Search - Hot Water Music :: Finding the Rhythms

Buy it for tracks 1-7

Music Fan | 07/22/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I wanted to write a review since nobody else has, and I just love some of the songs on this "album", although it really is more like 2 EP's smashed together on one disc (more on that in a minute...)



Also, I am no HWM expert or this-is-my-favorite-band-ever kind of fan. However, I do like their music. A lot. This is my opinion of this album, so you are free to disagree.



I was introduced to HWM with this album back in '97/98. I was immediately drawn to the basslines and vocals on "Scraping" and "The Passing." But it wasn't until 9 years later that I truly found an appreciation for it when I spent time really listening (and reading) the lyrics. Now "Counting Numbers" is by far my favorite HWM song. There is just something very "honest" about this band's music.



OK, so this album is far from perfect. I'm a stickler for sound quality, but can overlook it to an extent to hear the song within. Like I said, it's really like 2 EP's put together. The quality on tracks 1-7 recorded by Steve Heritage are decent, but not overly clean (which is not a bad thing in this case) like later releases which are much more polished (when they certainly had a larger recording budget). I can't even listen to the 2nd half of the album because the quality is so poor. Maybe that's not fair, but that's just my opinion. I think it would have been smarter to release them as 2 separate EP's, but enough about that...



So if you are already a HWM fan, you probably already own this album and you are reading this review to see if you agree/disagree with what other people think. That's cool. If you are not a fan and are just interested in hearing HWM, I recommend getting another album first then come back to this. Like I said, I love the first 7 tracks on this, with Counting Numbers currently being my favorite HWM song. I like the fact that I was drawn in by the melodies and overall sound of the band enough that I wanted to read the lyrics just so I could understand what they were talking about. Once I understood, I was hooked."

My personal favorite...

C. Gebel | 08/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of Hot Water Music generally have grief with this album. The recording quality is less than favorable, the singers haven't quite found their vocal niches yet. But in my opinion, 'Finding the Rhythms' has what the other albums lacked, raw sincerity. Personally, I believe this is the only must-own record they ever put out."