Hi Fi Way

Hi Fi Way is the second album of Australian rock band You Am I. It is full of melodic rock songs that don't rock too hard most of the time. I reminds me of The Feelies and Buffalo Tom. The front man is not the most gifted singer and that's somewhat annoying at times. The record does not contain weak compositions, but no great ones either. Not a torture to listen to.

I could see this hitting in just the right way to just the right person when they were a teenager in NSW or whatever. But for me it's pretty bland with small sparks of interesting vocal harmonies

3.5

Didn't listen to the whole thing, but I heard enough to get the jist. Reminded me of Swedish pop/rock bands of this era.

Liked this! Solid, entertaining rock album.

This is pretty solid. Good songs, good production, enjoyable to listen to. I checked out a couple more of their albums as well and liked them too. 4 stars.

Surely this can't be the sixth best Australian album of all time. Or the eighth. Or even the thirtieth. Great galleries from the user who submitted this album. In a sense, I can picture what they find so great in the latter given where they are coming from. Yet I also do believe you can find tons of better albums omitted by the original list in that overall umbrella genre. I won't play the comparison game for long though. Let's just say that this record and the nineties indie-rock band who released it sort of remind me of British acts such as Super Furry Animals (yay!) and Stereophonics (yuk!), with more pronounced sixties-adjacent overtones and arrangements. As pointed out elsewhere, Tim Rogers is not the best singer in the world, but for that rock style it is not necessarily an impediment, and it can even bring some personality to the songs. Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo produces. I was surprised by that. The album sounds great indeed. Now to the specifics... It's nice to have the tracklist on the album cover up there, it's gonna help me *quickly* comment on each song.... First, the atonal mellotron on "Ain't Gone And Open" is a nice touch to catch your attention. "Minor Byrd" rocks. The Posies' Jon Auer plays Hammond organ on it. And "She Digs Her" is a catchy tune with a pretty interesting development at the end. Strong start. Conversely, I don't see what's so special about "Cathy's Clown" to make it one of the most popular songs by the band. Same with "Purple Sneakers" later on. People are so weird, they get excited over nothing. I 100% prefer "Jewels And Bullets", a terrific cut. Given how it begins, just like a Posies song, Jon Auer should have played on that one as well. And once again, the final moments of the song explore some adventurous nooks and crannies... Unfortunately, by the moment we reach the sagging belly of the album's tracklist, underwhelming moments become more prevalent. "Pizza Guy" is unexceptional and instantly forgettable. "The Applecross Wing Commander" is only worth a visit for its excellent hectic finale (the song itself is boring). And if "Stray" is a bit more refined melodically speaking, it doesn't add much to the other songs in that style in the LP's first leg. Are we out of the underwhelming woods as we reach the third and last part of the tracklist? A clear outlier, the delicate "Handwasher" is a very good and effective barebones acoustic number, graced by a lush-sounding mellotron, once more. The jump to "Punkarella" is a bit jarring: and it's not as if we are dealing with a real punk song either, it's just another unexceptional one. Same with "Ken (The Mother Nature's Song)". "Gray" offers a second ballad, this time a bit faster -- mid-tempo -- with bass and drums added. The by-the-book results are too linear to make much of an impression. Closer "How Much Is Enough" returns to Posies-related songwriting, maybe without the energy or gravitas the latter were known for. That said, it's still a pretty decent song, and it at least allows You Am I to close the proceedings in a nice manner. Verdict: five hits in my book, two quite good tracks, and seven misses or near-misses. Textbook 2.5/5 album, rounded up to 3 because I am a generous soul. That said... Well, here I am back to my starting point here. Surely this can't be the sixth best Australian album of all time, right? 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 3. 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the overall musicianship and production values + 2.5 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: 119 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 134 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 294 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

This rather sounds like it might be from the mid-90s. It's not terrible, but there wasn't anything on the first listen that blew me away. Reading the reviews, this is apparently not a unique reaction, so I'd be quite interested in reading why this was submitted.

It was fine

Black Crowes-ish 90s rock with good production.

You know that 90s rock sound

While the song title Cathy's Clown resonated for some forgotten reason, none of this felt familiar, though I'm certainly of its era (and acquainted with several of the guest musicians). Anyway, rather American-sounding alt-rock of its era, veering occasionally into the punk spectrum. Solid but did not particularly wow me.

Some perfectly fine alt rock. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Why was Cathy's Clown a hit? This whole album was okay.

Tweeter.

It's nice to hear some rock. This is pretty generic though.

Barely 3

Nothing too special

It's fine

Great rock LP, just solid, meat and potatoes instrumental work and vocals that come together to get the job done. Not exactly reinventing the wheel or anything (+ many of the tracks do sound somewhat similar), but there's enough tempo variation and fun riffage to keep things moving and enjoyable. Would never have guessed these guys are Australian, feels like the album has some Americana roots.

Meh meh meh

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Purple sneakers, Gray

It was ok.

This will no doubt bring back memories to some people but to me it's middle of the road- not bad but there's no great spark of originality.

Innocuous but nothing to write home about on the first listen

Generic rock band #6432. At least it wasn't that bad to listen to?

I found Hi Fi Way to be very paint by numbers and unoriginal, it's just an okay listen, sort of thing you'd hear on the radio and bop along to but forget about as soon as the next song starts. Jewels and Bullets a high, doesn't get up to a 3, just a high 2.

This sounds like music with a lowercase m.