Search - Wall of Voodoo :: Seven Days in Sammystown

Brilliant Voodoo! Moves Beyond Ridgway Era!

mwreview | Northern California, USA | 10/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember being skeptical about this album. Wall of Voodoo without Stan Ridgway!?! I already had Voodoo's debut EP, Dark Continent, and Call of the West and they were among my favorite and most played albums. Certainly a new singer would change the band's sound. I ran across the Ugly Americans live LP with Andy Prieboy on vocals, and it sounded great so I thought I'd give Sammystown a chance.Well, I was right, the new singer did change the band's sound...but for the better! This album takes Voodoo from the mechanical factory-like synth sound of the Ridgway era to whole new areas. "(Don't Spill My) Courage" is a type of song I never expected Voodoo to play. "Big City" (about the dangers of LA) simply rocks (I played this song to death back in high school)! "Far Side of Crazy" and "Blackboard Sky" (both on the Ugly American's album) are amazing as is "Tragic Vaudeville" which really rocks and has awesome vocals! "Mona" and "Museums" have a wonderful eerie beauty to them. Harkening back to their earlier songs about the working class stiff is a unique cover of the old miner's union anthem "Dark As A Dungeon." "Business of Love" shows signs of that great Voodoo humor. The unique Voodoo guitar sound is still there but the music has so much more meat to it and is a lot more accessible than the earlier albums. In sum, Wall of Voodoo matured!"

A museum full of culture

M. Mcconnell | Scotland | 02/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Why is this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful album still out of print in today's consumerist utopia of freedom and choice? When almost every other album by any cheapskate charlatan who ever stood in front of a mic is available in such unwanted, environment-destroying abundance in every flipping shop in town? Why are people buying U2's Greatest Hits again again again, when a twisted, romantic, sinister and beautiful masterpiece like this gets losts in the mists of time? I just wasn't made for these times."

Pure genius

HIPPIE DAVE | Shelf, w.yorks United Kingdom | 11/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the eighteen or so years since this was released (and deserves rerelease) the music has not date at all.This is the post Stan Ridgway WOV but the music is excellent..Standout tracks are Tragic Vaudeville, Don't spill my courage away, Blackboard Sky and Johnny Cash tune Dark as a dungeon..If you get chance to hear, or even own it, go for it.. Excellent, and currently unavailable, a crime in itself considering so much rubbish around today... Hippie Dave.. England"