Search - Ulrich Schnauss :: Goodbye

A soaring journey through peaceful scenes

Eric J. Anderson | Ankeny, Iowa | 04/07/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A very nice chill-out album. Put the headphones on, let the sound wash over you, and the mental images form: Peaceful islands, cathedrals, vast plains, the gentle rocking of a railroad car. It's virtually all melodic, and everything emerges from a warm cloud of reverberation. Vocals, when present, are of the Cocteau Twins school -- you know they're singing, but you can't usually make out what words or languages the vocalist is using.



While the music is relaxing, I also find it emotionally uplifting, even hopeful. Beats drive the music forward, but percussion is not out front. This is sort of the antithesis of the clickety-klunky school of techno. This music is pretty, warm, and inviting. Medusa is the toughest piece on the record, sounding more rhythmic, vaguely discordant, slightly distorted, but still hanging onto its harmonic underpinning. I found all the other cuts quite relaxing.



It's hard to compare Ulrich Schnauss' work on Goodbye to any other band. It almost defines its own genre. It may or may not be to your liking. Listen to samples or whole tracks somewhere, like Ulrich's Myspace page. Hopefully you will like it, and buy it. I did. Very solid throughout. Four stars, well-deserved. It's not at all related to the music I usually buy: jazz, singer-songwriter folk-pop, progressive rock, classical. Finding this new, different music was a pleasant surprise."

Worth getting, although some of the tracks don't do it for m

Huns | Pomona, CA United States | 11/03/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've read a couple of "professional" reviews that complain about how this CD belongs in the '90s because of (insert what some other artist I don't care about was doing in those days). I don't care if it belongs in the 1990s, or even the 1890s. Good music is timeless, and who cares what decade it's "from"? I don't spurn Beethoven because he isn't contemporary. These reviews smack of audio snobs pretending to be geniuses because they have some knowledge of what artist X was doing circa 1993, trying to be edgy by throwing out some needlessly cynical comparison that does nothing to tell the average listener whether they might like the album. "Professional" reviewers, please take note: Just because someone did something somewhat similar in the past doesn't mean that you look cool when you trash someone for doing something like it today. I would rather drive a modern Bentley than a Ford Model T, even though Ford "did it first." Thanks in advance.



The one thing the ranters say that I will agree on is that the vocals are so indistinct as to be maddening at times. Simply including the lyrics in the CD jacket would have satisfied my curiosity. Mixing the music so that the voices are distinct would have made this better, in my eyes. Schnauss could pursue a "voice as instrument, with the sound of the voice being more important than particular words" angle if he had just included the lyrics.



What I will tell you is this: Regardless of what Cygnus X was doing when I was in high school, and regardless of what Boards of Canada was doing when I bought my first car, or any other irrelevant tripe that brings you no closer to a buy/no-buy decision, this album is worth buying if you like Schnauss. Unfortunately, the album isn't available on Amazon MP3 at the time of writing. If you were hoping for another album the likes of Far Away Trains Passing By, this DOES have some tunes that are up to that standard. I don't think Stars is all that great. I would have left it out entirely, or just deleted the vocals. The constant and periodically not-properly-synchronized high speed flanging in In Between The Years is a little irritating as well. The remaining tracks are at the very least worth listening to, and in some cases, should reward the average Schnauss fan.



What really drew me to this album was Einfeld, and later, Goodbye. This is some of Schnauss' best work. If the album was available on Amazon MP3, and I had to pick only two tracks to download, they would be at the top of my list. If you have heard Far Away Trains..., and you liked it, you will probably find these worthy successors. They're right up there with Wherever You Are and similar tracks. Again, lyrics in the CD jacket would have been superb.



Because I find it irritating that someone had to spend several hours playing with an equalizer to sift out the lyrics to Goodbye, and because of the less-than-best-effort I see in Stars and In Between The Years, I'm knocking off one star. I would still buy this CD even if I had knowledge beforehand about these two songs. Einfeld and Goodbye are strong enough on their own to carry the other stuff on the CD. More to the point - Amazon, please do whatever it takes to get this on Amazon MP3 so that fans can decide for themselves what songs they want and what songs to leave behind."

By far the worst of the trilogy

MotorMind | The Netherlands | 08/09/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of Schnauss, which includes me, often consider this album the last one of a trilogy, the other albums being "Far Away Trains Passing By..." and "A Strangely Isolated Place". Unfortunately, this is, in my view, by far the worst of the three. It has neither the simple, shamelessly melodic charm of "Trains" nor the unrelentingly emotional impact of "Place". Where the childish vocals add flavor in the background on the other albums, here they are placed way up front, turning every track in which they appear into toe-curlingly sappy new-age schmaltz. Schnauss always uses loads of digital distortion and reverb, but here this tendency gets way out of hand, turning most tracks into a gooey, mushy mess, drowning out every musical nuance. Even after repeat listens I still don't feel this album as much as the other ones, so I will likely only listen to those in future."