Released: 1992
Tracks: Long Walk Home; Devour; Boy; Never Still; Cycles; Only Skin; Collide; How Much; Can’t Get Along; Fire Love; All Mine; Far Away Hands
Best tracks: Boy and Devour
Tracks to skip: most, unfortunately
The first 3 songs on this form one of the most classic album-openings I’ve ever heard. 3 of the all-time best Dah-veed songs start SSII off and it’s simply incredible. As stated all over these reviews, I practically worship Juliana Sheffield and she doesn’t disappoint on this album. Man, Devour is AWESOME! What a great song. I love hearing all the Austin and Hyde Park references in here. Ahh, home. Then after the amazingness of Devour, we get a solo (more or less) Juliana vocal and an even better song in Boy. Her voice is one of my favorite things in the world. I’m saying it for the record here: Juliana Sheffield has THE BEST female voice in the world. Ever. She could sing absolutely anything and it’d just melt me. She could sing a cookbook and make it sound sexy.
I had typed the question of wondering why, even two years after this came out, that most of these songs were no longer in the band’s repertoire. While sitting here listening to it, I understand why: most of these songs aren’t that memorable. I’ve loved this album for a long time, but it definitely doesn’t hold up to repeated listenings. After the Trio of Glory (first three), the only songs I really want to hear again are Only Skin & Far Away Hands. The rest are kinda boring. The songs that Juliana sings on almost save them, but even her beautiful voice can’t help lame songs. Thankfully this album ends on a very good note in Far Away Hands.
The band is definitely more of a unit on this album and they’d only get better. Anytime you hear about the ‘good old days’ of Davíd Garza, this is what people are referring to. I’d still say, as an album, this isn’t close to being the best they did, but it’s the first one of a streak where it all started to gel and Dah-veed became a Great Band. Of course this is worth seeking out for the first 3 tracks, but maybe you’ll find some good stuff in the middle of this thing.
Rating: 85
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