Search - Daniel Amos :: Motor Cycle

Daniel Amos' psychedelic album

Greg Brady | Capital City | 04/01/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Terry Taylor has always been an unabashed Beatles and Beach Boys fan and on this disc he makes it explicit. This is clearly his homage to SGT. PEPPER and the band leap headlong into it, saturating the tape with sound. It's the most "produced" album they've ever done and for that reason many fans dismiss it. That's a mistake. Although this doesn't tie together quite as seamlessly as their classic SHOTGUN ANGEL, it's very good and probably the DA album I find myself pulling out most often.



HIGHLIGHTS:

"Banquet at the World's End" is a clever look at Judgement Day from the point of view of the NON-believers who scoff at those of whom Jesus said "the last shall be first". ("The poor are coming/The lame are running/in their sleazy clothes and orthopedic shoes/There's a harelip spokesman shouting out the news..") In the end they stay outside declaring "'Leave us alone now/cause Hell feels like home now'". "Hole in the World" examines the mysterious divide between this visible world and the one to come. ("Here every tongue cries 'Christ is risen'...I see old enemies embracing") "Guilty" is a plea of the prodigal for a 77th chance ("I'm gonna break the circuit/Set aside all my disguises/Don't run away screaming out/or worse, laughing now that I'm/guilty/(take me back)". "My Frontier" questions whether our secret sins are too much to be covered over. ("Hurry sundown/bring us low/take us beyond our faces/kick it apart/kick the whole world apart") "Noelle" is a tribute to Taylor's daughter done as though she were in a Lewis Carroll book. ("She's very good friends with the mouse next door/and the flowers in the yard")



BOTTOM LINE:

Tuneful AND smart. Recommended for fans of the Beach Boys and Beatles particularly. If it's forty or less, get it."