Search - Timbuk 3 :: Eden Alley

Here comes Reverend Jack

Paul Farr | Sharpsburg, GA USA | 03/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like your rock sparse, bluesy, smart, and rough around the endges, you can't go wrong with Timbuk 3, and this is one of their best. A lot of variation here, from the smash-bang funkiness of Reverend Jack to the freakishly catchy Sample the Dog and the dreamy darkness of Easy. In fact, the one drawback to this album is that it's hard to sustain a mood when listening to it, but the tunes are great, and some (like Jack and Sample) are absolutely indispensible."

This captured me once

Bruce P. Barten | Saint Paul, MN United States | 05/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When "A Hundred Lovers" and "Looks Like Dark to Me" were being supported with a tour, I finally caught up with the members of this group sitting at a table in a music cafe'. I hope they had finished eating, because they weren't going to stick around long enough to have a long conversation with me. At the time, it seemed like they were the most famous people I had ever talked to, and it was more fun for me than talking to Harvard professors. This was not like a normal conversation, or even like discovering that a person you were talking with is a lawyer for some old enemy, though I suspect Henry the K. would have had some fun if he ever had the opportunity to tell me: when you get to Auschwitz, be sure to tell them that you are supposed to get special treatment. Like always, I was saying things that you would only expect from anyone who imagines talking to Henry the K., and I told them:`There was a time when I couldn't see a guitar without wanting to play the basic backing part for the song "Sample the Dog." '`When was that?'`Back in the "Sample the Dog" days.'Today I listened to this album again to refresh my memory of what my life had been about when I felt most alive. Timbuk 3 had already moved on from most of this stuff by the time I caught up with them."We aren't going to sing any of the songs you mentioned tonight."They took a request from the audience for the song "Rev. Jack and his Roamin' Cadillac Church" from this great CD that night, and it fit right in with the other songs they were doing, but the other references to religion, Bob Marley, Moses, and "Jesus was an outlaw, just like you and me" did not get into the show that night. Many people in the Twin Cities area act like they never heard of Timbuk 3 until I start singing "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades," which was earlier in their career than this collection, but I thought they kept getting smarter far longer than I would expect from any other people who can sing and play guitar so much better than I do."

A wry look at life...

A. Ort | Youngstown, Ohio | 06/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you are familiar with their first album, this one carries on in a similar vein. It is so easy to listen to with catchy guitar work and penetrating lyrics with just a splash of cynicism and a whole lotta irony.



It's a bit more personal than the first album, less about the outside world and politics, less social commentary, and more songs about people and strange situations. 'Sample the Dog' makes it worth the purchase. Overall, a great sophomore effort."