Track Listing

1. A Taste Of Luxury
2. Angels
3. You've Come A Long Way
4. The Best Years Of Our Lives
5. Winners
6. The Golden Age
7. No Revolution
8. Pumper
9. Whores

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140010 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Obsessed with the sounds of the decadent end-days of 70s radio, Bobby Conn creates his own schizoid musical world on The Golden Age, a pick and mix of the styles that dominated the period, with the occasional Prince-style falsetto thrown in for good measure. As a result, at times this sounds like a dirtier, more ambitious version of Beck's Midnite Vultures. But while Bobby clearly shares Beck's enthusiasm for bizarre musical hybrids, the Jim O'Rourke produced The Golden Age is a far more diverse and slightly deranged album. There's the funked-up synth disco of "No Revolution" and the high-pitched soul refrain of "Winners", but there's also the Burt Bacharach intro on "The Best Years of Our Lives" and hyper glam-rock of "Pumper", all tied together by Monica BouBou's brilliant violin melodies. At the same time, the knowing lyrics will often have you hitting the rewind button. Bobby Conn's outlook on life has caused offence, and The Golden Age should be no exception. "Angels", for example, is the story of hapless teenage sexploits at a drug-addled pool party; when Bobby starts singing "angels are breakin' my balls again, balls again" like his swimwear's too tight, most would agree it's more than just amusing or offensive--it's inspired. -Caroline Butler

Customer Reviews

You get out what you put in
To be honest, I didn't care much for this album on the first listen. The first track was an immediate hit, but I felt the rest of the album faded away a bit. After a couple of listens I decided I also liked track 7. A few more and I liked track 3 as well. After about 10 listens this has become my favourite album of the moment, among much competition.

The beauty of Bobby Conn, as others have described, is his ability to segue from one form of music into another with the listener being barely aware of it. Disco, hard rock, funk, classical, punk and jazz are expertly interwoven throughout his work. This sometimes has the effect of making the music inaccessible at first. Persevere however, and the depth afforded by these transitions becomes clear.

I personally think "The Golden Age" is Conn's finest hour- the music gels together better than his first albums, and the band seems tighter. Conn's vocals soar effortlessly from falsetto to scream, from Elvis to Johnny Rotton, all accompanied by Monica BouBou's beautiful harmonies on the violin. The rest of the band are also strong, and the lush arrangements add another dimension to the music.

My 3 favorite tracks are:

The opener "A Taste Of Luxury", a song which packs in great riff after great riff in its first half, before disintegrating into an airy falsetto vocal melody duelling with a super-reverbed violin. Beautiful.

"You've Come A Long Way", which begins with a very dischordant piano riff, followed by a gentle vocal duet between Bobby and Monica. Then 5 minutes of hard rock follows (air-guitars out, folks), culminating in a spine-chilling scream and an abrupt end.

"No Revolution", which can only be described as "sort of funk/disco, but a bit weird". Again Monica's violin works brilliantly on this track.

Bottom line- if you need instant gratification this probably isn't for you. But if you're prepared to put some quality time in you'll find a truly brilliant and unique album.

Amazing stuff...
Put painfully simple. Its one of the most original, moving albums you can get. Buy it and make your own mind up. Amazing stuff, I love track 2: Angels, me and my mate Jonny boy love to sing and dance to this when were completely hammered.

Prog Rock Stylings From The Prophet Of The Apocalypse
Bobby Conn's third coming sees him enter a realm of fractured new age paranoia with the same sense of wayward abandon that made the first two offerings such minor triumphs. Once again the mighty Jim O'Rourke is at the controls (albeit for just half of the record) like a sonic straight man to Bobby's manic street preacher facade. Comparisons to Beck's 'Midnite Vultures' could be made on the first listen, especially with the fractured 'Angels' and 'Pumper', but upon further airings I would liken it to mid period Frank Zappa and Peter Frampton's third opus. It is an absorbing record which will have you reaching for the 'Repeat' function on your CD player's remote control immediately after the first time you play it, I rarely listened to anything else during the first week that I'd bought it.

The stand out track for me would have to be 'Whores' which simply has to be heard to be believed, to try to put this song into words would be an act of folly that I'm not about to perpetrate right now, suffice to say that you should listen to it and make of it what you will...

To conclude, Bobby Conn has made a distinct advance on his sound and unique vision and has cashed in the food stamps of promise that the first two records gave to this inspiration starved world.