Black Box Recorder - Facts of Life
Our Price: $24.92
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.60 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Black Box RecorderEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-03-20
Music Label: Jet Set Records
Soundtracks:
- The Art Of Driving
- Weekend
- The English Motorway System
- May Queen
- Sex Life
- French Rock 'N' Roll
- The Facts Of Life
- Straight Life
- Gift Horse
- The Deverell Twins
- Goodnight Kiss
- Start As You Mean To Go On
- Brutality
Music reviews of Facts of Life
Music Review: Cartesian? Perhaps. Descartean? I don't think so.
Rating: 4 Stars
An enormous and delightful surprise. Who'da thought that Black Box Recorder would follow up their rather creepily impressive debut, "England Made Me" with a record this dreamy and, when it comes right down to it, sweet? Don't be fooled by either their name or the slabs of meat on the cover; the majority of songs here are about the fumblings, the adventures and misadventures, of adolescent sex and romance; and while it certainly sounds calculated, it also sounds like they mean it and I believe it. One exception is "Gift Horse," a throwback to the first album's weaker songs (and most of Luke Haines' vague and incomplete Auteurs' songs), which apparently attempts to relate the true story of an English couple who buried their murder victims in their garden (the UK's version of our J.W. Gacy horror). "Gift Horse" is monotonous, vague and unrewarding. Sarah Nixey's repetitive cooing of "I just want to be loved" goes on and on and on. It's neither terrifying nor enlightening, just coy and annoying. It's the pop music equivalent of Atom Egoyan's lame "Felicia's Journey."But that's the exception on this compelling and lovely album. Nixey's spoken/sung style is starting to sound almost - dare I say it? - warm, and Luke Haines' songwriting has come a very long way in terms of developing complete songs, both in music and lyrics. The anxiety, fear, awkwardness and magic (albeit rare) of teenage sexual discovery and experimentation is solidly evoked throughout. I liked the first record very much, but "The Facts of Life" is a great leap forward and a very different beast. The cheap shock tactics are largely gone, replaced with a sweetness more meaningful and honest. I can't wait to see what they'll make next.
Description of Facts of Life
Black Box Recorder are an enigma. A three piece comprised of the haunting and fragile-voiced Sarah Nixey, Auteurs henchman Luke Haines and absinthe importer (& former Jesus & Mary Chain) John Moore. Stylistally, the band have catapulted themselves into some netherworld halfway between Air and Velvet Underground. Instruments include, Guitar arpeggios, synthesizers, glockenspiels, chiming xylophones, strings and drum machines. This release features the bonus tracks, 'Start As You Mean To Go Up' and 'Brutality'. Standard jewel case. 2001 release.The first Black Box Recorder album, 1998's England Made Me, was originally conceived by Auteurs and Baader Meinhof frontman Luke Haines as a typically baleful response to the cultural and political hysteria--respectively, Britpop and Tony Blair--then gripping Britain. Recorded with the help of former Jesus & Mary Chain drummer John Moore and singer Sarah Nixey, it did for Britpop roughly what the film Carrie did for the senior prom. The Facts of Life, the follow-up, maintains the withering glare but fixes it this time on the personal. The songs here obsess with unnerving clarity and mordant wit on the banal, cruel details of human relationships and are narrated perfectly by Nixey. Where her perfectly English-accented whisper infused England Made Me with the air of a bored aristocrat finding contemptuous amusement in the misery of others, on The Facts of Life she has located an edge of taunting viciousness all the more diabolical for being so understated. The tunes, as ever, are sweet and insidious, perhaps best thought of as Saint Etienne turned feral. Highlights on an album full of them are "English Motorway" and "The Art of Driving"--BBR triumphantly reclaiming the American rock & roll prerogative of the road song for their damp, claustrophobic homeland. The Facts of Life is a masterpiece. --Andrew Mueller
Alternative Rock CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Alternative Rock CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $149.98
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $99.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $202.44
Similar CDs
Pixies - BossanovaRelease date: 2003-05-20; Music CD
Best price: $8.11
Price in other shops:
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroidRelease date: 2010-05-18; Music CD
Best price: $4.13
Price in other shops:
Sound - From the Lions MouthRelease date: 2012-01-17; Music CD
Best price: $10.25
Price in other shops:
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga GaBaker & Taylor; Release date: 2007-07-10; Music CD
Best price: $7.41
Price in other shops:
Pixies - Surfer RosaRelease date: 2003-05-20; Music CD
Best price: $7.58
Price in other shops:
Auteurs - After Murder ParkRelease date: 1996-04-30; Music CD
Best price: $16.95
Auteurs - How I Learned to Love the BootboysRelease date: 2009-01-06; Music CD
Best price: $6.69
Price in other shops:
Luke Haines - Oliver Twist ManifestoRelease date: 2001-06-18; Music CD
Best price: $7.84
Price in other shops:
Black Box Recorder - PassionoiaRelease date: 2003-09-02; Music CD
Best price: $10.85
Price in other shops:
Black Box Recorder - England Made MeRelease date: 1999-07-06; Music CD
Best price: $28.00