Track Listing

1. Five by Five
2. Noodle Soup
3. Drop
4. Double Down
5. Been Too Long
6. Closer
7. En Route
8. 51 Division
9. Don't Look Back
10. Easy Come, Easy Go
11. Waterline

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116935 in Music
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Outstanding!
En Route is an outstanding CD. Like the other Four80East cd's, it's been played a lot here. Though I liked it from the start, I thought it rated just four stars. But with repeated listenings, one begins to appreciate how very good it is.

There are lots of interesting things going on in this album that you might not notice at first: it's intelligence, the unusual electronic efects, Rob DeBoer's stylish bass lines.... And mention must be made of Jon Stewart's saxophone. Many saxists force their leads - resulting in brassy, narcissisitic solos. Stewart's sax is laidback, sweet and easy. His playing never sounds forced, and is wholly in sync with the whole, cool F80E atmosphere.

En Route continues F80E's trademark of melodic, interweaving leads that spiral around DeBoer's bass riffs. Where it might differ from their other albums is the way the individual tracks, quite different from one another, all come together so well - forming an almost geometric oneness. In that sense I believe it's their most mature effort yet. Maybe their best.

An interesting departure for Four80East
With their new album Four80East have taken a different direction for their music with a laid back smooth Jazz approach which is very ... pleasant. I've enjoyed listening to the album a couple of times and shall now put it in my occasional background music playlist and go back to listening to their first three albums which uniquely straddled the divide between electronica, chill and jazz with a bit of big band thrown in.

This album lies squarely in the smooth Jazz camp sounding like any west coast band with just an occasional tip of the hat to the electronic influences of their earlier albums, but really only notable on tracks such as 51 Division, Double Down and Five by Five. The tempo of the album feels significantly more laid back with little of the sense of energy or urgency previously heard.

I felt the first three albums were groundbreaking, interesting, unique. You'll probably need to be an 80's / 90's smooth jazz fan before this one really works for you.

Good easy listening.