Search - Fred Eaglesmith :: Tinderbox

Fred peaked awhile ago

TSC | Santa Cruz, CA United States | 11/16/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Now you Fredheads will not like this review, so you might as well mark this review as "not helpful" and stop reading right now. To me, this is simply another case of "same spit, different day" or different album. While the lyrics might be interesting, the sound is too similar to his earlier work to be of interest to me. If you do not own Eaglesmith's previous CDs, I highly suggest you start with "Drive-in Movie". Maybe I have just tired of Eaglesmith and his being the king of dysfunction. Regardless, I wish I enjoyed his current music as much as I used to enjoy listening to him 10 years ago. Maybe he could win me back as a fan if he were to write something which was not so immediately identifiable as a Fred Eaglesmith song. Like I said, you Fredheads wouldn't like this review, as it doesn't kiss Fred's posterior."

Fred Waits?

J. Larson | San Francisco | 03/31/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As a relative newcomer but one who has taken a deep dive into much of his past recordings I eagerly brought this one home and popped it in for a listen. Now I'm surprised to see one other review say this is "same spit, dif day" as I like this the least of all 7 or 8 of his past recordings I've listend to. Was Fred listening to lots of Tom Waits around the time he recorded this? He doesn't manage to cast the same spell Tom does, and I can count on one hand the songs I even kinda like here across 18 tracks! So, Chain Gang, Shoulder to the Plow, Get On Your Knees, Wheels, Stand, would be the tunes I cull from this one for repeated listens but Tinderbox has taken me a long time to digest, listen through and even get to this point. Hey I'll always love much of his body of work, don't start here, it might be your end and you will miss many treasures..."