| | Sean Lennon Friendly Fire CD Sean Lennon Discography of CDs
(6 Customer Reviews)
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This CD/DVD set includes a cinematic suite of songs which share the same dizzying wealth of musical styles as its predecessor Friendly Fire, but eschews some of its freeform tendencies for more traditional song structure and some unifying themes. The DVD includes a short film for each of the album's tracks, directed by Michele Civetta. The fantastical shorts feature appearances from Lennon and friends including Lindsay Lohan, Bijou Phillips, Asia Argento, Carrie Fisher, Devon Aoki, Jordana Brewster, and others.
Personnel: Sean Lennon (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums); Sean Lennon (bass guitar); Josh Brion (guitar, organ, bass guitar, drums); Jon Brion (guitar, organ, drums); Yuka Honda (piano, keyboards, bass guitar); Greg Kirstin (organ); Sebastian Steinberg (bass guitar); Athena LeGrand (background vocals); Harper Simon (guitar); Jim Keltner, Matt Chamberlain (drums); Bijou Phillips (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Tom Biller. Illustrator: Sean Lennon. On his second album--released eight years after the well received INTO THE SUN--Sean Lennon displays a talent for memorable tunes and varied arrangements that create a surprising amount of momentum despite the overall mid-tempo mellowness. Moods shift gently from the unhurried, synth-driven "Parachute" (which echoes Radiohead) to the ragged folk-rock of "Headlights," with its killer off-kilter chord progression, to the haunting "Spectacle," which makes surprisingly subtle use of a string section and Hammond organ. In the eight years between albums, Lennon's voice matured into an expressive instrument capable of nuanced crooning as well as more straight-ahead piano-pop balladry. His songcraft also shows a leap in sophistication, as demonstrated on "Friendly Fire," whose compelling, ascendant melody gives way to a powerful full-band chorus. The second disc of the set contains videos for each song on the album, rendered with as much sensitivity and creativity as the music. Eight years is a long, long time between albums. It's a luxury few artists can afford -- either in terms of their career or in terms of their pocketbook -- but Sean Lennon is one who can, largely because he's the son of rock royalty, which ensures that he has the cash and public profile to take his time between projects. And he certainly did take his time after the release of his 1998 debut, Into the Sun, touring with Cibo Matto while he was dating their keyboardist, Yuka Honda, then just fading away into the New York socialite/artist scene after the turn of the millennium. He would pop up on-stage on occasion -- sometimes with Paul Simon's son Harper, sometimes with his mother, Yoko Ono, sometimes with Vincent Gallo -- but for the most part he kept a low profile (at least as far the rest of the U.S. outside of N.Y.C. was concerned) until 2006, when his sophomore effort, Friendly Fire, was finally released. More than anything, it sounds like a record that was made with no sense of urgency whatsoever. Its lazy cascade of gently plucked acoustic guitars, vaguely baroque keyboards, echoey guitars, breathy harmonies, and liberal borrowings from psychedelic Beatles and Beach Boys sounds as if its been mildly tinkered with over the years, a little bit added here, an overdub there, until it eventually was done. Sonically, it's not far removed from Into the Sun; it's only not as cheery in spirit as that debut, and Lennon explained the reason why in the publicity surrounding the release of Friendly Fire. The songs are inspired by a romantic catastrophe of his: his girlfriend slept with his best friend, thereby precipitating a breakup and a falling out, and the friend died in a motorcycle accident before Lennon could patch things up with him. Sad stuff, no doubt, and knowledge of the tale lends resonance to the album's title, yet the incessant repetition of the story in the press leaves a ghoulish aftertaste -- particularly since the incident happened years ago (also, knowing that the girlfriend wRolling Stone (p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "His viola-toned voice, with its patient, Brazilian-like delivery, is sweet and distinctive." Rolling Stone (p.108) - Ranked #41 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "Sean's boyish, nasally voice is a near-spittin' image of his dad's RUBBER SOUL-ballad croon." Spin (p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] nicely textured album of wistful waltzes, rainy-day ballads, and pinwheel pop tunes." Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] comes on like a more lovelorn REVOLVER, its carefully crafted songs packing stately strings, Ringo-esque drum fills and a melodic potency and chordal know-how that requires little embellishment." Friendly Fire Music | List Price | $22.98 (You save $5.49) | | Category | Rock/Pop Albums, Pop CDs, British, Rock, Pop Music Videos | | Label | Capitol / EMI | | Orig Year | 2006 | | All Time Sales Rank | 49903  | | CD Universe Part number | 7275681 | | Catalog number | 35568 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Oct 03, 2006 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Sean Lennon | | Engineer | Tom Biller | | Personnel | Jim Keltner - drums Sean Lennon - vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, bass guitar, drums Sebastian Steinberg - bass guitar Yuka Honda - piano, keyboards, bass guitar Matt Chamberlin Harper Simon - guitar Athena LeGrand Bijou Phillips - background vocals Greg Kirstin - organ Josh Brion - guitar, organ, bass guitar, drums
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Sean Lennon Friendly Fire Songs Friendly Fire Music Review Average Rating: (3 out of 5 stars)    List All Reviews Good solid album with a mellow sound Sean is definitely writing the music that he wants to do and going for his own sound. This is very respectible. It's mellow and it's good. The lyrics, though, are not quite as accessible. The pinheads who don't accept that Sean is actually an adult and not trying to be the Beatles, will be disappointed. Submitted by ddmusic (Austin, TX) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
GREAT MUSIC I thought that this album was SPECTACULAR. The song writing is amazing (especially in parachute). The whole album WOWED me , ver lennonesque Submitted by letoslogistics99 (Phoenix Az) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Highly Recommened A wonderful album, completely took me by surprise. It's one of the best albums out this year.Not one 'filler' in the bunch. Every track was memorable. Forget his parentage and just listen.
The DVD that accompanies the music was quite clever too. Submitted by Bonnie (England) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz........ This kid is hopeless. The only explanation for this being released is Capitol's fear that Yoko Ono will take the John Lennon catalog somewhere else if they don't release her and her son's garbage. Submitted by Robert (Dayton, Ohio, USA) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Not what I've expected, but fair. Nothing extraordinary, but out of the ordinary music we are listening nowdays, the best I think song in the album is the one Sean didn't wrote I'm talking about "would I be the one" from Marc Bolan, T-REX head,(very good guitar solo) maybe He should make an album from good covers, like his father did on his beginnings and once the people got to know him, follow with something of his own, sometimes the people need to know what are his roots in order to understand his own music. Submitted by Oscar Denit (The Republic of the Rio Grande.) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
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