Lifehouse - Lifehouse
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Free Music Notes for Lifehouse
Free Music Review: because I tried
Hit: 4 Stars
It may well be that LIFEHOUSE fired their three working bullets on the first tracks of this eponymous and excellent album.
Then again, maybe not. The rest of these tunes are pretty good work. It's just a little tough keeping up with the right-left-another-right emotional impact of 'Come Back Down', 'You and Me', and 'Blind'. Lifehouse could pull a Simon & Garfunkel and disappear after this album and we'd still warm to these first three exquisite and pathos-filled songs twenty years hence. We'd remember who we were when we first heard them.
That's good music-making.
It is no small thing to turn melancholy into music in just this way, then to evade the speeding bullet of melodrama by finding the thin thread of hope that runs through the slice of life that Lifehouse chronicles for us here. 'Come Back Down' narrates the promise to be there for a self-destructive lover. This is the expression of a settled life, one that has come to term with the ebbs and flows of life that leave one high or, at times, just dry. There is no exaggeration in it, no overstated drama. No panic, no overt neediness. Just a slightly cool, steadily warm-hearted, open-eyed assessment of how things are:
'I hope that you can find your way back
To the place where you belong
When you come back down
If you land on your feet
I hope you find a way to make it back to me
When you come around
I'll be there for you
Don't have to be alone with what you're going through
You're coming back down
You say you feel lost can I help you find it
When you come around
From time to time we all are blinded
You're coming back down
You don't have to tell me what you're feeling
I know what you're going through
I won't be the one that lets go of you'
Most of us will never know a love like that, though we can glimpse it when the tale is sung to us with this breed of poignance.
Yet the smooth, easily-digested sound of Lifehouse is also capable of carrying the story of a man who's become quite smitten. The second track of the album's blockbuster opening tells the story. If the b-word sounds overheated, listen to tracks 1-3 a handful of times in a row and tell me it doesn't announce a rite du passage of a now grown-up band:
'There's something about you now
I can't quite figure out
Everything she does is beautiful
Everything she does is right
'Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all other people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you
and me and all other people with nothing to do
Nothing to prove
And it's you and me and all other people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you
What day is it?
And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive'
This is Sting-quality love-song writing, a cruising at altitude that one might find once or twice in a strong band's best album. That Lifehouse should prove capable of turning the diamond slowly in good light, setting facet after facet of their craft before us without blemish, is almost astonishing. Turning again to the wonder that is tracks 1-3, one finds them capable even of exquisite anguish. 'Blind' is the song that does it:
'After all this time
I never thought we'd be here
Never thought we'd be here
When my love for you was blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more than you'll ever know
A part of me died when I let you go
After all this why
Would you ever wanna leave it
Maybe you could not believe it
That my love for you was blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more than you will ever know
A part of me died when I let you go
That I loved you more than you'll ever know
A part of me died when I let you go'
The band can be forgiven if some of the tracks that follow suffer a benign mediocrity. They've proven a point. Coasting is a venal rather than a mortal sin when the artistry that gets us there is so fine.
Lifehouse's sound is gentle-thoughtful rock. Some reviewers have detected a certain sameness to their music. I find enough variation to hold my interest, though within the limits of a well-defined genre.
There's some great listening here, most of it front-loaded as a great introduction to a good album.
Free Music Review: This group is great!
Hit: 5 Stars
I love the sound of Jason's voice. It's a perfect blend of sound on each track. Can't wait to purchase the rest of their albums.Free Music Review: Another Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
There's not many bands that can release masterpieces with their first three CDs [Beatles (Please Please Me,With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night); Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin 1, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III); The Clash (The Clash (U.K. Version), Give 'em Enough Rope, London Calling) Jimi Hendrix (Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland, Axis: Bold As Love); there's not many others] Lifehouse somehow found that eschelon in music making.
This CD, once again, is a different animal than their first two. The immensely popular You and Me is only the beginning of the story. The firs track Come Down Now is excellent as well as the third track and second single Blind. As a matter of fact the first five songs (All in All and Better Luck Next Time) are all masterpieces that rival the first five tracks on their debut album No Name Face. But by no means are the rest of the songs filler, Undone features some more amazing lyrics and the underrated Walking Away is a nice late album track.
Highly recommended.
Also:
No Name Face
Stanley Climbfall
Who We Are
Free Music Review: Discover this Classic and Spread the Word!
Hit: 5 Stars
This could possibly be the greatest rock album you don't know of.
Lifehouse has been one of my favorite bands through time for a variety of reasons, but they outdid themselves on this later release. In fact their 2007 album "Who We Are" looks positively directionless when compared to the mastery displayed here. Jason Wade is an incredible lyricist, and even though certain traces of Christian rock still permeate their music, Lifehouse shows distinct evolution on this, their one and only masterpiece.
Lead single "You and Me" is in fact one of the weaker tracks here. My prime candidate for choice cut would be "The End has Just Begun" which is actually the last track on the CD, but acts as a fitting window for a Vol. 2. "All in All" and "Days go By" have that familiar sunny Lifehouse charm that reflect a lazy Californian summers' day. These infectious melodies have been structured in such a way that they lend something new each time you listen to it. Soon you will be humming these all day long. Take it from me - whether I'm shopping or traveling, I'm always humming something or the other from this album at some point. Very, very catchy melodies.
Sadly, this album has been overlooked and is underrated even by fans. Even sadder, its only known by the weak lead single "You and Me" which to me, though quite nice, is not at all a reflection of what this album is all about.
If you're looking for a slower rock album with memorable choruses that will stand the test of time (2 years and its still a fixture on my IPod), then "Lifehouse" is the album for you.
Five Stars.
Free Music Review: One of the best CD's
Hit: 5 Stars
Best Lifehouse CD to date. It's a totally different sound- but don't be disappointed. Lifehouse started working with some of the same guys who works with John Mayer, and DMB....so naturally there is a totally different sound- less rock, more alternative, but easier listening. I think they'll find a more loyal music crowd in a rapid changing rock scene with this album. Honestly, I can listen to this CD over and over. There are some amazing lyrics on here, and beautiful music- not to mention the voices.