Album Analysis III, Mental Jewelry Options

[Hoodstock]

The Idea - Analyze the album (in this case Mental Jewelry) song by song, stating whatever you want or whatever comes to mind about each song. Go into as much or as little detail as you want and then summarize your overall thoughts on the album at the end. Just speak your mind openly.

You can copy and paste the following to make it easy if you want:


1) Pain Lies On The Riverside

2) Operation Spirit

3) The Beauty Of Gray

4) Brothers Unaware

5) Tired Of "Me"

6) Mirror Song

7) Waterboy

8) Take My Anthem

9) You Are The World

10) Good Pain

11) Mother Earth Is A Vicious Crowd

12) 10,000 Years (Peace Is Now)

[Distance to Me]

Mental Jewelry is my personal fifth favorite album...

1: Pain Lies on the Riverside: This opening song shows what this album is all about. Great drumming and bass playing, while the guitar takes a backseat. A rocking song to one of Lives most rocking albums. Great.

2: Operation Spirit: This song should have been the opener, because of it's "did you give it up" intro. It's still fine where it is, though. Wonderfully catchy and one of my favorites on the album.

3: The Beauty of Gray: Another great song, the start-stop playing is interesting, and some great lyrics (notice I said great, not necessarily deep) make this a very good song.

4: Brothers Unaware: Though I still like this song, it may be my least favorite on the album. It's too much like what their later stuff would be (the hard-soft formula starts here).

5: Tired of "Me": Another favorite of mine, some more strong rhythm here (hell, there's strong rhythm all over this album). The chorus is so catchy it should be a disease. Woulda been great fun in concert, I bet.

6: Mirror Song: Easily the most under appreciated single ever released by the band, this song is one of my absolute favorites, truly beautiful, and I almost fainted when I heard the opening drums and strums (ha) of this song in my first ever Live concert!

7: Water Boy: I like this song a lot as well, but it's another one of my least favorite on this album. It just seems too much like another typical song compared to the rest of the album.

8: Take My Anthem: This is where the album starts slowing down a bit. This song reminds me a bit of "The Dam at Otter Creek" because it never really stops gaining speed.

9: You Are the World: This song starts off like Morning Humor, and then develops into another one of the anthem style songs on this album.

10: Good Pain: A great song. Listen to it for yourself to figure out what's great about it.

11: Mother Earth is a Vicious Crowd: This is an amazing song! Was my favorite on the album for a while, before the Mirror song took it's place. "Talk to me now!"

12: 10,000 Years: I think I would've liked this song more if it was somewhere else on the album. It seems too typical ending the album on the soft, almost acoustic note.

Conclusion: This is a great album, that has aged with me surprisingly well. This isn't Live's best, but it's far from their worst.

This post has been edited by Distance to Me: Nov 24 2007, 10:51 am