Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #174 in Music
- Brand: republic
- Released on: 2011-08-16
- Number of discs: 1
- Dimensions: .38" h x
5.62" w x
4.98" l,
.20 pounds
Product Description
2011 album from the Texas-based Country quartet. The Eli Young Band--four musicians who met during their college days in Texas--is now 11 years into a career built on touring without a single lineup change. Produced by Mike Wrucke with executive producer Frank Liddell (a team noted for its award-winning work with Miranda Lambert), Life At Best takes the listener on a journey, winding through songscapes that walk a delicate line. There's a distinct variance from track to track as EYB veers from energetic quasi-rockers to steel-ladled country songs to conflicted ballads. And yet the album maintains a singular identity, built around a sound that's been masterfully created over the course of three studio albums. Features the hit 'Crazy Girl'.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
By terpfan1980
The early release (Crazy Girl) from this album came out some time ago now (at the time I'm writing this review) and from the first time I heard it and/or saw the video I was hooked. That was probably inevitable, given past enjoyment and appreciation of the works of this group.In anycase, this is (again, at the time I am writing this) the latest from this group from Denton, Texas. Starting with the first track, Even If It Breaks Your Heart, Mike Eli's vocals draw listeners in and offer a soothing voice of encouragement harkening back to a time and place where dreams can offer both hope and disappointment. This is a song of nostalgia, but offering that additional message about looking beyond the potential heartbreak and continuing to dream anyway.Crazy Girl follows. The video is one that seemed to offer the band (at least from what I could tell on the "behind the video"/making of type show) a lot of fun. Crazy Girl is a love song at heart, but the video offers a different view that puts a twist on the situation. In the end, Crazy Girl is about loving someone like crazy, something that I've told my fiance (soon to be wife now!) applies to herself in my own eyes.Every Other Memory picks up the pace and tempo though the subject of the song is about thinking of a past love that was lost who still haunts every other memory.On My Way maintains a bit of the up-tempo pacing with a happier subject compared to the tunes that preceeded it on this album. There ain't a worry in my world... on my way.Skeletons offers a bit of a Springsteen sound as it starts. The best I can suggest is give a listen, you should pick it up right away. The topic here is the Skeletons in the closet that we all have. A bit bluesy, a bit rock 'n roll, again a tune that is fun to listen to.I Love You is a simple love song, beautiful, tender, slow and sweet.The Fight is a song that is easy to figure out the subject of, or maybe it isn't. Really, you've got to listen to the song and give it a chance, much like the rest of the tunes on the album.My Old Man's Son is a nice song that is an ode to being influenced by your own father (and mother). It is one of the best of the songs on the album, at least in my opinion, though it's hard to pick the best of this album given the high overall quality here.At this point there are still 6 tracks remaining here. Some listeners may find themselves a bit bored by the similar sounds the later tracks would share with the earlier ones, but really I like EYB and am perfectly content to sit and listen to the remaining tunes (Recover, The Falling, War On A Desperate Man, Say Goodnight, How Quickly You Forget, and Life At Best).Personally I give this album a hearty recommended buy rating.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
By Timothy Yap
Prime Cuts: Even If It Breaks Your Heart, Crazy Girl, My Old Man's SonTight harmonies, boy band good looks and 70s rock with a touch of rustic traditionalism thrown in for convention, Eli Young Band, on a cursory level, might not chart new ground. Rather, they have followed the well soddened path blazed by other country groups such as Rascal Flatts, Emerson Drive, Zac Brown Band and Little Big Town. This is why despite being together as a group for the last 11 years and with their previous major label debut "Jet Black and Jealous," these four men have yet to become a household name. But it's all about to change with this Republic Nashville disc "Life at Best." Living up to its titular title, this is Eli Young Band's best album to date. And its pride of place goes to its well chosen songs. "Crazy Girl" the album's lead single has not only been their most successful single but it was recently awarded the coveted "gold" status for 500,000 downloads. In this day and age where illegal downloads are so prevalent, for "Crazy Girl" to achieve such a status is by itself a testimony of the song's greatnesses. And based on what we hear on this disc, it is safe to say the hits will not stop with "Crazy Girl." Though the band had co-written 9 out of the 14 cuts, the best are still those that came from pens not belonging to the four.Written by fellow artist Lee Brice and burgeoning hit writer Liz Rose, "Crazy Girl" has the word "hit" stamped all over. A song that finds the protagonist offering assurances of abiding love to his girl in the trials of a relationship, this is the type of love songs that will be devoured by the band's sea of female fans. Compounded with the infectious sing-a-long melody, all of these factors make "Crazy Girl" a hit hard to ignore. Bristling with optimism is the band's cover of Will Hodge's cover "Even If It Breaks My Heart." With a message that calls for one not to give up on our dreams, this again feeds country radio's incessant need to fill their "inspirational song" quota. Similar in theme about not giving up is "The Fight"--though a little redundant, this song is saved somehow by Mike Eli's sincere and somehow anthemic delivery. "I Love You," on the other hand, must be faulted for its unimaginative title, yet the song is to be applauded for how its melodic structures creatively build up to its crescendo chorus.Nevertheless, some of the album's most glowing moments are with the ballads. "My Old Man's Son" has a James Taylor-folk like narrative to it that gives the album its most welcome break amidst the rock-centered songs. Part of the reason why "My Old Man's Son" is so enthralling is because of its lucid and piercing lyrics; "From the way I laugh to the way I hold a woman's hand / Everywhere I go, wherever I run / I'll be my old man's son." "Every Other Memory" has a retro feel to it harkening back to country music in the early 90s where the song's beauty is found in the interesting turn on words shadowed by its haunting melody. To cut a desperately introspective song like "War on a Desperate Man" shows that these boys are more than interested in targeting for radio hits. This is a brooding ballad about a man's with brokenness that is intoned with so much passion over a folky backdrop spiked by some foreboding steel guitars. While the soft rock ballad "Say Goodnight" would work a little better if the backings were a little less busy.Eli Young Band stepped out of the box with "How Quickly You Forget"--a bluesy swampy rock piece that finds its inspiration in Marty Stuart is passable without being memorable. And a few rockers like "Recover" and the title cut "Life at Best" are more fillers than career changing numbers. Overall, "Life At Best" finds Eli Young Band at their best thus far. Despite a few fillers, there are enough stellar cuts here presenting life with its aspirations, despairs and challenges in ways that are memorable and soul searching.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
By ckirk
I love EYB and all the songs on here are great. Would definitely recommend purchasing this album. Great price as well.
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