Wonderful
Anglobotomy | Las Vegas, Nv United States | 10/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A great album for Rheostatic fans and those who've never heard them. I don't think this one is as good as Whale Music or Introducing Happiness, but it's at least as good as Blue Hysteria. I've been a fan of the Rheo's since Whale Music came out, and I've always liked them for their playfulness, their incredible musicianship and their ability to move me with songs I'd never thought would be moving. Even on a less experimental album like this one, they sound fresh. The guitar work on this album is amazing, and evocative. The Rheostatics have always been able to paint the most amazing pictures with their music. Buy this album. My favorite songs include PIN, Mumbletypeg, and the Reward. I'm eagerly awaiting the release of 2067."
La Notte di Tielli e Bidini.
Jason T. Treit | Edmonton, AB | 07/01/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"After 5 strong years with the Rheostatics, this record marks a fond farewell to drummer, cellist, studio owner and 4th string singer-songwriter Don Kerr. After the loss of not one but two longhaired percussion wunderkinds in their career, one has to ponder if it's maybe time to stop pouring bacon fat all over the kits, sending them out in the freezing hail to push the crosswalk button at red lights, etc.As for this Night Of The Shooting Stars business: In keeping with the simple, stripped down nature of the album packaging, these 13 songs comprise some of the simplest bare-bones exercises in rock and pop these artsy Canadians have ever touched with a ten foot pole. Luckily, it's still a strange and thorougly enriching work, despite the reservations of some longtime fans to whom a lot of this is old material ("Song of the Garden" and "Junction Foil Ball" are remakes, so you know.)Martin and Dave clock in with some of their most accomplished songwriting to date, coming to a head in their co-lead gem "The Fire." The saccharine sweet pop of "P.I.N." and "Mumbletypeg" juxtapose (do you like that word?) some of the disarming lyrics and disorienting mid-stride tempo shifts of the album's latter half. Every cut has that unmistakeable Rheos charm, that sense of wonderment and chemistry and zany half-imagined folklore, although it's easy to mistake Tim's more pedestrian cuts on this album as padding in between the more ambitious jaunts of Sirs Bidini and Tielli.So yeah, enough already, it's great. I bet you the reader will like this here CD. Push the Add To Cart button ... wait for it ... waiiiitt forrr itttt ... NOW!"
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1