Still Waters - Bee Gees (The) (CD 1997)

When the time comes to talk of bands that have been around for over four decades, I'm sure the Brothers Gibb, a.k.a. the Bee Gees aren't the first group to pop into anyone's head. Actually, these guys have been around since they first formed in 1958 in Brisbane, Australia. How bout them apples.

Well, some things never change, and the Bee Gees sound is definitely one of them. In 1997, I caught a video for a song called "Alone", and sock me sideways (or as C-3P0 might say, "Shut me down!"), the guys still sounded just the same as they had 20 years before! Vocally, anyway. The melody for this "Alone" relied more on guitars and synthesizers than the melodies from back in the disco days, but it was obviously the same guys singing.

Now I had never owned a Bee Gees collection up to this point other than their Greatest Hits, which I only listened to in its entirety I think three times. And with some artists, there's no telling what their albums sound like outside the "single" area.

Still Waters, the album on which this eclectic number "Alone" appears, turns out to be a pretty sweet CD! The first 2/3 of the album is predominantly upbeat, littered with a couple of ballads. The last third is a cross of Bee Gees ballads and euphoric slow-to-midtempo numbers that sound almost Enya-like in their instrumentation. The CD finishes off with a total Bee Gees anthem, "Smoke And Mirrors".

The title track, Still Waters Run Deep, is without a doubt, my favorite song on here. The song is upbeat, but the chord progression is much slower. The melody never jumps way up or way down, but where it does go, it takes you with it! A small keyboard riff that is nearly inaudible until the final chorus, is reminiscent of the anthemic vibe of "Life Is A Highway". The Bee Gees are smart not to overdo the keyboard riffage. The song is essentially perfect as it is. The lyrics sound almost childish, but complement the simple melody with quite some charm. Still waters run deep, just remember when we lie to each other, no one wins and losers weep. It's also cool how they manage to segue the line I love you still with the start of the chorus, Still waters run deep.

Would you believe me if I told you that the Dixie Chicks ripped off the Bee Gees?

Actually, I know that sounds utterly foolish because, if I am not mistaken, the Bee Gees wrote some of the Dixie Chicks' songs. But here's an interesting experiment... try listening to the first few seconds of the Dixie Chicks' "I Can Love You Better", then listen to the first few seconds of the Bee Gees' "I Surrender". Looks like they got more than just lyrics from these guys!

"I Surrender" is another of the highlights of Still Waters, harkening back to the old Bee Gees sound. The drums may be fake, but they sound awesome on this song. Real tight, and they really "whack", if you know what I mean. There is even the sound of breaking glass over one of the beats. (Thankfully, it is not the last beat before the second chorus starts; that would be way too predictable.) This song could easily pass as a Michael Jackson song, but we shall refrain from elaborating any further on that. This is one of the most unpredictable and fun songs on the CD. As far as lyrics go, I could share some with you, but I don't think it would matter that much, because you can't understand half of the words on this CD anyway! (I never thought that was a bad thing.)

"Irresistible Force" is also worth mentioning. It is one of the fastest Bee Gees songs I think I've ever heard. Drums are real this time, but my sister and I always liked making fun of Barry's vocal. While the Bee Gees do sound almost identical to the way they did back in the More Than A Woman days as a trio, they sound quite different when one of them sings alone. Imagine that high-pitched voice that used to sing Girl I've known ya very well, seen ya growing every day, and now picture him singing that same way but doing it from his gut. There you go. This is especially obvious in the beginning of "Smoke And Mirrors" as well.

It's tough to say what makes "Irresistible Force" so great, other than that it is intense. Toward the end, synthesizers break in and the trio comes out in prime form, singing quite slowly, with increasing aggressiveness, You must spread your wings and fly. You think the song is over at that point, then at the last possible second, the band breaks out and wails for another minute. Awesome stuff.

The rest of this CD is much more toned down, with ballads and mid-tempo bluesy sort of numbers backing it up. If you ask me, the Bee Gees are at their best when they are performing the dance songs. I'm guessing most people think similarly, as a lot of their most recognizable singles are fast songs. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the slower songs such as "I Could Not Love You More" or the waltz of "My Lover's Prayer", they come across as monotonous and oversugared. The vocal arrangements of the third ballad, "I Will", are actually really good though, and thus give that song redemption.

As for the Enya-esque tracks I was talking about, they are really tough to describe. I guess anyone who has ever heard an Enya song could tell you that. The music comes and goes in swirls, never faltering in its gentleness, but never succumbing to the vocals. They co-exist gracefully in the two ballads toward the end, "Obsession" and "Miracles Happen". Although the songs are vastly different, it took me a while before I learned to differentiate them.

So what you got here is a Bee Gees album, and a darn fine one. They held on to the vocal sound they carried with them in the days of Saturday Night Fever (albeit with less of the falsetto singing), but the melodies remind me more of the earlier days, e.g. "I've Got To Get A Message To You. Fans of any kind of pop music, as in really simple like Elton John, Lionel Richie, Chicago, or even the Doobie Brothers, should have no problem taking a liking to Still Waters.

Why in the world did I review this, you ask? Kind of a long story. So if you're here for the review, that's it. Unless you wanna hear the story, I don't care.

I started doing my diary on cassette tapes a little over 10 years ago, and this eventually branched out into me using a portable micro-recorder to record my thoughts while I was driving or at work. One day at work, the song Still Waters Run Deep came on the radio, so I used the micro-recorder to record that song.

So I stumbled on that tape last week, got to hear that song for the first time in a few years, and found myself rewinding it just to hear that song again and again. It got to the point where I knew how it sounded backwards so I would know when to stop rewinding. Scary, really. So I pulled out this CD, listened to it, then set the song on repeat, and here we are.

Thanks for visiting!