WAY OUT WHERE - REVIEWS

Spin (9/93, p.122)
Recommended - "...With a mouthful of off-rhymes...and that New Zealand penchant for melancholy guitar chords...Downes could almost be Morrissey's straight doppelanger..."

Q (2/94, p.103)
4 Stars - Excellent - "...evocative guitar-rock, lyrical and literate, lilting and lovely...a superb album...."

Alternative Press (11/93, p.88)
"...If there was a formula for making memorable pop that doesn't insult one's intelligence, the Verlaines must've patented it awhile ago..."

Melody Maker (2/26/94, p.33)
"...child-like idealism--the unquenchable desire to live in a perfect world--is what lends WAY OUT THERE its beauty and sadness...."



From TrouserPress.com:

"...After years of leading the Verlaines as a trio, Downes added a second guitarist to the group for this record, and the results are apparent from the very first moments of the album's bracing opener, "Mission of Love," by far the band's most electrified tune ever. With the strings, reeds and genre exercises largely shelved, this is a true rock'n'roll album (arguably the Verlaines' first), and Downes rises to the occasion with enough top-drawer material to mark him as one of the best singer/songwriters currently plying the trade. Choice cuts abound, including "This Valentine" (an exhortation for a romantic fool to get over it already), "Stay Gone" (a send-off to a departed lover) and the title track (one of rock's most effective odes to a raped environment). Highly recommended."



From Amazon.com:

"The only thing wrong with "Way Out Where" is that it goes down too smoothly. Not to suggest it's a record that's "too" poppy or "too" polished; rather, "Way out Where" is a sophisticated record that's so thoroughly realized, you'll never notice the craftsmanship, only the final product. Intimate, sincere, intricate melodies that challenge conventional pop thinking carry you along or entreat you you to join them for a lazy walk, all without ever calling attention to their unique idosyncracies. The songs (not to say the sounds) on this record recall no band other than the Verlaines, and songwriter Graeme Downes' musical vocabulary is matched (almost) only by his lyrical vocabulary. Songs of love won, love lost and love currently being contested are written with intelligence and intimacy, sung in Downes' urgent-but-not-strident voice, accompanied by his turbo charged strum and driving pop band (and the occasional orchestra, whose arrangements are composed by Downes). The Verlaines haven't reinvented rock music; they've simply made it their own." - a music fan from Washington DC.



"WAY OUT WHERE is the answer to the question, "what would happen if you took the joyful, delirious strum of the Bats, hooked it up to a 600 hp engine and then amplified it like mad?" The results are wonderful: from the propulsive strum that signals the album's beginning in "Mission of Love" to the dynamic rush of emotion at the heart of "Blanket Over The Sky," and onwards to the build and explosion of "Incarceration," the Verlaines rock with the best of 'em.

Coupled with Graeme Downes' typically brilliant writing, the impact is powerful and lasting -- and made even greater by the moments of relative calm that occasionally punctuate the album. "Lucky in My Dreams" is as playful and endearing a love song as you'll ever hear (albeit with a strong dose of Downes' bittersweet lyricism), while the closing "Dirge" is every bit as anguished, epic and string-soaked as the title suggests.

So why does this terrific album fall short of 5 stars? Only because this is the same band that produced BIRD DOG -- and by comparison to that (very different) work alone, WAY OUT WHERE drops a half step behind. But that's just a matter of taste... hunt down either album, and you won't be sorry. " - a reviewer from Boston