Search - Eddie From Ohio :: Looking Out the Fishbowl

Yeah, this is pretty much perfect

emilyss@mediaone.net | New York, NY | 08/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We decided, a friend and I, that this was actually a perfect cd. Rarely leaves my cd player, after about two years, and I'm still not tired of it.EFO's strange and marvelous for a number of reasons, mostly because it's tough to get tired of them, because every time you think you're burned out on Julie Murphy's voice, one of the guys steps up and does a terrific song like "Woman of Faith" or "Twenty Thousand Hearts." But lemme back up.First couple times I listened to this cd, I only made it through the first four songs. Not because the rest wasn't great, but because I got SNAGGED by the likes of "Stupid American" and "Fifth of July" and then spent about six months trying to decipher the wondrous tale of "From Dacca." And that was enough to make this cd more than worth its while.I think I found "Bleecker to Broadway" next, and listened to that one on repeat long enough to get sick of it, over and over and over again for months. And then! I discovered "Twenty Thousand Hearts," ("They said it's still last year in New York City / you said, 'New York where?'") and "Irish Dream" ("and your conspiracy theories on space travel said that you just hadn't found it yet"). And those were the guys, Mike, Eddie & Robbie, and if I'd been burned out on Julie after my repeated "Bleecker to Broadway" listenings, they jump-started this cd again for me.And then! "Minnesota 1945" appeared, which is, no fooling, one of the all-time greatest songs. I mean: "and they talked about Hitler, and made love to piss him off." Tale of a black woman and a white man: "you are the burlap sack, you are Indian silk, you are the terror and the comfort of night. You are white and black, and I am chocolate milk, I am the breadth and you are the height..."Haven't burned out on that one yet. Revisiting the early ones too. But then I found "Atlantic," the last song on the cd, which I'd always sort of ignored, except it turns out it's TERRIFIC. Long distance love affair, meeting in dreams. "Till the airfares drop to Greyhound rates, for now that'll have to do."I think the whole story about this album could be summed up in my relationship with "Loitering in the Lobby," though, which was the last song I grabbed onto. On first listen, on first five thousand listens, it's just an EFO-style gimmicky song, the repeating of "loitering (loitering!) loitering in the lobby!" Except, whoa. Turns out, there's a marvelous story there, using the Wizard of Oz, of all things, to offer a non-rose-colored look at the mid-South, tobacca-and-gun-country. "So the straw man comes to the city of green / says look at my field and see what I've seen / tobacco leaves blowin' say that I'm a man who's upwind from Virgilina. A heart of gold but a mind of air / I'm not asking for the till. / My son's band played at Farm Aid / but my plow is still / and how much longer will I keep the crows at bay..."So I found that little gem, smack in the middle of a song I thought I knew, in a cd I thought I was sick of already. And that's about the shape of this perfect album. It's got treasures buried everywhere, the stories are perfect, well-wrought masterpieces that are just so catchy you might miss the brilliant message the first thousand times through.Get this cd. You can't possibly go wrong."

For a good time, dial EFO

dimike@bestweb.net | New York | 08/16/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The problem with reviewing a band like Eddie From Ohio is that I am forced to try and describe the music in relation to bands you might have heard of, and this isn't fair to an outfit as creative and original as EFO. Is it pop? Is it folk? Is it serious music? Is it "gimmick" music? The answer is (e) All of the above. EFO hails from Virginia and plays a great blend of folk-ridden pop... or pop-ridden folk that features some of the sharpest, cleverest, wittiest lyrics you'll hear these days. The songs range from very funny (Stupid American, Eddie's Concubine) to deeply moving (Minnesota 1945, Twenty Thousand Hearts) and everything in between you never thought someone would write a song about. It's sort of like the Beautiful South... without the bitterness... and sounding completely different. Imagine XTC... from Virginia. Anyway, despite a couple of musically nondescript tracks, the overall quality is high and the mood is upbeat and fun. For a good time, dial EFO."

EFO Studio - The Best Yet!

dimike@bestweb.net | 11/01/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not sure how much I can add on this one. "Looking Out The Fishbowl" is, in my opinion, Eddie from Ohio's finest studio offering to date. The songs are tightly crafted and beautifully performed. All the spunk and fire from the live shows is there, plus the higher production standards of well-recorded studio album.If you are new to EFO, buy this and "Portable EFO Show" for a taste of the live experience."