Mental Jewelry - Live (CD 1991)

Note: I originally reviewed this album in my first week of writing and quite frankly, it stank! SO, I've put some heart into it this time and deleted the old one.

OK, so this wasn't LIVE's very first album, if you consider "Four Songs" which was a maxi-single released soon before Mental Jewelry. Or if you consider "Death of a Dictionary" from the guys' pre-LIVE days. Only a song or two received much radio play at the time, but thank goodness I happened across it at the record store, because it quickly became a treasured piece of my music collection.

The music seems to be more than just guitars and drums ....there's a certain energy that flows between the beats that really gets into your soul. The voice of Ed Kowalcyzk is an instrument in itself....simply amazing. The lyrics aren't silly ramblings of love, lust, and heartbreak ....they actually have meaning, they take your mind to places few of us dare to go where we look into our own hearts and into the eyes of society ....I know, I'm rambling a bit, trying to find the words to accurately describe the feelings provoked by this album.

I'll give a brief description of each song and include a line that I feel gives the basic jist of it, hopefully it will give you a good idea of what you'll find. The music has quite a bit of moving base, lots of purcussion, and the vocals take the front seat; little(if any) electronic or manufactured sounds:

1. Pain Lies On The Riverside - "you've got to learn to live until no end but first you must learn to swim all over again" To me this is sort of a song of spiritual reawakening (not necessarily religious mind you).

2. Operation Spirit (The Tyrrany Of Tradition) - Lyrics to this song are very thought provoking. I take it as being a young adult who has basically ignored all the lessons that have been offered him in life and is finally grasping the importance of those things.

3. The Beauty Of Gray - There is a beautiful message in this song. It may be one of few you've actually heard on the radio from this album. "this is not a black and white world to be alive I say the colors must swirl" Obviously about looking beyond outward appearance to the beauty we all have inside.

4. Brothers Unaware - This is my personal favorite. Very similar message to Beauty of Gray, but so much more eloquent. Takes the message to a more personal level with phrases like "yes i may say that i love this man and that man but what keeps me from loving you?"

5. Tired Of "Me" - not really sure what the point of this song is, but it can be so therapeutic to sing along to....yelling "groundless and free!!" with Ed feels so good. Also has one of my favorite lines which honestly, I have no interpretation for "what was pliable in love is now hard and crystallized" Perhaps a lover's broken heart?

6. Mirror Song - My second favorite song on the album because it holds the most necessary message. "I know I should think about giving.....but I can't seem to rescue myself". Very thought provoking and emotional.

7. Waterboy - Again, I don't have a good analysis of this one. It's got some of the best lyrics, and some of the most confusing as well....but the music is a little louder and moves a bit quicker than others on the album, so it gives a great "up" in the middle of the album.

8. Take My Anthem - few lyrics, simple point. "war in me, war overseas. There ain't no difference between" We struggle within ourselves just as we struggle in society, in America ....in the world.

9. You Are The World - This song holds a message that I think is carried throughout all their albums to come. Pulled from the book You Are the World(author's name escapes me).....everything is within each of us. Very very deep thought and Eastern philosophy....but true no matter what your background.

10. Good Pain - listening to this song in the wake of 9/11, I can't help but feel it's an eerie bit of foreshadowing of things that were to come. "you say the buildings got too tall and they're going to fry your brother". I don't know, I adore the song, but it spooks me a bit to hear that line anymore.

11. Mother Earth Is A Vicious Crowd - the lyrics here are few again. It seems to pull in many words from previous songs and just sort of say 'boy is this world intense or what?'

12. 10,000 Years (Peace Is Now) - taking that last statement a bit further and summing up everything on the album "Selfishness and separation have led me to believe that the world is not my problem the world is not my problem. I am the world and you are the world"

I know it sounds really really heavy....perhaps like it could be a real downer, but truthfully there is such peace and optimism in the lyrics that a time or two around the CD and no matter where my mood is before I always come away with a bit of a warm fuzzy.

Seriously, I know no other album in recent years that grows on you the way this one does, and to see it performed in person, it's simply amazing! They have an unusual intensity and happiness while on stage that is captivating. LIVE, in my opinion is a terribly underrated band.

Just one plea......if you are listening to LIVE for the first time and are completely confused by their lyrics, please don't jump to conclusions that you are being preached to or talked down to. Keep in mind that lyrics are all written by the lead singer who has done a lot of soul searching and has studied many many beliefs over the last ten years.....what seems to come through most often are compelling points, ideas, and observations about the world and our place in it.

HAVE A GREAT DAY, thanks for reading!!