Wow...
M. Mulcahy | Milan, IN | 08/17/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"$16.98 for this CD? It's excessive but one of the few I'd say is worth it.
I loved "Down With Wilco" and "In Rock" and own every other Minus 5 album, but this one has got to be the most impressive. It showcases frontman Scott McCaughey's humor and witty lyrics to a T. Overall, it's a wonderful and, although it does have a track or two cast-off from another source ("Hotel Senator" is from the Wilco sessions), they're re-worked to fit nicely into the grand scheme of things on this album.
The highlight for me is "Cemetary Row" with Colin Meloy guesting on vocals. As a loyal Decemberists fan, I was excited to hear he was guesting on the album, but I didn't expect how wonderful the song would actually be. It sounds like Scott wrote it just for Colin to sing. Brilliant."
Great songs and great guests fill out Minus Five's latest
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 03/22/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This side project of the Young Fresh Fellows' (and R.E.M. sideman) Scott McCaughey was originally conceived to catch the overflow from his prolific reservoir of songwriting. The Minus Five are more a constantly changing collective than an evolving band, with a complex history of membership, recording circumstances and releases. Initially formed by McCaughey with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, and subsequently adding The Posies Jon Auer and Ken Stringfield, the Minus Five released a mailorder-only EP, an indie full-length and a full-length for the major-label subsidiary Hollywood. McCaughey's solo album was reissued as a Minus Five release, there was a one-off collection with Wilco issued under the Minus Five moniker, and outtakes from earlier sessions populated later albums. What's held this scavenger's path together has been McCaughey, whose voice and cockeyed songs have been the unifying thread.
McCaughey's fascination with the Beatles is on full display with the opener, blending a Lennon-esque vocal with strings and thudding Paul-and-Ringo styled piano-and-drums. McCaughey leads the collective through raucous Northwest rock, baroque pop, Nashville Skyline folk, and twangy country-rock, melding dark lyrical fragments with the craft of a pop album. In addition to the core "Five" of McCaughey, Buck, Bill Rieflin and John Ramberg, guests include the Decemberists' Collin Melroy providing vocals on the country-pop ballad "Cemetery Row," Wilco on "With a Gun" and Kelly Hogan and John Wesley Harding on "Twilight Distillery." Though recorded in dribs and drabs with a floating coterie of participants in a variety of locations and under varying circumstances, the songs truly hang together as an album that's sure to please Minus Five (and Scott McCaughey's collective of) fans. [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]"