Search - Whitlams :: Undeniably

Undeniably a good album, but is it really worth it ?

cmayt | CA United States | 05/11/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Before the popular Eternal Nightcap and Love this City albums, a very different group called the Whitlams featuring the legendary (among Whitlams fans) Stevie Plunder existed. They had two albums "Introducing The Whitlams" (1993) and "Undeniably The Whitlams" (1995) together before Stevies unfortunate death. The Whitlams style in these days, I'd describe as a more folky sounding style, but the then genius of Tim Freedman (the current lead singer/song writer) and Plunder show through. This album is Tims remix of the original "Undeniably" with a couple of bonus tracks added on. For me, who owns an original Undeniably, the remixes didn't seem to add or remove anything to the tracks. I could hear a few little differences, but I didn't come away saying "Wow! Excellent, I have a new appreciation of this album" or "Tim, how could you have ruined a classic" so they must be pretty subtle changes. That said, I'm not the sort of bloke who notices when his other half has a hair cut... what I'm trying to get across is that the songs are not radically different to the 1995 release.Anyway, the gems of this album are for me, "I make Hambugers" and "Hollow Log" which are just make you feel happy/feel good songs. "I get high" as it's just weird, "If I only had a brain" as I sing along to Wizzard of Oz and annoy my children and "I'm still faithful" as it's brilliant to sing along with drunk.The extra tracks unfortunately suffer from the tendency to over mix songs Tim seems to be suffering from. I did enjoy the Andy song but features the "10 or 11 drink clown" lyrics (which I've heard too many times already) and seems to be an out of place sound on the album. "Where are you", which I've been told was a wonderful song, but the lead out just ruins it (comes across as trying to do a Beatles ending, just so not Whitlams and out of place on this album).On my remastered version (which I bought in Australia - not on Amazon (sorry guys)) it featured a second CD with quicktime performances of the early Whitlams concerns. It's interesting, but not a big selling point for me (especially the way Hamburgers used to sound). It's not mentioned in the above CD description, but I'd assume it does come with it. If it doesn't, you're not missing much.Summary: After all that babble it comes down to this. If you don't have Undeniably, buy this Album now! It's a goody and you'll probably enjoy it if you enjoyed the others. If you're a really big Whitlams fan, buy this now and spot all the things I'm too deaf to hear. If you just "like" the Whitlams and you already own Undeniably, I can't really recommend spending your money on this.... it's just not different enough to warrant the price."