This Side

This is so totally awesome! I just figured out how to listen to a CD on my computer! Anyway. . . .

A friend lent me This Side, an excellent CD by one of my favorite groups, Nickel Creek. I have read many, many reviews of this CD, and almost none of them agree with each other or tell quite the whole story, so I think I shall set the record straight. :-)

To start with, the cover of this album is really well designed and shows the theme of the album-- it has an almost-cartoonish pencil drawing of a little girl, with a bow in her hair, a shiny little-girl bob, pink cheeks, a shocked and amazed look on her face and her hand over her mouth. She is looking at the words of the title track, This Side, which is a fantastic song about being frightened, growing up, and falling in love-- "It's foreign on this side, and the truth is a bitter friend. But reasons few have I to go back again. . . .It's foreign on this side, But it feels like I'm home again. There's no place to hide but I don't think I'm scared." This is the theme of the whole album-- growing up, looking at the world, and being amazed at it all. This is especially evident in the songs This Side, Brand New Sidewalk and Beauty and the Mess, which is about the loneliness and artificiality of the performing life-- "Ain't that what you want them to know? All they get out of you is what they get out of the show. The rest is mine, I guess, the beauty and the mess to hide."

This is a different tone altogether from the first CD, which was more youthful and high-spirited. It was also a more pure bluegrass sound, whereas This Side has some pop and blues influence. I would not have expected myself to like this, but it makes for a very diverse, interesting CD.

There are things that I liked better about the first one-- it had more instrumental tracks, which is something Nickel Creek does really well, better than most. This Side only has one, The Smoothie Song, which is excellent. Also, in this one, Chris Thile occasionally goes into this ridiculous-sounding breathy falsetto that I am not terribly fond of.

On the other hand, Sara has obviously had voice lessons and sounds much better-- in the first CD her voice was a little too simple and childish, but now it is stronger and she has more control. And Sean sings lead on a couple of songs, which he did not on the first CD.

As with the first album, what really makes this one special is the flawless instrumentation. Chris' mandolin playing continues to be mindblowingly good, and Sean's guitar playing is given a bit more of a spotlight this time. The group's songwriting has also matured, with a couple of just fantastic songs like This Side, which is near flawless. It's one of those songs you listen to twice every time you play the CD. Seven Wonders, Beauty and the Mess, and Brand New Sidewalk are also excellent.

Overall this is a fantastic album. I did not like it the first time I listened to it because I was expecting something a little more like the first CD, which I own and listen to constantly. However, the more I listened to This Side the more I liked it, and now we have really bonded and I am going to buy it for myself. :-) These people are amazingly talented, and are definitely doing their own thing-- I can't think of anybody else who is doing bluegrass quite like this. It's awesome.