Lifehouse - 'Smoke and Mirrors'

[Geoff]

Well, looks like it's almost happened. There's still some fillers on this disc but it looks like Lifehouse have finally delivered a consistently good album. The thing with this band is if you plucked the best 2-3 songs off all their previous albums you'd have a fantastic CD, maybe one decent CD and three albums full of fillers. But it looks like this time they finally have some great tunes on offer, and plenty of them.

 

1. "All In"

2. "Nerve Damage"

3. "Had Enough

4. "Halfway Gone"

5. "It Is What It Is"

6. "From Where You Are"

7. "Smoke & Mirrors"

8. "Falling In"

9. "Wrecking Ball"

10. "Here Tomorrow Gone Today"

11. "By Your Side"

12. "In Your Skin"

 

Deluxe Edition

13. "All That I'm Asking For"

14. "Crash and Burn"

15. "Everything" (Live)

16. "Near Life Experience"

17. "Halfway Gone (Demolition Crew remix)(UK bonus track)" 3:32

18. "Don't Wake Me When It's Over (iTunes exclusive) [2]"

 

The tunes in bold I found particularly good. If they'd plucked off 'Crash and Burn' from the deluxe version and swapped it with 'Nerve damage' it would have been delightful! Either way, enough good songs to have this sitting about 2nd or 3rd on my modern rock list this year... so far.

 

[Geoff]

Doods? Anyone? I was hesitant about it too, but seriously, it's a good album. Surprisingly good. Is anyone hearing the single on radio - 'Halfway gone'? No fans at all?

[Nazz]

Doods? Anyone? I was hesitant about it too, but seriously, it's a good album. Surprisingly good. Is anyone hearing the single on radio - 'Halfway gone'? No fans at all?

 

I bought No Name Face when it came out and I liked it... granted I went through a phase where I was listening to stuff like Matchbox 20, Vertical Horizon and Our Lady Peace. I also got the follow up Stanley Climbfall and wasn't too impressed so never really took it any further. But on your recommendation Geoff I'll pick it up!

[Geoff]

Doods? Anyone? I was hesitant about it too, but seriously, it's a good album. Surprisingly good. Is anyone hearing the single on radio - 'Halfway gone'? No fans at all?

 

I bought No Name Face when it came out and I liked it... granted I went through a phase where I was listening to stuff like Matchbox 20, Vertical Horizon and Our Lady Peace. I also got the follow up Stanley Climbfall and wasn't too impressed so never really took it any further. But on your recommendation Geoff I'll pick it up!

Haha. Yeah, sounds like we went through the same phases with modern rock. I liked all that stuff too but those sorts of bands quickly became pretty insignificant when modern rock started actually rivalling 80's style hard rock rather than just being something different and harmless.

 

I liked 'No name face' too and still think it's their best album from the early days, 'Stanley Climbfall' only have those two good songs - 'Take me away' and what was the other one? But yeah, they fell into that pattern for the next bunch of releases. Two or three killers and a whole heap of filler. This time, though, I really dig this. Hope you like it.

[Nazz]

Haha. Yeah, sounds like we went through the same phases with modern rock. I liked all that stuff too but those sorts of bands quickly became pretty insignificant when modern rock started actually rivalling 80's style hard rock rather than just being something different and harmless.

Yup totally agree and two fit pretty well.

 

I liked 'No name face' too and still think it's their best album from the early days, 'Stanley Climbfall' only have those two good songs - 'Take me away' and what was the other one? But yeah, they fell into that pattern for the next bunch of releases. Two or three killers and a whole heap of filler. This time, though, I really dig this. Hope you like it.

The "other one" on that album, for me anyway, is Spin. I'll get back to you with a track by track for Smoke and Mirrors. Oh and is it me or is that album cover terrible?

[Geoff]

The "other one" on that album, for me anyway, is Spin. I'll get back to you with a track by track for Smoke and Mirrors. Oh and is it me or is that album cover terrible?

Yeah, good call. 'Spin' was a good one - they always had a good lead single. But the other one I was thinking of was 'Out of breath'. So yeah, there were 3 good songs on that disc. 'Take me away' is still awesome to me today.

 

I might do a track by track too. I found that after my initial listen, even a lot of the tracks I didn't highlight above were very strong. Only the 2nd song was really poor.

 

Not the greatest album cover ever, but I don't mind it too much.

[Geoff]

Does anyone know or care they released a new disc in 2012? Pretty forgettable to be honest, and the first time they've changed their style up. There's barely any need for the full band across the whole CD - it's all just very, very mellow kind of modern pop/rock. The whole album is generally terrible, but I did like a couple of songs; 'Nobody listen' and 'Only you're the one':

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-uuLG6lJOM

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpF7Z6gb0o4

[Invisible_man]

 

On 1/11/2013 at 3:33 AM, Geoff said:

Does anyone know or care they released a new disc in 2012?

and since then there was a 2015 release, interesting to note singer Jude Cole is a co-writer on some of their songs

Hurricane

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Invisible_man