The New Amsterdams - Worse for the Wear (12 tracks) +Album Reviews

Great Indie-Folk

gumpkennerdly | atlanta | 05/23/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"matt pryor really knows how to craft songs well. he also assembled a group of talented musicians to help him out. some songs are much "happier" than his previous albums. it has a certain optimism not found in para toda vida. "vignette" and "slight return" are dreamy pop instrumentals that *can* bring a tear to one's eye. songs such as "asleep at the wheel" and "all our vice" make this a good road album (especially at night). this album definitely deserves five stars."

I now consider The Get Up Kids as the side project...

M. Manzella | North Riverside, Il United States | 03/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What an amazing album. This is the kind of album you can listen to from front to back and still be begging for more when it ends. It's has a very mellow feel to it and you'll fall in love with his voice and just the way he sings things. "Spoils of the Spoiled" and "Hover Near Fame" start the album off with a jolt of up-tempo harmonic bliss. And sets the tone for one of my favorite albums ever. Pick this album up, on your second listen, you'll be hooked. I could write much more but I'm off to work. God bless. This album won't let you down."

It's about time...

Steven Liddicoat | Portland, OR | 11/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been following The Get Up Kids and The New Amsterdams for a long time now and have been consistently frustrated. While all of their releases are all very respectable and hold permanent places in my disc collection, with every release by I feel as though brilliance is being dabbled in but not grasped. Here, Matt Pryor has grabbed on, and is taking it for all it's worth. The pop sensibility of this album is overwhelming. It's so simple and yet so devestatingly catchy and infectuous. Lyrics of lost love, bitterness, and rejection somehow seem to inspire hope when laid over the somber beautiful soundscape Pryor has created. He hasn't held back on using the gamut of instrumentation to create this sound either. All the expected are in place (guitar, piano, etc...) but it's the inclusion of the occasional organ or funk-inspired down tuning that really adds that bit of extra bounce. This album succeeds on every level and will surely be one of the most under appreciated releases for a long time to come. Maybe that's for the best though, because those who do discover this masterpeice will undoubtably feel intimately inspired by it and will want to keep it all their own."

Let me be the first....

Joel | 08/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's fun, its light, it's catchy. It's nothing you haven't heard a million times before. New ground isn't being broken here, but considering "On A Wire" I don't think that it's really necessary right now. Infact, this album is exactly what it needed to be. The drums are back, after being absent in the last album, and they added a new kick that really spruced up this CD. The beats are pop, the hooks are catchy, and even so its not going to make your mouth drop open, it will still leave you feeling good and relaxed. This is the album that "On A Wire" should have been, and in my estimation what The Get Up Kids were trying to do with their last CD, but came out all wrong when they attempted music that they wern't ready to make. The strong songs on this CD are Spoils for the Spoiled and Hanging on For Hope, and the rest of the CD isn't far off the pace. It's simply a good, easy going album that isn't hard to like and gives you what you're looking for."

The album I always come back to

K. Peter | Milwaukee, WI | 01/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Do you know that feeling where you are totally sick of all of the music that you own? This is the album that I always come back to when I feel that way. I have heard each of these songs a million times, and each time they seem as fresh as when I unsealed the annoying wrapper that holds all cd cases shut.

The New Amsterdams really benefit from the full band that they utilize in this album, as it is not just Mr. Pryor crooning over an acoustic guitar. He is able to craft songs that belong anywhere from being played around a campfire (From California, Hanging on for Hope) to cruising around Wisconsin farmland (The Spolis of the Spoiled, Hover Near Fame).

People often say that there are some albums that "every song is great, but you need to listen to the whole album start to finish". This album is great and every song is great, however each track can be listened to entirely on its own. From its stripped down tracks (All Your Vice) to piano driven gems (Worse for the Wear) the entire album is a pleasure to listen to as a whole OR as a part."

Search - The New Amsterdams :: Worse for the Wear

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