't really a good place to start with if you're new to GLU. Start with the EP, then 'Emtpy', then this, then track down all their B-Sides and end it all with their uber awesome 'Life in the So Called Space Age'. As for the fans...you've been warned."