Search - Hamell on Trial :: Mercuroyale: The Best of the Mercury Years

I have seen the future of Rock and Roll

Dann Fox | Centreville, Virginia | 07/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"and unfortunately, it is not Hamell On Trial. Too bad. Ed Hamell can do more with "a little bit of wood and a little bit of wire" (The Meeting) than all the Creeds, Pearl Jams, and two years' lineups of Ozzfest and Warped Tour can with their combined batteries of Marshall stacks. This is high-energy rock and roll. This is sincere, vivid, moving songwriting. This is a collection of Hamell's long out-of-print early work. Buy it before it goes away again. Pick up the live CD "Ed's Not Dead." Go see Hamell's live show at the next given opportuntity and thank God he survived that car accident!"

"Some call it folk, and how wrong they are!"

James Simon | New York, NY USA | 01/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"That quote is from Ed Hamell's song "Going To A Meeting" and it couldn't be more right. This collection is the essentials from Hamell's two Mercury albums "Big As Life" and "The Chord Is Mightier Than The Sword" and there's not much they missed. Too bad they let Ed go after just two albums. Hamell here, as in his live shows, is at his best when as he says he's "one guy and one guitar". There are some tracks which are over produced with other instruments, but the songs are utterly captivating. From his high school brief encounter with "John Lennon", his rant at lame-ass bands in "Z-Roxx", to his tender yet zealous opus to his mother in "Open Up The Gates", we see all sides of an artist who is truly his own one man band. If you appreciate good songwriting with one mean mutha of a guitarist, you don't want to miss this collection."