Lost and Gone Forever

Lost and Gone Forever is an indie rock album by Guster. I was surprised I already knew the first track, "What You Wish For", as it was not a single. That track and "Barrel of a Gun" are the highlights of an album that starts strong, but gets weaker and softer during playback. "Fa Fa" and "Two Points for Honesty" are ok. The rest is uninteresting.

Album #63 (1001 challenge extended): "Lost and Gone Forever" by Guster (1999) "Lost and Gone Forever" is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Guster. Rock is the sole Wiki-listed genre. The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite and had a number of guest musicians and singers including bassist Tony Levin. The core bandmembers included Adam Gardner (vocals, guitar, bass, trumpet), Ryan Miller (vocals, guitar, piano, organ, harmonica) and Brian Rosenworcel (drums, percussion, trombone, typewriter). Commercially. The album reached #169 in the US and had decent reviews. The album starts out with "What You Wish For." Acoustic guitar, percussion and harmony vocals. A charging electric guitar and piano enter. Melodic and essentially having dual lead singers. The first single "Barrel of a Gun" is faster and has a harder-edge electric guitar. More great harmonies. A singalong catchy chorus. The soft-loud-soft. A guitar solo and here's the typewriter. Great song! The next single "Fa Fa" has more of a bossa nova beat. An acoustic guitar and then kicks in with an electric guitar. The song builds. There's flute and sax blasts and ends with an entire horn section. He wants a change. "Happiness" has an electric guitar melody and louder percussion. Melancholic vocals as he's repeating his mistakes. Interesting crisscross vocals. "Two Points for Honesty" adds strings, a tambourine beat and Tony Levin on the Chapman stick. Acoustic and electric guitar strikes. There's an urgency to this song I really like. I have to admit I was shocked at how good this album is. Well-crafted and strong songs. Very catchy melodies and choruses. Gardner and Miller with great soaring vocals, harmonies and crisscross backing vocals. Heartfelt lyrics. Melodies led by acoustic and electric guitars and the piano. Very nice production by Lillywhite with the added horns, strings and other instruments. This album really reminded me of a Crowded House album. And, that's a good thing. This is an excellent album and recommend for everyone. 4.5 out of 5

It’s was ok. Nothing great or bad, just mid.

I promised myself that I would add a comment for every album on this list, but the pile of generic indie/indie-adjacent rock is so large that I've run out of words. This is a fine album, I listened to it, and then it was over. I wouldn't mind hearing it again, I would never seek it out.

Was a nice listening album but didn't really move the needle for me. A bit too whiny and sad for me at points. But totally unoffensive.

This might be the most average album we've ever had.

I don't have anything to say about this, it's very middle of the road pop/alt rock and there's many other bands doing the same thing. Should it be on the main list: No

Fa Fa was so much fun, and though I cringed that I loved the rest of the album, I did.

A truly fantastic album.

I remember the song Fa Fa... had complete forgotten about this band and that song. I enjoyed hearing that again as well as the rest of the album.

I almost enjoyed this, but something about the production or the lyrics or the style of singing or the way they played was off. On their own, fine, but combined, they don’t quite fit together and it makes me head hurt. :( This is a good album, but I won’t listen again. You can’t make me! 4/5

Not bad

This was a band that I’ve never heard of but was instantly enthralled by their music. Definitely will listen again and check out more of their discography in the future. What an interesting pick !

I LOVE Guster! So happy to see them come up here. That being said I don’t even think this is in my top three Guster albums. Ganging Up on the Sun, Easy Wonderful, and ESPECIALLY Keep It Together are all much stronger than this choice. 5 star band, 3 star album, averaged.

I'm not sure why, but whenever I hear the name Guster, in my mind I associate them with Weezer and expect their music to be similar. I guess just because they came out around the same time and their names have a similar cadence. But Guster is nothing like Weezer - they are so much better. Just really well-crafted songs. This is good stuff. 4 stars.

Very good

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Barrel of a gun, Fa fa, So long

Like the beach boys if they were a little emo. (but just a little). 3 stars.

Kinda dated in a DMB, Vertical Horizon way, but there's good song writing here.

Alright. Never heard this back in the day. Though by the late 90s all I heard was metal. This is okay.

Indie rock. Ni fu ni fa.

3.5/5

Good record. I would love to know why the person putting it forward had it rise to 1001 level.

Guster's Lost and Gone Forever is kind of your generic alt from 1999, but I enjoyed it. I think part of my enjoyment is due to me already knowing "Either Way" and "So Long," definitely the best songs on the album. (Shoutout to my BIL!) But even without knowing two songs, the album flows well and has a distinct vibe. I wasn't mad listening to this album a few times.

I know Guster's most popular song "Satellite", which got a lot of play in my circles all through the late 2000s to mid 2010s. I didn't really know Guster had a pre-2000s reputation, though. This album feels like textbook 90s pop-rock and alt rock, yet it has a little touch of something extra. Maybe it's the trumpet giving things a slight ska vibe, and maybe it's the prominent bongos giving things a slight worldbeat vibe. And maybe it's the intriguing little vocalizations that the lead singer does on occasion that seem uniquely and pleasantly out of place. In any case, I am usually a sucker for anything 90s alternative rock or adjacent (though this project has tested my limits on 90s britpop), so really no surprise that I enjoyed this.

This band name is familiar to me and I can't remember why. Above average alt rock of its era: the base is solid but it ads some musical flourish and touches that stretch beyond its genre roots.

Indie rock. Ni fu ni fa.

It's kinda upbeat and pleasant indie rock. The tone is upbeat too and I particularly like the drums played by hand.

Perfectly fine 90s rock. At least they did edit it down to under 50 minutes unlike so many others from this era. But nothing really special about this. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Hitherto unknown to me 90s alt rock. Better than expected!

What evs

I think I enjoyed this one.

Above Average Indie

I'm not sure why, but whenever I hear the name Guster, in my mind I associate them with Duster and expect their music to be similar. I guess just because they came out around the same time and their names have a similar cadence. But Guster is nothing like Duster - the latter are much better. And crucially, Duster's artistry is very experimental, which means that they don't indulge in the layers and layers of cheese found in *Lost And Gone Forever*. Either for the music writing, the songwriting or the performance, this thing is so fucking sugarcoated and soaked in naive, heart-on-their-sleeves intents I think I want to puke. I kindly ask the user whose review I copied and pasted for the start of mine -- changing "Weezer" to "Duster" in it, because heck, Duster is even closer a name to Guster than Weezer is -- to forgive me for stealing their words. It's just that I don't want to spend too much time and energy about this record. Yeah, the musical competency of those three dudes is beyond reproach -- even though Adam Gardner is not that strong a singer if you can hear some of the details in his performance. But for pete's sake, how can anyone in their right mind think this quite bland and quite middle-of-the-road dross is essential in the long run? How??? There's that comparison to Crowded House somewhere in this review section, intended as a laudatory comment, and it ironically encapsulates everything I don't like about this record. Miraculously, *Lost And Gone Forever* will avoid my worst-rated gallery for three reasons. A) The drummer / percussionist only playing with his hands brings an original sound to the project, aptly enhanced by Steve Lilywhite's production. B) Some build-ups and arrangements can be impressive -- see the ones of highlight "Far Fa", with Karl Denton on flute and saxophone, and also -- very bizarrely -- King Crimson's Tony Levin on bass (what the hell is he doing here???)' And C) There are some quirky moments in the lyrics at times. For instance, love I am reading too much into "Barrel of a Gun", but is it actually a seedy song about masturbation? Or even one about a psychotic stalker? Not sure those sorts of undertones are the one Guster always aim for, but interpreting the songs' lyrics this way makes them more interesting at least. Those three elements helped me bide my time as I went through this record -- and yes, it was quite a chore to go through. The user who suggested this is a newbie in this generator, by the way (thanks for contributing). I'd dare say they are also a newbie in knowing their music history, and that they logically still can't tell shit from shinola at times. Sorry, whoever you are, but I have no indie-rock lesson to receive from someone who discovers Pixies' *Surfer Rosa* through the generator, only to give it three stars after. You want to have my opinion? Chances are that you will not *really* educate your palate by listening to a different album every day. I think you must take more time than that to study the greats (even if you don't get it right away) and so *maybe* understand how their artistry pushed the needle forward while other acts kept on churning inoffensive ditties. In other words: Jesus H. Christ, where is the "skip" button on this thing when you need it the most??? 🤨 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 2. 6.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 1.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 120 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 137 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 304 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

2.5/5

Lost and Gone Forever is a bit too plain for my tastes, just very unremarkable easy listening. 2.

Whiny vocals and extremely generic indie-rock with literally nothing that stood out for me. Two stars.

I found it really flat

Read the words "90s indie rock" to conjure and beam a perfect copy of exactly how this album sounds directly to your brain.

It was fine

I’ve enjoyed some of what I’ve heard from this band, but this LP was far too generic for an indie record to stand out. Some decent instrumentation, but things did get a little cheesy at times. ‘Ganging up on the Sun’ would’ve been my pick for a Guster add to the list.

This sounds like one of those bands that my sister would have liked growing up. And unfortunately the Venn diagram of our musical interests has very little overlap. This is not to say that this is *bad* music -- in fact it is quite palatable -- but I don't find it interesting at all. Half way through this one and I'm struggling to see the appeal of this particular form of indie alternative rock.

Forgettable