ARTiST: Ill Lit
TiTLE: Tom Cruise
LABEL: n/a
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 37:59 min
SiZE: 54,6 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: May-19-2006
RELEASE DATE: Apr-24-2006
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Across Country 03:55
02. Satan's Doing Fine Without Me 04:32
03. Worth The Wait 03:07
04. The Ghost Of Presston Brown 04:30
05. Los Angeles 03:24
06. The Bridge In Tracy 04:56
07. The Homewrecking Ball 03:40
08. This Is Not A Good Time 04:18
09. The Pale Spiritual 02:28
10. You Left After Work 03:09
Release Notes:
Possibly the most dangerously titled album of the
year, Tom Cruise (the album) would make old "Dancing
Briefs Boy Who Worships Scientological Gods" pretty
damn proud of his name, if he ever dared sit down
and listen to this beautifully crafted album. In
fact, if the Church of Scientology were smart, they
would snap up this recently free-lance band and make
them the official soundtrack artists for the
upcoming alien invasion. But more than likely, this
title will only serve to fill up a paragraph of some
lame critic's fruitless attempt to describe the
twisted beauty of this record.
Somewhere squarely between Wilco and the Flaming
Lips (though these two bands could use a little of
what Ill Lit is selling), Ill Lit delivers a
deceptively upbeat message of heartbreak and loss of
hope, complete with broken electronics and layers
and layers of sweet harmonies (courtesy of lead
singer and songwriter Daniel Ahearn and conspirator
David J.) Each of ten tracks is over-full with
interesting parts and small nuances, rewarding the
listener with a new experience almost every time,
without becoming muddled or overly busy. The
instrumentation is lush and diverse, and expertly
recorded by Los Angeles recording genius Michael
Rozon.
Opening with a reverb-soaked piano ballad about the
meaning of home to someone who has lived in three
different places in as many years, Tom Cruise
continues on with its oddly enchanting mixture of
chopped up electronic beats and glistening acoustic
guitars. The ultimate realization of this mixed
media technique is the instant hit "Los Angeles".
With a driving kick-snare beat, chiming electric
guitars and veering voices coming from all sides,
the song quickly builds into a bass-busting monster,
with David J. ripping a REM lyric straight out of
"It's the End of the World". But it will get the
Echo Park hipsters dancing til the ceilings sweat,
and that is what is important.
Some of the tracks fall a little too close to
Ahearn's country leanings for my taste (like "The
Bridge in Tracy" and "Satan's Doing Fine Without
Me"), but there are no apologies for someone so
sincere in their art. What must be remembered is
that this is a truly new piece of musical work,
crossing so many strains of sound to create
something unique and oddly compelling.