Search - Jay Ferguson :: Terms & Conditions / White Noise

3 and 1/2 stars for a good effort

Richard A. Tucker | Pembroke Pines, FL | 07/22/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This recording would have been better had it been remastered. There's a tinny quality that's annoying. Still, I can't say I'm not happy to have this pair of recordings in my CD player. I have Terms and Conditions on vinyl and I've always enjoyed it.

White Noise is a bit more production heavy and a little dated with it's big 80's pop verve. Despite that it's better than just average. Jay Ferguson always puts himself into his work and he never makes anything less than his best effort. Even if it's not exceptionable he is always sincere. White Noise is mixed bag of tricks and there are tunes that are quite good and the others that I know will grow on me with repeated listening. I will say that for those not familiar with his work that this may not be a great place to start. He's always been ecclectic in a great bar band/pop standard way (just enough crunch for texture but not unfamiliar), but his earlier recording like All Alone in the End Zone, or Real Life Ain't That Way would be better starters. Terms and Conditions is a good collection of tunes, closer to his previous work in that some of the tunes have a bite of good natured cynicism, but White Noise is just enough of a departure from his previous work, because of its heavier production efforts, that it could be less easy to access.

All that aside, after one listen I have to recommend this dual disc for the older folowers.

I hope this disc sells well enough that an eventual remastering of all his individual efforts will be made available."