Morcheeba

I bought it on iTunes and liked it -
so I wanted the complete album.
Very good - I play it almost every day!
Recommended. Peter

This album is super for those lazy days where you want something to give you the feeling of floating on air or being by the ocean.

This album is unique to the majority of other trip hop releases in that it is mostly very cheerful. The cover art very much reflects the mood of the recording. In this album, Morcheeba ventures into other genres of music, including jazz, reggae, rock and pop, far more than in their debut Who Can You Trust? and is therefore more versatile. It can easily be enjoyed whether you are relaxing, driving, eating, running, etc. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.

I first heard this CD in 1999, and I have to get it out and listen to it every few months. I have yet to hear any of Morcheeba's other albums, but this one is one of my all-time favorites. I will have to listen to see if their other work is comparable.

One of a kind cd with an amazing lyrical talent, Skye has a voice unlike any other, soft and sensual and oddly hypnotic. A must own for fans of just about any genre.

Owning and loving both Who Can You Trust? and Big Calm and having listened to Charango I was turned off by the many negative reviews for this CD.

Finally biting the bullet and buying this after hearing Gained the World and Enjoy the Ride I was astonished. Are all the negative reviews put out by fair weather fans?

This CD is different, having no clear single flavor as the others have it is nonetheless an excellent addition to my collection and to all those who are turned away by negative reviews I recommend you try this CD if you are more then a passing fan. You wont be disappointed.

I am new to Morcheeba. I stumbled on them while looking through co-workers shared itunes libraries. My introduction to them was Big Calm. I fell in love with that album. It has a great character to it that in some ways reminds me of Thievery Corporation. I immediately went out to find more of their cds and picked up the only one the store had, Dive Deep. What happened to this group? They had a 'sound'. That sound is gone now. Whether it was Skye or not...the thing that made them unique, their 'sound', is gone. They sound like a frustrated group trying to break into the mainstream now. Sad.

Track 1 was great and what I expected. However the remainder was not that good & wont be listened to again.

Overall, a VERY good album by Morcheeba. Many tracks stand out from the rest - as others have indicated: "Enjoy the Ride" being one of my top tracks from the album. Others like, "Gained the World", "Run Honey Run", and "Washed Away" come in at a close second.

I highly recommend this album for anyone who's lost faith in Morcheeba over the past couple years and need a good reason to listen to them again.

I have always loved this group and I think this is one of their best cd's.
The song called Riverbed is my absolute favorite.

Let's say it like this. Just open up a bottle of red wine in a comfortable evenening with your lady and let the music flow with the mood. Great trip hop album!

Who Can You trust is Morcheeba's first major effort and it's a strong one. Standout tracks for me include "Trigger Hippie" and "Tape Loop," which both should be part of any right-thinking trip-hop mix. The first two-thirds of the disc move consistently and well, giving way to a quiet and gloomy atmosphere in the latter part of the album. This disc and Big Calm both make me think of the old early 70's soul albums and of early, early Funkadelic. This Manchester band was a big part of the extraordinary flowering of musical talent out of that city in the nineties. This disc and Big Calm are the two essential CDs to get by this band.

i bought "Big Calm" before this album and was blown away. morcheeba has mastered the trip-pop sound on that album. my expectations for this album were fairly high considering the fact that i heard that it was more straight forward trip-hop. i've listened to this album several times and while it does have strong songwriting, i don't think morcheeba are good enough of a band to go this experimental on their first album. the comparisons musically and structurally on this compared to "Big Calm" are so obvious that in some instances i felt the order of release should have been reversed. there aren't enough singles and catchiness in this one to catch the attention of the listener, especially for a first time out band. i do appreciate the adventurous nature of it, but it just came out a bit to early.

Kind of hard to believe that it's been nearly a decade since Trip Hop was the next big thing. With a few exceptions, one of which is Morcheeba, much of the so called Trip Hop music now sounds dated, and hasn't aged very well.

Morcheeba came at it from a slightly different angle. As an example, I doubt you'll hear any other bands of the genre cover Neil Young, as Morcheeba did. They also got the attention of David Byrne, who in turn introduced them to Jim White. The Godfrey brothers would work, with great effect, on Byrne's "Feelings" and later Jim White's "No such place".

Among their peers, about the only one that comes to mind that still sounds pretty good is Portishead's "Dummy". "Who can you trust" and "Big calm" have, for the most part, stood the test of time, and sound great pretty much from beginning to end. By the time they released "Fragments of Freedom", the band was in the process of fragmenting, and the later releases just don't hold up.

Take a close look at the cover photo. If you know what it is, you'll instantly understand what inspired this album and the optimum state of mind in which to listen to it.

This album epitomizes "CHILL OUT" music, if you love great lyrics, female vocals, all-round great music and of course your a smoker of the greener persuasion then this is the album just for you. Buy it, and you'll love it!!

Johnny Jargon!

Great album, 10 out of the 12 tracks have the "mellow-melodic" flow that I was looking for. The music on this album will keep you calm and collected when you get angry or when somebody breaks your heart, or you can throw it on when you want to hear something that goes down smooth.

FYI, my music preferences are hip-hop, jazz, R&B and MORCHEEBA, ya dig???

Cheers

The Morcheeba album I'd recommend to anybody... Perfect for winding down

Skyke Edwards IS gone....which is undeniably sad. She had a voice that melted your ears and heart, and really carried the songs home. Ross and Paul Godfrey STILL provide excellent beats and rhythms, however, and the new substitute for Skye, Daisy Martey, does more than an acceptable job with the vocals. She's clearer, and though I don't like her voice as much, she's still got the soul required to carry these songs through the ether to your head.

I just found that out Daisy was replaced for live performances, by Jody Sternberg. I don't think the brothers ever truly found a replacement for Skye- my aunt lives in D.C, and she's seen this crew a few times, and she has the opinion that Skye was probably the best- but the beats are tight on this album, same as on "Trigger Hippy"- so the debate over vocals is really a personal preference. I personally like Charango. They bring in a few new rappers- Pace Won does his bit on the title track, and a few others, like Slick Rick (on Women Lose Weight) does an ok job. I still love the Brother's beats, as always. They really make this album.

It's a different Morcheeba, but give it a shot. "What New York Couples Fight About" is a great track, and "Undress Me Now" really highlights Martey's smooth voice. "Public Displays of Affection" has possibly the best beat in a electronica song I've heard in a while. "Get Along" almost had me believing Skye was still there. *Sniff. Oh well.

Not a bad record, by ANY means.

`Charango' was my introduction to Morcheeba and after getting (and loving) this, I went on to get their greatest hits `Parts of the process'.

Morcheeba are UK trip hop/electronica trio, in a similar vein to Portishead and Lamb. Their style is a mix of fusion, blues, and funk with strings, guitars, keyboards, beats and scratches.

Opening track `Slow down' is a mellow, dreamy song with wind like effects and lead vocalist Skye's sultry clear-as-glass vocals. Great guitar! Next is the string swathed `Otherwise' with some delicate guitar. `Aqualung' takes you on a musical swim with its delicate keyboard, guitar and scratches, and ghostly backing vocals.

`Sao Paolo' starts off with some country sounding guitars which give way to a slow, lush tropical sound with ethereal vocals. `Charango' is a fusion jam with some spoken/rapped verses from guest Pace Won.

`What new York couples fight about' is a dreamy, movie like song with spoken verses from Lambchop's Kurt Wagner, and Skye harmonizing and singing the second verse. Very atmospheric.

`Undress me now' is a lush, ghostly sounding guitar ballad. `Way beyond' with its wind like effects is a melancholic ballad with a horn laden chorus.

One of the highlights is the hilarious, groovy `Women lose weight' featuring rapping from Slick Rick. The lyrics tell the tale of a man who wants to do off his fat wife so he can be with his secretary. Morbid and funny, and a very 70s soulful chorus.

The haunting `Get along' features Pace Won rapping, and is a mellow, bubbly, dreamy midtempo retro sound with Skye sounding a bit like Debbie Harry. Fantastic!

`Public displays of affection' is more upbeat but still delicate, and closing track, `The great London traffic warden massacre' is another rich fusion jam. Everything in its right place. Awesome!

Impressive! I like it.

Beautifully chilled and addictive music offset by quirky and cheeky lyrics with half an eye on the famous wry sense of British humour. A beautiful album that doesn't take itself too seriously. I had the good fortune of buying the limited edition CD which features a bonus CD of all the tracks in acoustic version, this CD feels like being trapped in a 1960's/70's spy movie; it's every bit as excellent as the original.

I read all the reviews, and selected this based on the most mature and unemotional reviewer i could find. Alas - I ask you to trust your instincts and believe me when I say morcheeba is not morcheeba with out Skye's voice - unless you really really really really love [bad] Disco. Go to Itunes instead. Or just buy the "big calm" or "who can you trust"- you will be much much happier with your purchase.

This album sounds quite a bit like 60's girl-group pop music with modern electronic touches. It employs a lot of those old-school rhythms and sensibilities. It's quite an accessible and enjoyable listen that also provides a fair amount of variation between songs. For example, "People Carrier" stands out because it has a bit of a county feel to it and employs a slide guitar. This doesn't really sound much like an electronic album as more traditional instruments are heard all over the record.

THE ANTIDOTE represents a fresh direction for Morcheeba and a successful one at that. While I am in fact a big fan of what is often referred to as "trip-hop," I was never particularly compelled by Morcheeba's previous versions of it. Nothing on WHO CAN YOU TRUST? really stuck with me and I found BIG CALM to be kinda boring. But this album, for the most part, holds my attention.

Much has been said about the replacement of previous vocalist Skye Edwards with Daisy Martey. I was never blown away by Skye, truth be told, but I guess she had a lot of charisma in concert (never seen 'em live) judging from her loyal fans. Daisy's voice works well with Morcheeba's new approach here. The SOUND of her voice is quite good, she can hit the right notes, but it's not very powerful. I'm not sure if she's actually incapable of sustaining a note or if that's simply her vocal STYLE. Whatever the case, she doesn't come across as the strongest singer, but that's not a problem in my book because this album doesn't exist merely to showcase her vocals.

Not exactly a mind-blowing release, but an enjoyable, worthwhile one none-the-less. Recommended.

I'll admit that the only Morcheeba CD I owned prior to picking up The Antidote was Charango. I've heard Morcheeba on several different radio stations, and after buying Charango, I was a bit put off off by the lack of consistent style. I heard a couple tracks from this disc and bought it pretty quick, knowing that the vocalist had changed. I liked Skye too, but I must say that Daisy does a darn good job here. I feel that this album is more of an 'album' than Charango was; it's got a consistent funky and classy style, the songs fit together well. It's worth buying.
My favorite tracks are for sure "The People Carrier" - with a good driving beat and a few slowed down choruses that are very jazzy-swing, and an amazing belting of lyrical magic by Daisy. Also "Ten Men" is sweet. It's got a bit of a Spanish backbone and has a very punchy epic sound.
If you really really liked Skye, and had absolutely no care for the musical members of the group in the past, don't bother, I guess. But if you like the sound Morcheeba as a band of musicians and you want something a bit different than they've put out before, this is a sound purchase.

What a great sound. I own several cheeba disks and find their sound refreshing and sophisticated. Where Skye is melodious and silky smooth, Daisy is direct and powerful. I feel if both were able to complement the band such as Zero 7 does with Sia, Sophie and Tina we could indeed be in for a very special sonic treat. In the end I respect both singers and their amazing vocals, and one needs to recognize the band for their desire to evolve and expand themselves artisticly. They will benefit from it.

I disagree with the negative reviews. Daisy Martley's vocals fit perfectly with the trippy, psychodelic nature of the music. While the music may have more in common with the sound of Jefferson Airplane than that of early Morcheeba, that does not make it bad. To the contrary, the songs are extremely well crafted and varied. Morcheeba should be applauded for their versatility and growth.

You've read it before: this is horrible, spine tingling, embarassing stuff! Morcheeba went from making a classic first album (Who Can You Trust?) and a really good sophomore release (Big Calm) to THIS piece of garbage? Unbelievable!

As I said in a different review, this album PROVES that the exit of Skye Edwards (after 2002's Charango) had absolutely nothing to do with the demise of Morcheeba, 'cause it really doesn't get much worse than this!

Only the title track deserves praise as being really good. The opening track "World Looking In" is okay, in that it MAY not give you the chills.

But everything else? DON'T BOTHER! There are plenty of less painful ways to inflict misery on oneself: root canal without anesthesia comes to mind as something I'd much rather try than to give this CD another listen.

I've got about 6000 tracks in my MP3 collection. Pretty much mostly I listen to is Mozart, sometimes Beethoven, Chopin, Metallica, and when I get bored of REAL music like that, I tend to go wandering through all the other stuff...

And Morcheeba is right up there. No doubt, beautiful, beautiful, gorgeous music. If you're open minded and love MUSIC (not genres or fashions), then listen to this...

How can a group fall as far as they did? "Who Can You Trust" and "Big Calm" were both classics (dispite the fact that they sounded totally different from one another). Now with "FoF" it just went down hill...and never came back!

I want to respond to what a lot of other reviewers have said, here. I agree, the album is horribly boring. And it's absolutely fine to be a group that doesn't want to be labeled... genre-benders are the best in art, music, and literature. The issue I take with the album isn't simply that it's not trip hop, but that it's BAD. It's just poorly made music. Saying that "maybe they were purposefully trying to be corny with their lyrics" doesn't make the lyrics any less painful, nor does it save the poorly- and boringly-written tunes themselves. I'm simply not buying that this was some big experiment in sarcasm or irony. These are not "feel good" songs, they're "Ouch, are these really the same guys that did Trigger Hippie?" songs.

To my ears, the problem with "Fragments" isn't that Morcheeba is trying something new, the problem is that this effort fails so miserably at it. I like retro-funk-disco as much as anyone; I grew up with it, as a matter of fact (listen to Chris Joss or an Ursulla 1000 mix CD to see how much fun this genre can be). But this makes KC and the Sunshine Band sound inspired. It's not happy, it's not interesting rhythmically, and the melodies are about as memorable as a tone row in one of Arnold Schoenberg's later twelve tone compositions. Unlike most reviewers here, In my opionion WCYT and Big Calm are not all THAT great compared to the real classics of Trip Hop and Downtempo music (i.e Mezzanine and Mirror Conspiracy), but this is one of the blandest, most forgettable things I've had the misfortune to purchase in years. Maybe if it was entitled "music to wash dishes by"--its not overtly offensive like, for example, the new Brazilian Girls disc. But as a "major" work, by a "major" artist, forget it.

All of the performances found on this CD are good live versions of songs from good artists. I never attended the Lilith Fair when it was around so I didn't know what to expect when I checked this CD out; I picked it up soley for the names I recognized and liked (Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, etc.). After listening to this though I found that I didn't really like most of the songs. Not that they were bad songs or poorly performed but that this album's collection of artists was just too eclectic for my tastes. I'm not a rap fan at all so Queen Latifah's addition wasn't my favorite and the album wasn't stickered despite Tracy Bonham's lyrics. Because of my disappointment I have to give this 2 stars. If you went to the fair and only watched the performances from performers you liked then I'd suggest trying to check this out from your local library. If you like all or most of these artists then maybe this CD is for you.

No passionate or inspired musical performances here,just a bunch of females trying to prove something and some ... female-supporting male musicians to help them.

I wrote a review for this CD several months ago, saying I didn't like it apart from a few songs. After that, I put the CD away. I recently brought it out again, put it in the CD player, and realized "Hey, there's some good stuff on here." I didn't like it at first. Now I love it. If you are wanting to try some Lilith Fair, my advice would be to borrow this from someone... Listen to the whole thing a few times, even if you don't like it the first time. For some odd reason, it just grows on you till you are playing it nonstop.

This is my favorite CD of 2000. If you like female vocalists (Sarah) this is a must have. Worth it just for Bic Runga's "Sway" not to mention all the other great songs.

To be honest, I wouldn't have gotten this CD if it wasn't for 'Angel' and 'I Do,' the only songs on here that I have heard. I was introduced to some more Natalie Merchant, which was nice. This version of 'Angel' is wonderful. I love the extra piano parts. Personally, I think Sarah doesn't need anyone to sing with her, and (don't jump on me for saying this) I think it would have been better without Emmylou. But it is great. 'I Do' is even better live. The only other song on here that I really liked was 'In the Ghetto,' but I do want to get the other Lilith Fair CDs just so I can hear some other Sarah McLachlan songs live. Okay, sorry for rambling: the bottom line is that most of the songs on here are not very much like Sarah McLachlan, so if you are, like me, a Sarah fan that just wanted to check out some other female singers in that genre... I wouldn't recommend Lilith Fair Vol. 2.

If you are anything like myself, and feel like slicing your wrist after listening to more than two songs in a row on any Morcheeba album then take this compilation for a spin. I stayed away from it for years after its release for two reasons. It had Morcheeba on the front cover, and the Back to Mine Series is very unpredictable. Their albums are usually a stong hit or miss for my electronica tastes and the artist(s) featured in the mix has no correlation to whether I end up liking a particular Back to Mine or not. Definitely keeps you guessing.

Anyhow, I picked up a copy of this album and quickly placed it in the hit pile for Back to Mine compilations. A great set of eclectic tracks that gel very well together. Full of cool tracks that make me groove verus suicidal!

4/5 stars.

This album is awesome. Even though I'm pretty tight with the "star gun", I have to give it 5 stars, if only to offset the negative reviews. To the nay-sayers (and those interested in what the nay-sayers had to say): this album is a compilation of Morcheeba influences, and is not Morcheeba nor does it pretend to be. Some also said it has a "blaxploitation" feel to it, but I really don't feel that. Very smooth album vaguely reminiscent of some of the unique downtempo mixes that can be found on betalounge [...]. So many of the songs really get into your skin and give you that hazy, chill, but dark and echoey feeling - relaxed and groovy but slightly off in a creepy/good way. Fantastic album for the bedroom.

This is a pretty cool mix. I like the Back to Mine series because they put stuff on here that shouldn't go together. It's like a mix tape of songs you actually like rather than trying to put together a mix tape that has a certain logic to it.

It's a bit different than some of the other Back to Mine mixes (Nick Warren's mega chill mix and Danny Tenaglia's sounding a lot like the 70s mix come to mind) but it's pretty cool.

It's an odd, eclectic and pretty funky mishmash of stuff you'd be hard pressed to find in one place. The only reason I give this less than five stars is the hip hop tune towards the end. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I'm just not feeling it here. There's a laid back, trippy kind of feel to the whole thing and it throws a kink in it. If I could excise this little ditty I'd give it five stars. But it doesn't kill it.

Don't go looking for Morcheeba. Just open your mind, sit back and chill a while.

this is possibly the smoothest album to come out from a 'mainstream' source in a long time. old-timers and people who actually understand the genres of soul, funk and trip-hop will find this a flawless, perfect moment in the mind of an artist who's become too big for some people's tastes. truly a prayer to the gods of soulful music, no collection is complete without this deeply personal, chilling testament to the dark reality that is America today.

When I buy from the "Back To Mine" series, I expect "smooth" and "groovy". This one offers not much of either. The individual songs don't always fit the late night mood, they don't work together as a group, and the transitions between them are jarring and awkward. I can't recommend this CD. Don't be duped just because you like Morcheeba, as I was.