Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Worth waiting forComment: It has been a long time coming but the end result is a quality product. My girlfriend and I listened to it for the first time on a long drive across Germany and Belgium and we liked it so much that we let it repeat several times. The melodies are good, the musicianship is first class and some of the political comment is very apt. he even nods in the direction of CCR a couple of times. Great stuff!Customer Rating: Summary: Starts slowComment: The trademark guitar and voice are in place, one of the most distinctive sounds in late 20th century music, yet it's 40 years since Creedence's heyday. So inevitably you're wondering, can the old man crank it up again? The album starts unpromisingly with 'Don't You Wish It Was True' a sedate rumination on wishful thinking. In fact side 1 (as we used to say) is workmanlike, enjoyable enough, but nothing to justify the hullabaloo. But side 2 kicks off with 'Summer of Love' and suddenly things look up, it's Fogerty, but the guitar echoes Hendrix and Clapton as much as his own playing, 'Natural Thing' follows with a straightforward celebration of love and lust, then it's back to that old time rock'n'roll for 'It Ain't Right's swipe at the pampered and privileged and 'I Can't Take It No More' which boils over with righteous anger at the lies and spin of the Bush regime, like Jerry Lee running for President. 'Longshot' closes out the album on a classic Creedence groove, just like he never went away.
Customer Rating: Summary: jody fell out of his tractorComment: Simple, clean, uncluttered, concise and catchy, all the things his peers: the verbose, self important and over produced Eagles or muddy, trying too hard Springsteen never could be. On `Broken Down Cowboy' JCF hits home harder and truer emotionally than he has ever done - with the possible exception of `Someday Never Comes'. Along with the infectious title track, cool `Gunslinger' and a few short sharp sweet rockers `Broken Down Cowboy' finds the West Coast rocker at his best, the gospel inflected `River is Waiting' is reminiscent in spirit to the terrific `Sail Away' (from the otherwise undistinguished `Zombie' album). Perhaps the material overall on `Revival' is not as good as that great benchmark `Blue Moon Swamp' - nevertheless this stripped down hog is a satisfying return to form. Fogerty is still ahead of everyone else!Customer Rating: Summary: Not Credence but good. Just skip track 1!Comment: When I first listened to this album I was soreley disappointed, but after a few listens I worked out why I hated it so much. Track one (Don't You Wish It Was True) sounds like a line-dancing version of Cliff Richard's 'Livin' Doll' and clouds the experience of the whole album. Starting at Track 2 helped me see the album in a new light. None of the songs come close to anything on Credence's Greatest Hits but there is a good mixture of country ballads and 'Angry Old Man' rants about It-girls and politicians.
Customer Rating: Summary: The Past Is Past, The Present Is Pretty AverageComment: I've been a big fan of Fogerty and Creedence since I first heard Proud Mary back in the spring of '69, and like many of his fans I've been guilty of wanting him to remake Cosmo's Factory, and comparing every solo release to Creedence in their heyday. Needless to say we've suffered different levels of disappointment on numerous occasions. Reading the various reviews of Revival, I thought this time he might have come close. The sad truth is, he hasn't, and I now realise he never will. Don't get me wrong, Revival is a good album of our times, well played and well produced with some good songs, but it is not a great album. I suppose I (and many others) have been a bit like a Rolling Stones fan expecting them to produce another Let It Bleed or Sticky Fingers (it just ain't going to happen). If you like Fogerty, by all means buy this, but if you want to hear him at the height of his powers, I suggest you buy Green River, Willy or Cosmo's Factory first. Me, I'm going to revisit Mardi Gras and Zombie; maybe they weren't as poor as I remember!
