Customer Reviews

Secret Samadhi

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Upon listening to this cd in it's initial stages of February '97, Secret Samadhi didn't turn my head, so to speak. That all changed in August. After shelving it due to the hangover of Throwing Copper I gave it a second chance, and to my honest surprise this cd blew me away. I played it 5 times in a row in one sitting, and came away after every sitting more breathless than the last. It's not hard to see why the critics and the general public didn't embrace this cd right away, it's dark, surreal at times and has overtones of misery, but given a chance you will realize that this is one hell of a spiritual album. It seems Ed Kowalczyk dug deep into his inner soul and came up with some very fine songs. It flows from one to another with tireless ease, culminating with my favortite track (if possible)"Insomnia and the Hole in the Universe". Give it a second and third and fourth chance, and by the time you reach "Gas Hed Goes West" hopefully you will come away with the same feeling of wonder as I did. Still my favorite LIVE album.

Album incontournable pour tout ceux qui aime le groupe LIVE. Des bonnes touns dont ''Turn my head''. Un disque qui s'ajoute bien à une collection.

What Secret Samadhi proves for Live is that, yes, they can construct a good melody, Ed Kowalczyk can infue his vocals with passion, but it's difficult to care with writing this trivial and altogether bad. Really bad. The opening track, "Rattlesnake," has a good chorus to grasp onto, but the versus seem thrown together on the car ride over to the studio. It makes the whole record seem rather sheisty, and unwisely self-important (the pretentiously titled "Insomnia and the Hole in the Universe" has a line in the chorus that goes "angel don't you have some bagels in my oven").

This CD is somewhat of an enigma, I must say. For me, the critical backlash it recieved is almost as interesting as the music itself. I read somewhere Live expected the album to do as well as Throwing Copper did, and while after listening to Samadhi several times I have a good understanding why it didn't pull such numbers, I do not, at ALL, understand how the album recieved far-and-wide poor reviews and had such a staggering decline in sales.

Like so many others have stated here, this is no Throwing Copper. It's far rougher around the edges, the guitars are more distorted, the melodies far edgier and the lyrics don't seem to have the same spiritual/emotional touch that TC had. In short, it's a far darker, more brooding album. It's also a much more jagged album; the songs don't blend together seamlessly like Live's previous album, the the whole seems a lot less coherent. All that said, it still makes for quite a listen.

OK... The first time I listened to Samadhi, my mind shouted "What is THIS?!". A total shock to my system, musically yes, but all that stood out on the initial listen was the lyrics. They sounded trite, ridiculous, unbelievably awful. I'll just say this -- they still do little for me, and where as I find myself understanding and connecting with much of Ed's lyrics on TC, I'm pretty much wholly disconnected from the lyrical nature of Samadhi. So be it.

Musically is where this album shines. "Lakini's Juice" drives harder than any song on TC; likewise "Turn My Head" -- a GORGEOUS, HAUNTING song (note the capitals are there for a reason) that will stand the test of time -- makes the album worth owning by its lone self. Rattlesnake is a hard-edged opener that starts the album off with a bang, while Ghost provides some beautiful textures and female vocals that come as a great change of pace. Really, virtually every song on here is a winner, but they are also songs that won't immediately grab you like TC's did -- ya' gotta give this album time to find a way to your soul.

If you're a fan of Live or alternative music, I find it hard to believe you'd be genuinely disappointed with Secret Samadhi like so many seemed to be. It's far better than you probably think.

After "Throwing Copper" it is not surprising this album is under appreciated. Given time to appreciate it's own individual charm, this album is creative and rocks.

How do you follow up to one of the best albums of the 90's that put you on the map and made you superstars? The challenge and pressure must have been immense for the band to follow up their multi-hit Throwin Copper album. Throwing Copper sold millions and had at least four bonafide radio hits. It was THE album of 96' and I remember the anticpation that came with the release of Secret Samadhi.

Needless to say Live met the challenge head on and came out with an impressive effort that is no Throwing Copper but stands alone by itself. Live's passion that was parlayed into musical expression so effectivley on Throwing Copper is again the key to Secret Samadhi. Just like its predeccessor, the band combines a combination of fast rockers and slow ballads. Century is a hard hitting winner that could exemplifies Live's mix of lyrical tempo and edgy guitar. Graze is one of the slower songs that works well and Freaks is likable song that found limited radio exceptance. Most of the songs are solid and Gas Head Goes West ends the album in a soulfull manner.

After listening to the first five of Live's albums, they appear to have hit their high point with Throwing Copper. Secret Samadhi is a step down from that album and The Distance To Here continues the downfall.

Bottom Line: If you are a fan of Throwing Copper than this album is a must have. If you are unfamilair with Live then perhaps you should start with Throwing Copper.

It seems as though none of you are able to comprehend the idea that the lyrics on this album are primarily spiritually based and as with anything that delves into the emotional firmament of our hearts and minds its going to become subjective. This is the beauty behind the album. Maybe some of the so called fans out there should look up the definition of Samadhi and then you could figure out where Ed was at intellectually and spiritually.
If you cannot understand the lyrics or if the words within songs aren't important, you might as well take every message ever transmitted in song and throw them out the window. Maybe people who don't comprehend deep thought provoking lyrics shouldn't be allowed to own this album in the first place.

Best album so far.

I have read other reviews for this CD and i just couldn't take how people were putting it down in comparison to Throwing Copper or the much unheard of yet amazing Mental Jewelery.
This CD is amazing, i mean sure its darker then Throwing Copper, but bands evolve and sing about different things during different stages of their careers. Ed is one of the most talented singers there is, and this CD deserves ever one of those 5 stars i gave it.
If you liked Throwing Copper (the whole CD), then your gonna love Secret Samadhi. The content is different but the edge in Ed's voice is all there. The raw emotion of Lightning Crashes is portraid in Rattlesnake and the upbeat momentom of I Alone is all wraped up in a hidden form in the song Lakini's Juice. By far one of their best CD's.... So what are you waiting for? BUY IT

I really try to stay away from critiquing music online but after reading some of the reviews posted here i couldnt resist. For one this is a solid album, obviously not as "catchy" as some of their earlier work from mental jewelery and throwing copper mainly due to its' darker feel and thus far less radio friendly. One reviewer brought up the lyrics issue, how the album in some peoples opinions fall short of previous efforts and went on to argue that lyrics arent as important as the music etc. First off i agree with his point that that lyrics are somewhat lacking in the depth that live fans have come to expect, lines like "the puke smells like beer", just arent expected. That said though, their is still tremendous depth in this album, just packaged a little differently then previous albums. The lyrics are basically a much darker reflection of eds thoughts, opinions etc. What i do not agree with however is how the aformentioned reviewer claims that lyrics arent as important as the music and how "PoP" fans are more interested in lyrics etc and so rock fans shouldnt concentrate on lyrics. If you are going to stereotype pop music coming from the likes of n'sync etc. it seems to me that lyrics are the last thing considered by this genres target audience. Lets face it "Bye Bye Bye " and the like were catchy songs popular for just that reason, not the deep soul searching, introspective lyrics of mr timberlake. So the generalization is all wrong, lyrics play a huge role in this kind of music, especially Live. The music is a backdrop for the artists thoughts, feelings emotions etc. Live is no exception. Because lyrics do play such a large part of live's success, the darker texture on this album has turned some people off, but in reality it is the same band that we have come to love, Bottom line, this album is worth buying the lyrics may be a little more straight forward and uncharacteristic but the depth that defines live is still present. Great album, pick it up.

In a previous post, I did indeed say that the lyrics didn't matter and that it was all music that counted. I was wrong. I admit it. BUT...I was not ENTIRELY wrong. There was one person that said that "the lyrics are what matter, the music is just giving it backbone" or something on the lines of that. I agree, in LIVE's case, lyrics are a big part, but saying that the musical talents of the rest of the band do not exactly show any REAL meaning to the song is just plain dumb. I am in a band myself, and I can assure you that just as much hard work goes into writing the music as does writing meaningful lyrics. Really listen to the music and how it is played. It is very dark and moody, which is what makes the lyrics sound so powerful. Without the music, the lyrics would show even less meaning. Please do not say that the music was not a key point of this band. Because if it was just "backbone" this would not be a "band" it would be just Ed's solo career with some no-name garage band.

But in another way, the lyrics do matter. But I personally think that it is wrong to attack Ed's lyrics due to their oddness. You people have to understand that lyrics are never going to be just black and white and the message isn't always going to be thrown right in the open so that inconsiderate people won't have to think. People who write meaningful lyrics, such as Ed, write their lyrics with intention to make people think. If the lyrics say "everybody's here, puke stinks like beer", that doesn't necessarely mean that he is writing about a group of drunk people puking on eachother. There might be a hidden message or maybe the lyrics are supposed to signify something. Most of us don't know what Ed was trying to say. But we can make up our own theories as to what his message was. That's what makes his lyrics so interesting. So please, stop just "reading the lyrics" and take a moment to read the lyrics and try and understand the message being told.

LIVE's "Secret Samadhi" in my opinion is their best work yet. Musically, it is by far their best work. If you are someone just wanting a clear-cut message given to you without any significance to it at all, this album definately isn't for you. But if you like to listen to music with meaningful lyrics and try to find the meaning behind them, this CD is one of the best.