I think to "get" Joan of Arc, you have to look at it as sort of an inverse or anti cap'n jazz band. Tim Kinsella disregards any sense of structure and often listenability. This EP proves he's not interested in gaining fans or even keeping the old ones I guess.
I severely doubt anyone will ever listen to tracks 1,3,6 more than once in their lives. There's nothing appealing about them. Where the throwaway tracks of Live in Chicago were funny, these are just boring. Does anyone know who that kid is? Maybe Tim has a son; Lil' Johnny Kinsella.
But with every release, JoA provide some amazing songs. Tracks 2 and 4 are the best in my opinion.
Pretentious? Maybe. Interesting? Sometimes. From the heart? Always. June 2, 2003
God this is terrible. I mean.....jesus. Don't get me wrong. I like Joan of Arc. Their first two albums ("A Portable Model Of" and "How Memory Works") are great. "Live In Chicago, 1999" was a bit of a stretch, but still had some good songs and kind of worked out in a weird way in the long run. "The Gap" was their weirdest and worst record to date, and although I didn't listen to it a lot, I respected what they were doing. That respect went right out the window with this one. Of the disc's eight tracks, three (or 2 and a half some may argue in a vain attempt to defend this garbage) of them are nothing more than a little kid singing and one is mindless, directionless instrumental drone. Those stupid kid songs wouldn't get to me as much if Tim Kinsella actually put some more real songs on here, but he didn't. He left us with only three pieces that resemble music, and they are the only things worth listening to on this CD. "Ne Mosquitos Pass" is weird, but listenable. "What If We Are Not After All, All Destined For Greatness" is the most stripped down song in the band's catalogue and it has a strange charm to it. "Most At Home In Motels" makes this EP. It is the band's most gorgeous song and damn near their best. None of this though makes up for those kids. Joan of Arc used half of their career in an attempt to alienate listeners. And they never truely succeeded until now.
July 25, 2001Too short once again...i really think joan of arc would have had somthing if they had combined some of their instrumental songs and made them shorted and put all this material on The Gap album, as most of this material was ready to be produced at the time. Breaking it into 2 albums and having pretty under-developed instrumental songs to fill the space only hurts the beauty of a good many of their songs. But this CD is a better buy then The Gap
June 8, 2001Now really this is pretty much an album, it is 26 minutes. There are only four actual songs, the other four songs are some wierd instrumentals and one song of a young child singing. But even on the strange songs this album does not fail. The actual songs are all equally amazing. As the last album by Joan of Arc it is a great send-off, although listening to it upsets me because it is hard to think of where they could have gone within five years. I don't think there will be a better e.p. put out this year.
May 16, 2001More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(4 reviews)
