Fortune's Favour

After the Hard and the Easy and a very welcome return to the salt, sea and shores of Newfoundland found in those playful and traditional style songs by the greatest band on earth, I was a little put off by my first few listens to this newest effort. The songs sound good and are well produced but I was a little bored about half way through by, what seemed to me, to be lots of the same old thing. I know it is in vogue to recycle these days, but not when it comes to music. I'm still not sure after a few more listens if this is a good album or not, but I don't hate it as much as I thought I would.
The Bad: Too many attempts at "rock" songs. "Life is Beautiful" is the only GBS cd I don't own and there is a very good reason for that. The guys aren't pop stars and we, their fans, don't expect or WANT them to be. So please stop with the Corr's jingles. They almost made this effort unsalvageable. "Ordinary Day" and "Consequence Free" are already out there and they blow the house down. Everything else in this vein just seems to be a watered down effort. Most GBS albums have a few of these tracks but Fortune's Favor is chock full of them and really bring the thing to a screeching halt. "Love Me Tonight," "Walk On the Moon," "Here and Now," "Dream to Live," "Hard Case," "Dance Dance" and "Heart of Stone" are the skipable tracks and, heck, that's half the album.
The So-So: Some tracks have promise but don't quite deliver. The pipes at the beginning of the first track as well as Alan's strong voice show great promise for "Love Me Tonight" but the song quickly devolves into a song we've heard before. The woman who did the background vocals on "Hard Case" has a phenomenal voice (she only has one solo line) but the song still doesn't quite make it. "Rocks of Marasheen" is one of the few traditional tunes but isn't very memorable (even though the harmonies on the chorus are fantastic). I am also going to drop "Straight to Hell" into this category on fear of being stoned. Sorry, but this is just a weak "Bad As I Am" or "Captain Kidd." It has a little life and a litte fun but not to the level one would expect from GBS.
The Good: There are two fantastic traditional tracks on Fortune's Favor. "England" is absolutely beautiful and "Long Lost Love" is surprisingly powerful, especially on the verses (shame on ya' Molly). Both of these add something new to the GBS catalogue without being easily linked to earlier songs. "Company of Fools" may not be the most original track but it is loads of fun, full of energy, eminently singable and has a really nice hook. Think "Old Black Rum" but with clowns. The truly surprising and most original sounding song on the cd is, oddly enough, "Oh Yeah." It is a straightforward rock anthem (didn't I say I hated those earlier) but it is much harder musically than the other tracks and Alan virtually growls the lyrics. It is fantastic and loads better than "Straight to Hell." Maybe because it is so unexpected--a foot stomping, head banging song from the boys--who would have thunk it. These four songs are worth the price of admission and pump the stars up to four in, what reads to me, like a primarily negative review. I'm not hating. I just wish GBS would have smashed the last two records together and made things a little more balanced.
The Beautiful: The jacket art. And look, this time, both parts is a girl.

This is a great album from the guys. The new songs blended in really well in the live set on the current tour. A+++ Also recommended, download the GBS cover of "Gallow's Pole."

Just saw Great Big Sea in concert (NYC - 9/19/08) and fell in love with some of their new songs (Walk on the Moon, Love Me Tonight, England). I had to hear them again!
This CD is not like their old ones - more rocky, less folksy - the love songs pull on the heart, their defiant ones make you want to dance, and their ballads fill you with longing. I wish they had compiled a live CD of these songs because this group ROCKS in person... It's true, the band sounds less like Great Big Sea of 10 years ago, but are they supposed to play the same kind of stuff forever? It might be great for fans, but probably boring for them.
Anyway, lots of catchy phrases, songs to sing along to, and songs to get vertical to.....As far as I know, none of these songs are on previous CDs (although I don't own all 10.)

Following up on "The Hard and the Easy", the boys head back to the sound of "Something Beautiful" with a pop fueled CD. The odd thing is that you don't recognize it's GBS until the 6th song. The first five are cannon fodder. They all sound the same, could be made by any band in the country and I find myself skipping over them quickly. Starting with "Oh Yeah" you finally recognize the boys. From there songs like "Company of Fools", "Banks of Newfoundland" and "Straight To Hell" keep with their theme of newfie music with a modern twist. And they do a pretty good job. Bob Hallett is conspicuously silent not only on the CD but the accompanying DVD. There is limited accordion or flute playing compared to earlier CDs and I don't think he does more than a couple vocals. That's too bad. I find the CD missing heart but "Hard and Easy" was such a great CD any follow-up was bound to suffer. Overall, it's an ok CD.

The celtic rock of Great Big Sea, and intense energy they inspired, seems to have drifted away in this new chapter of their career. How very disappointing for me, a big fan. Fortune's Favor is more Irish Folk than Celtic Rock. It is not bad, but not what a previous Great Big Sea fan like me enjoys most.