Eisley - Combinations
List Price:
Our Price: $3.99
You Save: $9.99 (71%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.99 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: EisleyEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-08-14
Music Label: Reprise / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Many Funereals
- Invasion
- Taking Control
- Go Away
- I Could Be There For You
- Come Clean
- Ten Cent Blues
- A Sight to Behold
- Combinations
- If You're Wondering
Free Music Notes for Combinations
Free Music Review: Fairy Pop No More - Eisley's All Grown Up
Hit: 5 Stars
"I glimpsed a bat with butterfly wings, oh, marvelous things"?
Hmm...not so much.
Indie-pop band Eisley (made up of siblings Stacy DuPree, Chauntelle DuPree, Weston DuPree, and Sherri DuPree-Gilbert and their cousin Garron DuPree) from Tyler, Texas, isn't writing about make belive anymore. It's a little sad for someone who loved their first CD "Room Noises" as much as I did. However, "Combinations", though much, much different, is still one of my favorite CD's of all time.
It starts out strong with "Many Funerals", which has a much harder rock sound than anything heard from Eisley since "Over the Mountains" from their "Laughing City EP". For those of us who've heard songs from back when Eisley was young (songs like "Pretender", "Dream for Me", and "Blackened Crown"), it's not such a surprise. Overall, it's a strong track which really sets the tone for the rest of the record.
Next is the first single from the album, "Invasion". Based on the novel "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", it has some of that previous Eisley fantasy attached, but is still so different. The best parts are the keyboards at the beginning and Stacy's bridge part, "And they will tray to make us forget ourselves/One by one/One by one/Call me crazy but they are after us/One by one/One by one".
"Taking Control" is third. At first, I wasn't too fond of this cut, but after listening to it more, it's kind of grown on me. The chorus is very catchy.
Up next are twin tracks "Go Away" and "I Could Be There For You". I say that they're twins because they go together. Once you listen to them, you'll understand. "Go Away" is definitley one of my favorite tracks on the whole album. The back-and-forth "I am holding you"s are just magical, and the instruments really seem to blend on this tune in particular. Like "Taking Control", "I Could Be There For You" has taken a while to grow on me. My favorite part is hearing Chauntelle singing on the bridge ("You'll never contemplate that I am near/And help goes unseen/You're the cave, admitting whom you choose/And I could be there for you"). I still can't understand why she's nervous about singing. She's just as good as her sisters! Hopefully we'll hear more of Chauntelle on future records.
"Come Clean" is another of my favorites. From the strumming ukelele in the beginning to the ENTIRE band (boys included) singing the chorus at the end, it's a charming little tune that's guarenteed to get stuck in your head.
The country-tinged "Ten Cent Blues" again shows the versatility of the band and goes back to old-school Eisley's story-songs like "One Day I Slowly Floated Away". The guitars are the real focus of this song, and Sherri and Chauntelle do a really good job.
"A Sight To Behold" is probably my least favorite cut, probably because it's just too tough for my tastes. Sherri and Stacy also sound a bit too polished and pretty for the tune. The fancy harmonies just don't fit in my opinion.
The title track is most likely my favorite song out of this album, and maybe my favorite Eisley song. The marxophone, I think it is, that starts the tune adds to the mystique of the verses and enhances the piano on the chorus (I went for dso long and I was so wrong/And then I met you/And now I can't live without you/And I don't want to/I've done that all my life up til now), sung beautifully by the sisters. I can't decide if Chauntelle sings the bridge on this one or not, but whoever does sounds lovely.
The closer, "If You're Wondering", is like a music box lullaby - lovely, swirling vocals entwined with tinkling little instruments. If nothing else on this album is worthwhile, this song would make it worthwhile. It's haunting, almost, but in a beautiful way. The gentle sound of rain falling closes the song and the album.
All in all, "Combinations" is a new kind of sound from Eisley, but it keeps all the beauty and talent from previous recordings and increases it.
Top Tracks: "Invasion", "Go Away", "Come Clean", "Combinations", and, if nothing else, "If You're Wondering".
Combinations Poster
The great thing about Eisley's follow-up to 2005's Room Noises is not just that it's a crystalline, polished piece of pop craft, but that it still manages to feel personal. The DuPree sisters have conjured another blizzard of vocal harmony, and made it sound like something they could do in their sleep. But here it floats over music that is both sturdy and whimsical. Still quite young (Sherri is 23, Stacy is 18), the sisters and their assorted family members (all five members of the band are related) have improved on the occasional blandness that compromised Noises. Combinations is still over-produced and would profit from a few more rough edges, but the guitars are a little crunchier and the music sounds weightier. Less content to exist as backgrounds for the DuPrees' lovely voices, the structures of songs like "I Could Be There for You" stay fresh and unpredictable after more than a few listens. And yet there's no fat here, with no track exceeding four minutes. That economy of sound helps Eisley get a lot of range on a song like "Taking Control," which opens with a gorgeous verse, shifts into a blink-and-you'll-miss-it bridge and--bam!--we're onto the chorus. The whole thing takes exactly 26 seconds. It's a little scary how young they are relative to their songwriting chops. Listening to Eisley is fun now, but even more fun when you consider their through-the-roof potential. --Matthew CookeAlternative Rock Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Alternative Rock Music CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $397.77
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $199.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Lights - SiberiaRelease date: 2011-10-04; Music CD
Best price: $9.30
Price in other shops:
Erin McCarley - Love, Save the EmptyRelease date: 2009-01-06; Music CD
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
A Fine Frenzy - One Cell in the SeaFINE FRENZY; Release date: 2007-07-17; Music CD
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Dia Frampton - RedRelease date: 2011-12-06; Music CD
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops:
Rilo Kiley - More AdventurousRILO KILEY; Release date: 2004-08-17; Music CD
Best price: $5.91
Price in other shops:
Deas Vail - Birds & CagesRelease date: 2010-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops:
Eisley - Marvelous ThingsRelease date: 2003-12-09; Music CD
Best price: $6.49
Eisley - Laughing CityRelease date: 2003-05-20; Music CD
Best price: $7.43
Eisley - Room NoisesEISLEY; Release date: 2005-02-08; Music CD
Best price: $6.41
Price in other shops:
Eisley - The ValleyEqual Vision Records; Release date: 2011-03-01; Published: 2011-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $9.11
Price in other shops: