Search - Soul Asylum :: CANDY FROM A STRANGER

Very good!

11/14/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Despite the non-good reviews...this album has great music.There are happy songs, but the ballads really give the album a sense. The best tracks are Blood into wine,The Game, and See You later. I've enjoyed the music very much."

The curse of Winona

11/14/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The curse of Winona: a general law that states when your frontman takes up with a famous Hollywood actress, all that celebrity head turns their musical nous to margarine. It nearly happened to Dave Grohl, and just look what Barbara Bach did to Ringo, Courtney to Kurt, Faye Dunaway to Peter Wolf...the list goes on and on.Granted, the process of blandification for this group of non-starters began long before their previous album, 1995's truly abysmal LET YOUR DIM LIGHT SHINE, a monument of major-label wet-rock angst. With a career that might be politely described as relentlessly B-grade, things haven't got any better. In fact, CANDY FROM A STRANGER is soooooo bad, it's even worse. How bad? How about Van Halen bad. If you believe such a level of decreptitude to be impossible, check the big-hair chorus and wank of a guitar line on "I Will Still Be Laughing." Not even Bad English or John Parr would sink so low.A track like "Blood Into Wine" (if the title alone isn't sign enough) redefines the big, bad ballad and nothing is helped by Dave Pirner's nasal whine of a voice. On the stunning piece of acoustic junk "Shine", he actually sounds like Axl Rose.Some bands want to be great. Others are happy just to get on a soundtrack once in awhile."