Hello all,

I dunno if you would remember me from the old messageboard.
When I was deep into 'Night Bugs' I guess you could say i was a HUGE fan.

"guyfromARGYLEROAD" was my old name.

Sarah Slean has an incredible talent when it comes to writing, performing, mesmerizing really when you see her LIVE...she's unique and that's what this media world needs.
Someone to be an ear savior, someone to remind us that yeah, we can be individuals and not fall into some cheap porn-music cookie cutter category.

At any rate...I WAS the top poster on the messageboard and choose to give you my honest opinion on 'Day One'.

First thing is first...

Where is the piano?
THIS is a huge part of Sarah Slean to me...obviously.
No piano - no Sarah.
When I first listened to this CD I was shocked at how it didn't sound like her.

I know she must be trying to do something fresh and new and don't get me wrong...I DO love the album. It's just hard to swallow at first.
It's almost as if she ditched her piano it on purpose, using rhodes and other stuff instead, even playing guitar to give it a 'new' feel.

My favorite songs on this album are the piano songs really, "Your Wish is My Wish" is one of th most beautiful songs I've ever heard her sing, mind you I really enjoy every song on the record I just like it when she connects with the song as a whole. On the majority of this record she seems a bit out of place.

I think that maybe I thought that every album after her first 3 were going to be like I wanted them, haha, which...of course, is quite silly.

I think she DOES deserve to change and I think she has.
I admit though, I needed some time to get over myself and my expectations for this album.

Giving that I've heard the album dozens of times through now I would seriously reccomend it to ANY music listener as a breath of fresh air in a stagnent wasteland of wretched murk. Sarah didn't dissapoint me though...I think I may have let myself imagine this record too much on my own.

I don't know...I've babbled too long already.

Goodnight friends,

Jay Neilson

No- u have the right to blabble!!! i am actually a new obsessed fan of sarah... after seeing her WOW the crowed at alanis home coming in august...i had only seen her live once b4 at the juno singer songwriter show at the NAC in ottawa before hand and was a huge fan of sweetones and my friend influenced me to get into her... so i became in awwe with songs like me, im a theif, bankaccounts and drastic measues...but the same friend sent me your wish is my wish and out in the park on msn the day he baught and day one was released and the day later i baught it and needless to say im OBSESSED with the entire record...(music and art work and words, and arrangments...i cant even put the cd booklet down) so the Otherr day i hunted down night bugs and baught it for 25$ at one of 4 recored stores i had checked in with after work, about 15 mins before the storres closed and i was swallowed by the city after listening to eliot, weight,duncan ..... :P so now im spreading the word...

btw as a singer songwriter, writing comes to me first and she just makes me wanna write when i listen to her and be taken back...she has been fueling me in all kinds of ways and with inspiration to dream, write,lay at rest, fantisize, and come to reality with things occuring in my life.
LOVE u SARAH! ^^if u read these things^^ lol
:P


*i wax poetically on my enemies*

I agree, music can be a mindless fun listen and it's when you get that music that does something to you that no other music can, that's the music that stirs you up. Slean's music is as such, like gasoline to the my machine of songcraft.

Be it Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Simon and Garfunkel, Elliott Smith, Jodi Mitchell, Ben Folds, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Glenn Gould, Leon Russell, The Cardigans, Portishead, Ed Harcourt...even Sheryl Crow, it all keeps me going.

Without expriencing this love you cannot love back, I don't think.

Jay

http://www.jayneilson.com

how could we forget the top poster :P (johnathan = obi-john). Well those of us from at least a year back.

I can easily see how someone would find this album a little disapointing. It's quite a drastic change. Personnally, I think it's her greatest work to date. I was at first incredibly skeptical after hearing "Lucky Me" for the first time, but even that song has grown on me

The only disappointment right now for me is that she is going on tour as an opening act and I'm assuming that means not a full band (hopefully I'm wrong). Hearing these songs live with a full band I bet would be an amazing experience. Hearing them with only a piano would actually be a little disapointing... but I'm sure I'll manage to sit through it

Tough question really. I think it depends on the criteria. If the criteria is getting airplay and spreading the sleaners gospel, then perhaps Day One, Mary..maybe even the bonus track.

Anyway, its all good, all good. I voted for Mary...but I think that might be because it was playing as I voted.

later,
JO

Yeah, I was too a little shocked when I heard the lack of piano...
especially with California. I love the album though, my favourite songs would be first, Your Wish is My Wish, then Vertigo and then The Score.
When I heard Your Wish is My Wish I had to keep playing that song over and over again, it was really pretty.

i think california, mary, or day one would make great singles

~Mo

I think that the new single has to be something unique that will capture a new audience, and also something that will not turn them off, I voted for Pilgrim, my 2nd choice would be Day One, that would be an excellent 2nd single as well

i too voted for pilgrim

i voted for Out in the Park. i can't get enough of that song at the moment.

I voted California, even though I'm torn between that and "pilgrim".
"your wish is my wish" is very pretty. The first time I heard it, I had to listen to it a couple times. Well I just put the entire cd on repeat when I first got it. :wink:

The Score... w/o a doubt

[quote:08538c047c="melodypirate"]I dunno if you would remember me from the old messageboard.
When I was deep into 'Night Bugs' I guess you could say i was a HUGE fan.[/quote:08538c047c]

G'day Jay... you're right that quite a few people here wouldn't know you. Why don't you post an introduction?

And I noticed you using past tense... has your fandom for Sarah drifted since the new album? BTW... I have yet to listen to it myself. Things take longer to get down here on the arse end of the world.

Actually...yeah, my name is Jay Neilson, right now I'm known for my personality and thats all. Soon I will be known for some of my own music. ( Explained: http://www.jayneilson.com )

But no, I am still a big fan of Sarah's, it's just that after the release of this album I found out that even people of grandeur can slip up and have every reason to (according to MY expectations of course). I have nothing against the album really from a disconnected standpoint, it's not my cup of tea though.
To tell you the truth my good friend Jarita sent me some GREAT live tracks with her and JUST her piano performing some of the songs off the CD just today and THAT is when I realized there is no past tense with Sarah. She's an amazing talent and is only getting better.
The only thing I dislike about 'Day One' is the production choices.

CD or no CD.

Huge fan,

Jay

I too dislike the production. I don't have the technical vocabulary to describe this properly, but to me almost every chorus on the album sounds like a cold wind. It needs warmth, richness. I don't like the tone of the choruses, to put it another way. I still like the album but I much prefer the ep I have (not sure of the title of it - it's got the Eliot (as in T.S.) and the Salinger (as in J.D.) songs on it. And it's warm and rich like a red velvet stole.