New Condition Price: $12.01 New Condition Price: $12.01$12.01
The “New” price refers to the current Featured Offer price for a NEW version of the item. You may see this displayed as a strike-through price for used offers. Learn more
Includes FREEMP3 version of this album. Provided by Amazon Digital Services LLC. Terms and Conditions. Does not apply to gift orders. Complete your purchase to save the MP3 version to your music library.
Drag City is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. Established in the city in 1990 by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn, its first release was a Royal Trux single. It specializes in indie rock, noise rock, psychedelic folk, alternative country, and experimental music.
Track Listings
1
The Passing Bell
2
Pat Mingus
3
Get Into The Galley Shop
4
Switch Pavilion
5
Tambourine Day
6
Sleeping Spray
7
New Broadway
8
Bobby's Court
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
It's probably critical overkill to point out that the High Llamas are the prime inheritors of the lush soundscapes that Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach perfected (each in his own way) during the '60s and early '70s. On the other hand, it's also abundantly obvious that the English quartet never seems to tire of mining Bacharach's hits and Wilson's masterworks -- namely Pet Sounds and the SMiLE album -- for new ideas. Buzzle Bee might just be the group's most out-there production yet, as the Llamas churn out eight tracks full of gorgeous symphonic pop arrangements and aloof, lazy melodies that dart in and out of all kinds of studio tinkering. If this is, in fact, something Wilson and Bacharach would have made, they would have had to have made it while under the influence of some very potent psychedelics. Still, too much of it sounds like background buzz, the sort of stuff that Wilson rightly left on the cutting room floor during the Pet Sounds sessions. What would be really interesting is if these guys struck some sort of sitcom-worthy bargain with their heroes: the Llamas would teach Wilson and Bacharach to be hip, if those two would lend the Llamas some hooks. ~ Christian Hoard, Rovi
Amazon.com
For many, Sean O'Hagen--the bright-eyed retro-pop connoisseur who's recorded since the early '90s under the tag of the High Llamas--has never topped the elaborate 1994 psychedelic masterpiece Gideon Gaye. Like close contemporaries the Boo Radleys, there's a lingering suspicion that O'Hagen is a desperately undervalued pop voice, but it's difficult to herald Buzzle Bee. With guest backing vocals from Mary Hansen of occasional collaborators Stereolab and all the retro psychedelic influences fixed in place, O'Hagen's muse shows signs of being irritatingly inflexible. While this doesn't quite bring the Bacharach-gone-Krautrock space fairytale of "New Broadway" crashing to earth, it does leave this album's more prosaic moments--such as the exercise in easy-listening tedium that is "Sleeping Spray"--trampling through the same old leafy glades without any clear direction. More ideas, please. --Louis Pattison
Product details
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer
:
No
Language
:
English
Product Dimensions
:
5.59 x 4.96 x 0.39 inches; 3.25 ounces
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
This album has revealed its subtle and magnificent grandiosity. Make no mistake about it, this is a highly ambitious and creative undertaking. This album is a frontier blazer. The first song is the single most beautiful and mesmerizing in the entire Llamas canon. The rest of the album follows suit. Every song is a sprawling work of art. Though it's their shortest album, its the High Llamas album of electronic epics. Yet another masterpiece from a band that is almost unable to create anything but masterpieces. Sean O'Hagan is the most talented and ambitious pop musician in the world right now. And has been for quite some time.
I purchased this cd back in 2000 after I had bought all their others. Just got lost in the shuffle. Came across it about a week ago & threw it onto the ol' cd player. Man! Is this one BAD cd. Sounds like very BAD outtakes from their first 4 cds or a Terrible Partridge Family album. Too many "La La Las & Doo Doo Doos." Great recording if one is entertaining some Kindergartners at a Birthday party. Skip this one. Get "Cold & Bouncy" or "Gideon Gay" instead.!
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2000
When it comes to the High Llamas, you probably could not find a bigger fan. I have everything they have recorded and play them all constantly. Which brings me to the new CD, Buzzle Bee. It seems that the Llamas have a new label, a sparser sound and a very disapointing CD on thier hands. After Snowbug, I thought that they had really found themselves. The songs on Snowbug were diverse, full of life and unforgettable. The songs on Buzzle Bee are plodding, sound the same and forgettable. What happened to the string section that has been on every recording since Gideon Gaye? Sean O' Hagen is truly one of pops great songwriters. What was he doing the last two years since Snowbug came out? I know that a band like the High Llamas have a hard time selling units in this jaded market and they must be a risk to any record label, but look at Stereolabs last few discs. They have been near brillant. The Llamas need to get back and write some good songs and put out a CD that will redeem them as the pop genuises they are. Buzzle Bee is a big disappointment.
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2000
So,okay, the High Llamas' songs all sound a bit samey. Their lyrics are nonsensical (but, you know, still kinda fun), and their chord progressions (which are admittedly more sophisticated than those found on the average Oasis album) are becoming more than slightly predictable. Yet Sean O'Hagen's ear for harmony, texture, serviceable melodies, and, yes, lush instumentation continues to fascinate, even though we've heard all this before. The High Llamas definitely have carved out their own niche, and fill it nicely. Aping Brian Wilson--arguably the greatest pop classicist of all time--and adding a dash of Stereolab-esque leftfield electro-acoustica is entirely admirable. O'Hagen's melodies could be stronger, and his songs could be more structured (they seem to meander aimlessly at times), but by now, all this is beside the point--which is to envelop the listener in a blanket of exotic pet sounds that will instantly transport him or her to a palm tree-lined avenue in midwinter Pasadena as the thrum of a convertible completes the feeling of dreamy ambience.
While some fans of the band might consider this a mini album compared to some of their work, what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. This is music that lures you into it's own little world ,beguiling and elegant. It is by now obvious how The Llamas and Stereolab interact and influence each other,but this is definitely a High Llamas disc. Overall this is a gentle ,dreamy collection of songs that like all the Llamas work just keeps opening up and breathing into you. Highly recommended.
sometimes sean o'hogan can touch me with all perfection on arrangements of his music, but sometimes i can only fell the hi-fi ultra stylistic futurist sound, without felling the composer touch. this album does something more realistic, he just assumed that composer less abilities and goes far away with the arrangements, that's why this album can make more sense than their last one, snowbug, an album that can't show us nothing new as a high llamas effort.
Open Web Player
