Search - Felice Brothers :: Yonder Is The Clock

Authentic Music---no "button-pushing" overproduction

J. L. Todd | md | 04/09/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I would have to say that "Yonder is the Clock" is perhaps, as a whole, the Felice Brothers' most complete and mature effort. In this, their 3rd album (the first two beingTonight at the Arizona and The Felice Brothers) the Felice Brothers have continued their personlized Americana style in what feels like their best all-round effort. Their talent--at melodies, wordplay, story-telling, and excitement--has not waned in the least. Their live shows are legendary. I have seen them twice (and soon to be a third time) and it just gets better. I have never heard an authentic studio album that accurately reproduced the "live" feel as this one. One such clue is the presence of what some highly-polished productions would refer to as timbre, tuning, or rhythmic imperfections that may be contained herein

but which contribute greatly to the overall quality. Fast and slow songs

alike are one-after-the-other enjoyable.

Hyperbolies aside, this band deserves attention--and this album is a great place to start."

An early favorite for best album of 2009

Texarado Man | Morrison, CO USA | 04/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is in the running for my favorite album so far this year - I have gotten several dozen, many of them great, so this is no mean feat.



The ramshackle but spot-on instrumentation colors the tales of life in this teetering world with sadness, humor and grace. Think an album by Ronnie Lane and Tom Waits backed by the Old Crow Medicine Show and the Sadies."

Timeless Music

J. D. JANSEN | St. Louis, MO | 04/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With "Yonder Is The Clock", The Felice Brothers have created a collection of timeless music, rooted in traditional American musical forms, and with tales as old as the Bible or as new as today's headlines. As the title would suggest nostalgia and death permeate the album, as well as a sense of lives coming apart, usually because of human weakness and frailty. The brothers are solid musicians, able to confidently pull off uptempo numbers, as well as slower piano and guitar ballads. Highlights for me include "Penn Station", a gospelly tune about a dying vagrant (no photo I.D., no past to torture me), hoping to catch the train to heaven, but fearing the faster train with the devil engineer. "Chicken Wire" and "Ambulance Man" segue into each other nicely as an invalid is taken away by ambulance and pleads "please let me ride, I'm at the end". But he's been "wrapped in chicken wire of my own device" and wonders (in Ambulance Man) "where are your warm summer winds, where's my lover been?"

The fun, catchy "Run, Chicken, Run" is a zydeco tinged tale of the "chicken" running from his troubles because "chickens don't get no life after death". "The Boy From Lawrence County" is a classic tale of betrayal for love and money, where nobody comes out ahead in the end. "Cooperstown" again reminisces about baseball, but as a metaphor for achieving the unlikely when "everyone's sure that the game is over"

"Yonder Is The Clock" gets better with each listen, as truly timeless and authentic music does. By the way, the title comes from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger" Chapter 9--worth a read in and of itself, and available online."