ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 213 SISTER HAZEL - CHASING DAYLIGHT (2003)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Sister Hazel

Genre: Alternative Rock

Country Of Origin: United States

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: No

Album: Chasing Daylight

RJ's Top 5 Songs: 1. Your Mistake...2. Sword And Shield...3. Best I'll Ever Be...4. Can't Believe...5. Come Around

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it).

So this week, another first time appearance at Classic Rock Bottom.  It's a very cool little rock band from Gainesville, Florida.  As an avid Georgia Bulldog fan, about the only thing that has ever come out of Florida that's not named Lynyrd Skynyrd or Tom Petty that I like is Sister Hazel.  This week I give you their fourth studio release Chasing Daylight.

I've got no stats for you this week, just a very short story.  I bought this album sometime shortly after it was released.  I basically heard Lex & Terry (a morning radio show that was aired in Augusta at that time) say how good the band was so I picked it up.  I listened to it, but for some reason or another it didn't register.  Fast forward to when I met my wife Sandra.  Somewhere along the way she mentioned that she liked Sister Hazel.  So I pulled the CD back out and gave it another spin.  It definitely registered more then.  On top of that, shortly after we started dating we saw Sister Hazel in concert.  They translated well live so I picked up some more albums.

All that being said, this is still my overall favorite album by the band.  The drum sound is definitely more crisp and clear than that of last week for those of you who like that sort of thing, and the geeeetar (no trademark infringement) is damn good.  The band also harmonizes well and I think the vocalist is terrific.  So give it a listen and let me know what you think.

1. Your Mistake

2. Come Around

3. One Love

4. Best I'll Ever Be

5. Life Got In The Way 

6. Everybody

7. Swan Dive

8. Killing Me Too

9. Sword And Shield

10. Hopeless

11. Effortlessly

12. Can't Believe

13. Best I'll Ever Be (Acoustic Piano Bonus Track)

[Scott]

Its amazing how a good lookin gal can change your musical interests...

Guy:  The Unnamed band is just OK, no bigee...

Gal:  I love the Unnamed band!  One my favorites!

Guy: Me too!!!

[Jon]

Pathetic.

[Scott]

yet true....

[Jon]

Not me. I don't fall into those traps. I'm a man, dammit. A MAN!

[Scott]

a ronery man....  hahahahahaha....

[Jon]

Ooooh...now Rjhog is gonna get pissy because you posted a picture.

YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE
YOU IN TROUBLE

I'm gonna go cut the grass now so I don't have to listen to you crying after you get your just punishment.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Ladies, just listen to the album.

[Scott]

Solid opener, love the acoustic feel of it.  Nice and melodic, no drum-machines-from-hell, no manufactured angst, just a solid song and got my interest and hopes up...

No complaints with #2 either, though didn't start as strong as #1, I really dug the vocal and chorus.  Very catchy.

One Love sounds a bit dated and was the first hint of filler and I got lost in the song to the point that I didn't notice the start of Best I'll Ever Be - which seems quite nice but I find myself bored.

Whoa something went wrong with the player, it moved from track 4 to 11.  Is it just me?  Weird, but oh well...  Track 11 ... eh, some wocka wocka geeetar (no trademark infringement) that Jon may like but the song falls short. 

Cant Believe, has a country like vocal so you know where I'll go with that. 

Now the player skipped to Life Got In The Way which is the 13th track in the player but the 5th track listed about!  Its an upbeat track but the vocal and chorus are not very interesting, had promise though.  So onto the 14th track which is 6 in RJ's list.  More of the same at this point, were in OK-ville, nothing great but not bad...

Track 15 or 7 depending on your view, is another "e" for effort song. 

16/8 - The vocals are Counting Crows like.  Not sure that's a good thing but this song is far more interesting than the previous few.  Nice track that could've been elevated to much better with a different vocal performance.

17/9 and 18/10 fell back to the EH range.  But the player is confused as it goes to 19 and back to Effortlessly which is on here twice, and then 20 duplicates Can't Believe.

Finally !! Track 21, the acoustic Piano bonus track!!  Mood music, Im mean depressed mood music... 

You know how I feel about more than 11 tracks, and you post 21?  hmmm....  All kidding aside, this is a 50/50 listen, some moments of really nice acoustic mid tempo pop music.  But the other 50% just feels quirky and forced.  Still...  its a nice post and nice experience...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Ah, sorry 'bout the player.  It made me delete some previous tracks to make room after the first four songs were added, so I guess that screwed everything up.  I don't feel like fixing it.

[Jon]

This is just.....bad.

The vocalist sucks. He has that "thing" with his coive that just drives me up the wall. The word it "tired", not "tirwered". Good golly, it's worse than finger nails on a chalkboard.

True fact: When I play music, one of the cat always comes around and stays for a listen. With this album, he was nowhere around. 

Now, the geetar™ was pretty good for the most part, especially on "Effortlessly" because it wocka-wocka'ed and the next song, "Can't Believe" is was pretty heavy. But that voice just destroyed any goodwill I had for this album. 

I was listening to this while updating the upcoming album list and I have no idea how many times I listened to this album, it was at least twice. 

Please, never post anything like this again. The singer needs to be deported or something. Just sickening.

[Gordon Williams]

This reminds me a lot of one of my all-time favorite, "mellow" CD's...Matchbox 20's "Yourself Or Someone Like You". The vocals sound fine to me, with plenty of harmony and melody. This is a very nice listen to me.

Some people you just can't please...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Some people named Jon.  Unless you insert Cookie Monster vocals, then he just loves it.