William R. Nicholas 2009-11-18

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

If Eureeka sounds a lot like Jim O'rouke's Insignificance, that is as it should be. Look at the man baby on both covers and obviously, we are talking about bookends, not carbon copies. Sometimes the best comes in twos.

And so if the orchestrated folk rock of one delights you, and how could it not, you should get the other. Eureeka has the Nick Drake influenced, jazzy folk with panio and ample lush arrangements to make the album enogh to hold its own with Five Leaves Left, Bryter Lyter, or Love's Forever Changes.

But the masterstroke is O'rouke's cover of Bacarach/ Warwick's "Something Big." The folk/latin treatment of the song outdoes the origonal, but making a great song even better is hardly O'rouke's point. Here is a guy that works with Stereolab and Sonic Youth and makes a great John Fahey styled album, Bad Timing. O'rouke has made it his business to work with what few, truely inventive bands there are left in rock, and I am sure if Cage or Stockhausen were alive, Jim would be doing projects with them too. I am sure that he has many fingers in many avant pies I don't know about.

By covering Bacharach and Warwick, O'rouke declares what we have come to know, too slowly: much of that top 40 sixties "pop" WAS progressive, WAS high art, WAS some of the most amazing music out there and still is.

I will say "pop" again, not in the snide way some art snobs--who turn up their noses, saying "well, I like underground music,"-labal the genre, but to refer to Mr. Bacharach, Ms. Warwick. Mr. Wilson, Mr. Spector and Misters Lennon and McCartney. As far as the art snobs, I am sure Jim would be the one handing me the sock filled with cow manure to swing at them, shouting "oh, underground, like Jim O'rouke?" SPLAT!

O'rouke is not reaching down to pay homage, he is reaching across music, because he knows true musicians understand music, great music, is all encompessing

He gets it. That is why you should get Eureeka/

Gerardo Martinez Casas 2007-03-06

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Robert Wyatt has a sucesor of our times ... Just wonderfull music by another gifted musician with lots of class and a touch of humor ... I first heard him in the movie Love Liza ( 2002 ) with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a very troubled human being , but the upbeat tunes made a balance very hard to achieve ... Anyway , this guy's good and fun to listen 2 .

fetish_2000 2005-11-18

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Jim O'Rourke could arguably be considered someone that has had a hand in the many aspects of music, (solo artist, producer, re-mixer), and having dabbled in everything from: Experimental music avant-garde, Jazz, Rock & ambient. He's a musician that produces music as it takes him and doesn't seem to be restricted by genres. His solo work is a collection of albums with fairly short running times that mix up styles like Post-rock, Experimental, Electronic, Chamber Pop, Rock, Indie Rock, Acoustic & Alternative sounds in a generally Lo-Fi surrounding.

"Prelude to 110 or 220/ Women of the World" may initially seem like a repetitive song, with the light acoustic guitars and lyrics that repeat endlessly the course of the track, but its a track that you can really let yourself settle into, with it's lounge pop approach and lyrics that suggest the world would be in far better shape that it is now if Women took over the world, can't help but raise a smile. "Through the Night Softly", is a particular favourite for me. Imagine a soft and pastoral delicate acoustic arrangement playing unassumingly in the background for several minutes, not building up to anything in particular, just merely coasting along on it own trajectory, but suddenly after 2 1/2 minutes an almost 'John Coltrane' screeching Sax bursts out of nowhere and provides a sharp short euphoric rush, that simply needs to be heard. Or even a track like "Movie on the Way Down," which initially starts off with a the first couple of minutes of the track with nothing much more than spare, abstract guitar and atmospheric brass drones, yet feels deeply elaborate and ambitious in a decidedly low key kind of way.

But, If your a generally impatient person when it comes to your music, preferring that tracks that actually go somewhere, then you find that you'll have problems with the generally laid back pace of this track (in fact the whole album will frustrate), as "Eureka" is an largely acoustic sounding album, with a mellow, almost understated, feel that never outstays it welcome, with the guitars and gentle embellishments of horns and piano making it presence felt on the majority of tracks, its easily accessible, yet retain it's own individualist path, and you may find (like me) that it's a stunningly original mish-mash of styles with a decidedly free-from, free-spirited approach. With any harsh edges smoothed off, in favour of laid-back and hypnotically repetitious arrangements. It's probably not a album for everyone, as occasionally its a little bit too inward looking and cerebral for mass appeal, instead probably sitting (slightly uncomfortably) between the classical minimalism, Post-Rock, Experimental indie & understated guitar chords, of acts such as "Tortoise" & "The Sea and Cake", "Pajo" or "Papa M", but with a slightly more experimental bent. And if any of those artists that I mentioned interest you greatly, than you simply must investigate this album. As it one of the most nicest recent surprises I've heard musically, and has become something of a new musical romance for me to latch onto.

N. goodey 2004-12-06

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

i've had this album sittting on my shelf unplayed for a couple of years .The other month out of curiosity i gave it a spin and it is now a permanent fixutre in my cd player. On the surface it really shouldn't work, pretty and moody pieces like the title track and 'ghost ship in the storm' sit along side campy singalong tracks like 'something big' and plaintive folk like 'women of the world' . Yet somehow it all melds together and listener just goes with it. I have to confess whenever i see the word 'experimental' associated with anything i shudder inwardly taking it as euphenism for 'crap', but o'rourke shows you can be experimental and make different but emotionally resonant music

Niklas P. Andersson 2004-05-04

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Loved this record since i bought it several years ago, and it doesn't disappoint on repeated listenings (I'm listening to it now). I'm hearing Loungey horns, synthezisers over a guitar riff with ever so strange arrangements. Did I mention the weird vocals. My kind of music.
His best to date and unfortunately there hasn't been enough.