Search - Reeves Gabrels :: Ulysses

Welcome Back Reeves!

Costas Tsiouklas | Balwyn North, VIC Australia | 05/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Reeves Gabrels is back. Back in a big way. The raging riffs and rough, gritty guitar work from "Squall" are there, however there is also an atmospheric, ethereal quality to his new release. The album begins full of energy and does not let up. Gabrels' playing is still quirky, eclectic and never dull. The recording quality is outstanding.The only problem I have with this album is that it is way too short in duration. At just over 45 minutes it leaves you wanting more. Let's hope the next release is more substantial in length. In today's era of CDs, 45 minutes is unacceptable."

EX-BOWIE GUITARIST + ROBERT SMITH... need I say any more?

08/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"UNBELIEVABLY GREAT! Discovering this record thru a friend, I've been playing it for over a month almost every day... it might be one of the truly great overlooked albums in recent years. Reeves Gabrels (ex-guitarist: David Bowie, Tin Machine) is obviously a very accomplished guitar player, but he proves here that he's a really fine songwriter too. Only one instrumental! The songs are strong and get better with each listen, I personally really like Jewel, Accident, Standing, Party Puppet, and Yesterday's Gone, which has The Cure's Robert Smith on vocals. (Most songs it's Reeves on vocals.) Other guests on the CD are David Bowie, Frank Black, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), etc. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CD! Five Stars."

1st go impression: absolute crap!

S. Heath | 05/12/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I was pretty excited about this album because of the other good reviews and because I like other avant-garde music and rock. I really admire what guys like Robert Fripp and Buckethead are doing and where they're going with the guitar.

However, as I slid this album into the player, the first thing I hear is some of the most amateur programming ever! The first track completely sucked! The lyrics were retarded and the singing was awful! I don't usually care about lyrics, so I was mostly concentrating on the guitar work, but the singing was so terrible that I couldn't get over it. I let the first track wrap up and hoped for something better to come. I was let down again, and again. The only track on here that would be at all listenable to the average listener is Yesterday's Gone. I also kind of liked Jewel. But the rest of the album was terrible. The mixing was all off; the terrible vocals would be way above the rest of the music, then a horrible guitar "solo" would come screaming in above the music at the same level as what the vocals were.

That was really the biggest let-down. I figured, here's a guy who's making a guitar album, so the guitar is going to be awesome! But it wasn't awesome at all. It was really techy and gadgety, and didn't really require any talent to do. And by techy and gadgety, I don't mean like Tom Morrello. I mean he used a lot of effects to produce a hell of a lot of noise, relying heavily on sustain and not at all on harmony. It seems like he has no idea what a freakin' scale is! Let alone modes.

Anyway, I'm gonna listen to it again to give it another chance, but I wanted my initial impression to be documented."