BOC: HF my perspective...

[Brad M. Lauchnor]

Well I spent most of my lunch hour yesterday looking for this release. I finally
drove a ways away from my office to an independent store that I was confident
would have it. They did. They made me wait about 10 minutes while they entered
it into their database. They apologized for the delay but I told them "I've
waited 10 years for this album so 10 more minutes is no big deal". They had a
good price on it $12.99.

I have to be  honest, after CN and the SYIB realaudio, I didn't have high hopes
for this album. Thank God I was proved wrong :)

I haven't been lucky enough to see BOC much in the last few years so many of
these song are very new to me. I think I'd heard SB and SYIB but that's all. For
me this album reminds me of a cross between RBN and CE. It just has that kind of
feel for me. I don't want to give a long winded review but I do want to touch on
the songs a bit.

The songs at the bottom of the list:
SYIB - I HATE the lyrics. The song is ok but I'm not a big fan of this style.
SB - Thumbs down. Not way down, the song seems to have potential but goes
nowhere.

The songs in the middle of my list:
HB - It just doesn't do anything for me. I do like the guitar, I don't like the
lyrics.
IT - I love In Thee, they should have found a better live version. I don't hate
it I just think it could have been better.

The songs at the top of the list:
HM - I like this song a lot, good feel.
PUD - I like it and it grows on me with every listen
XRE - I didn't think too much of this at first but it is growing on me and is
going to be a good one but it's a bit "lite".
Damaged - I LOVE THIS SONG. Very different, but different can be good. In this
case I think it is. Great groove!
CGLOD - Like this one. Very much a RBN type feel.. Has this one been hanging
around since then?
RW - Another very different song for BOC. I like this on many different levels.
It "flows" well. This may turn out to be my favorite song on the album. Time
will tell.
LFM - My current favorite on the album. For me this has everything I need from
BOC :) RW is going to have a lot of work beating this one out as my favorite.

I think the biggest disappointment for me is that while I find most of this disk
VERY enjoyable I'm not sure that there is a standout classic on the album, maybe
this will change for me after time. And of course 3OC isn't BOC sadly, in my
opinion, the loss of Joe and Albert has been critical. I know this is obvious
and I really don't mean to slam any of 3OC, it's just hard to let go of the
dream that fantastic creations BOC was responsible may never be expanded upon.
However, if 3OC can continue on this level I will be MORE than happy to buy
everything they put out. Congratulations to BOC on this album, it could have
been a smoking turd, in my opinion it's a great success.

Brad L.   blauchno at deq.state.ut.us