Search - Hall & Oates :: Bigger Than Both of Us

Bigger Than the Both Of Us

B | Rochester, NY United States | 06/22/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"(4.5 Stars)



This is criminally out of print..criminal because there's a lot more to be found on here than the pop hit "Rich Girl".



Oates pens two of H&O's prettiest hooks on the ELO-ish "Back Together Again", as well as "Crazy Eyes". He also turns in another fantastic song with the mysterious "You'll Never Learn". Oates was definetely on his A-Game here.



And Daryl's tunes are as good as you'd expect from him. The aforementioned "Rich Girl" is a great pop/soul number with an instantly catchy chorus. He's hauntingly beautiful on the minor-key ballad "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" (which may have been a minor hit, I'm not sure), and he even rocks it out on the stomping, guitar-driven "Room To Breathe" (which has some great bluesey riffs).



There's more, though. "Kerry" is a fantastic mid-tempo pop/rocker; brooding, but really catchy at the same time. He also works some mandolin into the uptempo "London Luck and Love", which has some cool droning guitar effects throughout..



And "Falling" alone justifies paying $20 for an out of print CD. It starts off quiet (electric piano + voice), and dynamically reaches a memorable guitar solo at the end. They diddle around with a synthesizer for the lengthy outro (which probably sounded super futuristic and spacey at the time, though a bit dated now). But the actual song is phenomenal, with chord changes and lush production that would make their buddy Todd Rundgren smile with glee..



(As a somewhat useless factoid, there's a title track to this album..only it's one of those "Houses of the Holy" situations where the band finished the album before the song, so you have to buy their next album, "Beauty on a Back Street" to find it)



Not sure why this hasn't been remastered. It's one of my favorite Hall & Oates albums, and there's really no filler to be found."

The Second Masterpiece from Hall & Oates in the 70s

Robert Chica | 03/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When Daryl Hall and John Oates did Bigger Than Both of Us, they once more fashoned a true Masterpice, and although Abandoned Lunchonette was a failure, that album was a very poorly overlooked Masterpiece, with this one being accepted and successful.

Rich Girl is a song that not only was the Duo's first mass Hit, but it was also a song that showed how Daryl was such a great songwriter, to create something at the spir of a moment. He wrote the song as a protest to the attitude of a former Boyfriend of Daryl's dear Girlfriend and co songwriter with John Oates, who was Miss Sara Allen; of which this guy was a spoiled brat who demanded that everything be his way, so Daryl did a song about his attitude, but instaid of saying " Rich Guy, Now Your Going to Far" and then " Its a Bitch" and Bitch Guy, he said Girl in all those phraises.

Back Together Again was both Daryl and John's look at the reunion of Frankie Vale and the 4 Seasons, of whom they admired alongside the Idols of MOTOWN. Do What You Want, Be What You Are is an amazing ballad of deep feeling, as well as it being a song of acception for various feelings at the time of sorts. The song was defenitly accepted by many Gays in America and Britain as well as Continental Europe, for so many points in the song reflect on one accepting one's self, as well as others accepting that person's image.

Crazy Eyes is a Love song that begins with a beautiful Guitar intro in acoustic form, while You'll Never Learn is another love ballad but different as it has no acustic Guitar in the full force that Crazy Eyes has; in which John Oates sang those two songs.

London-Luck and Love is a song that is dedicated to London as a city, where I believe that it was influenced by some Tour that they must have had previously, which included a few British Gigs.

All that is this album I enjoy, and the album cover is amazing as it has the two guys in a futuristic Jetsons like Apartment. John is using a Home Computer as Daryl is writing down his lyrics, while John also has his Fender Strat, in which one must remember that this album was made in 1976, and Private Home Computers were only being developed at the time, and there was no such thing as Apple or Dell and Microsoft at the time. It is also to mention that the Apartments outside of the window are Amps and the balconies and gardens are Amp dials, when the Amp sound Gadges are the windows.

I recomend this one 100 per cent

"