| 11th Song | 1993 |
| Home | 1995 |
| Deep Blue Something | 2001 |
Deep Blue Something will most likely be remembered as a one-hit wonder band from Denton, Texas whose single "Breakfast At Tiffany's" was a catchy alternative rock hit back in 1995 (the song also originally appeared on their independent release 11th Song), and was extremely unrepresentative of the rest of their second full length album Home, one of the great underrated albums of the decade.
There are also a couple more things to be said about this band -- Home had one of the greatest guitar tones I've ever heard on record, which of course leads me to compare them a bit to similarly masterful sounding guitar in bands like The Cure and U2, but they had a bit of their own sound, and quirky, almost British-influenced lyrics and exceptional melodies from lead singer/bassist Todd Pipes and his brother guitarist/vocalist Toby.
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Deep Blue Something's second album was of course the one known for the hit single "Breakfast At Tiffany's", a very melodic tune with well-written lyrics that nevertheless felt very out of place on this record, a somewhat different sounding one than what was going on in alternative rock around that time. The stunning opening instrumental "Gammer Gerten's Needle" is the song that precedes it, and it was the one that immediately got my attention on first listen, introducing an unbelievable magic guitar tone and an absolutely that would be present throughout the album -- it's almost as if I can picture a majestic waterfall clearly flowing down with the band playing under it. Practically all of the first side (with the exception of the single), is masterful at capturing that special feeling.
"Halo" and "A Water Prayer" are inspired, energetic, fast and awesome, distinctive tunes with amazing energy and melody, while "Josie" is a moving ballad that's pretty hard to resist and "Done" is a wild ride of a side closer with furious guitars and a fast, amazing bassline with clever and inspired lyrics, leaving me to think that Home could have been one of the greatest half albums I've ever heard if only the flow had been disrupted by "Breakfast At Tiffany's", a very good song that nevertheless doesn't fit the album at all.
The second half inevitably falls off, though -- "A Song To Make Love To" has another great bassline and a nice atmosphere in the guitars but it's marred by lyrics which are kind of trite, and "The Kandinsky Prince" has even worse lyrics with an awkward tempo and hardly seems the least bit inspired. "I Can Wait" and "Wouldn't Change A Thing", while not exactly bad songs, are fairly unmemorable and standard-sounding alternative rock songs, and serve as a very disappointing ending to the album.
But even that half has its' priceless highlights, though -- the title song is a stunning and moving acoustic ballad that has so much emotion and passion with well written lyrics (it's arguably the absolute triumph here), and "Red Light" is another one of those excellent rockers that made the first half so great and memorable. Overall, Home is very frustratingly inconsistent but it's best moments can leave you breathless -- in my opinion there's so much more creativity and drive here than your average generic alternative album, so it's surely worth checking out.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
With the release of this album, I'm wondering where the heck this band has been for the last six years. Deep Blue Something are still pretty much only known for their one (rather unrepresentative) hit from back then, and I doubt most people even they've actually come out with a new album at this point. But anyway, as far as this probably non-awaited effort goes, some aspects of the band have changed, while others have essentially remained the same. The core songwriters (Toby and Todd Pipes) are still here, though apparently they've been working with other musicians since then, as there are other credits from outside the band also listed, and the great guitar sound that made several of the tracks on Home classics is also present to a degree. Many of the songs, though, show an attempted musical growth, experimenting with such things as horn-fuelled pop, electronica, punk, and soft rock.
So is the album a success? In places, yes, but as a whole, there are a few too many moments of insubstantial songwriting and experiments that don't really work, and the song quality really isn't that high most of the time. But it's still an enjoyable and mostly consistent effort anyway. As for the highlights, Toby's opening "Military Man" builds its' momentum on a burst of feedback, a slow moving distorted riff, and a catchy softly-sung chorus ('don't shake the military man's hand...'), "Who Wants It" and "Page Me Wolverine" are furious attempt at hard-hitting punk that are both energetic and irresistibly catchy, the latter with some interesting sound effects, a great verse melody and a loud anthemic chorus. The lone classic here, though, is Todd's "Hell In Itself", a simply beautiful guitar ballad that has some of the more emotional and moving lyrics he's written ('if you never love than you never live, and that's hell in itself...') - awesome key change towards the end, too.
As for the rest of the album, not too much of it is actually weak, except for the 100% generic and insubstantial pop and elevator music of "She Is" and "Enough To Get By" respectively (even "Parkbench", despite a totally distracting techno rhythm and Cure ripoff style, is beautiful), but almost all of it falls into the 'just pleasurable' category. "So Precious" and "Beautiful Nightmare" are the horn-led pop tunes on here, and they both have rather good catchy hooks, while "Burning A Past", "Higher" and "Number One" are all moderately enjoyable guitar rock, although there's nothing that special about them. Out of the rest of the album, Toby's ballad "Focus" does stand out, with its' gorgeous chorus melody (though it can't hold a candle to "Home" or "Josie"). In all, this is a bit of a disappointment that generally doesn't come close to the heights of the last album, but it's not without its' moments or admirable creative successes.
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