Track Listing
1. You Still Believe in Me
2. One Life Away
3. Sweethearts on Parade
4. Hi-Fi
5. Fuel For Fire
6. Four Hours in Washington
7. Regeneration No. 1
8. Big Boat
9. Paul's Song
10. Radio Campaign
11. Here Comes the Sun Again
12. Deep Dark Well
13. Oh Take Me Back
14. I'll Be Yr Bird
15. Lullabye & Exile
16. Well-Tempered Clavier
| Details | | Distributor: | Alternative Dis. Alliance | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel include: Jim James (vocals, guitar); Vic Chesnutt (vocals); Old Joe Clarks (whistle, bass instrument, percussion); Howe Gelb (piano); John Parish, Jordan Hudson, Rachel Blumberg (drums).
On his second album for Merge Records, M. Ward refines his inventive indie-folk sound, opting for a pleasantly laid-back mood. The record opens with a beautiful instrumental reading of Brian Wilson's "You Still Believe in Me," a song so marked by Ward's distinctive acoustic-guitar phrasing that it's easy to forget it's a classic Beach Boys tune. Throughout TRANSISTOR RADIO, Ward is an idiosyncratic wonder--he sounds like he's been recorded at a turn-of-the-20th-century tavern on "One Life Away," while "Big Boat" conjures up the atmosphere of a 1950s Sun Records studio rehearsal. Despite this anachronistic quality, the record is remarkably cohesive, with each track confidently flowing into the next like a decades-spanning Americana broadcast. With his uniquely raspy voice and his wonderfully whimsical storytelling, Ward is shaping up to be one of the finest singer/songwriters of his generation, and TRANSISTOR RADIO makes that notion abundantly clear.
Editorial Reviews
4 stars out of 5 - This is uncluttered, radiant music with the lightest touch and muggiest of voices...
Uncut
3 stars out of 5 - [T]here's a quality of remembrance about the album - haunted in 'Sweethearts On Parade', warm in 'I'll Be Yr Bird' - which recalls the gnawing ambiguity of Twin Peaks.
Mojo
3 stars out of 5 - [Ward] has imbibed a sense of remorse and cold-eyed mortality from country blues and Appalachian mountain music, and incorporates them into his own decidedly modern songwriting...
Rolling Stone
Ranked #8 in Magnet's The 20 Best Albums Of 2005 - [It's] akin to extraterrestrial border radio, bouncing through time, space and memory.
Magnet
| See an error? Submit a change request |
![Transistor Radio [Digipak] by M. Ward (CD, Feb-2005, Merge Records)](http://i14.ebayimg.com/02/c/03/7f/53/60_7.JPG "Transistor Radio [Digipak] by M. Ward (CD, Feb-2005, Merge Records)")
![Transistor Radio [Digipak] by M. Ward (CD, Feb-2005, Merge Records)](http://i14.ebayimg.com/02/c/03/7f/53/60_32.JPG "Transistor Radio [Digipak] by M. Ward (CD, Feb-2005, Merge Records)")
All rights reserved.
