Music : Punch

Rating: - punch drunk?
This is a relatively awful piece of work. The band mostly plays discordant, nonmelodic music that can possibly only be enjoyed by the sophisticated listeners who like avant garde classical music (i.e., not me). Worst of all is the half-hour, four part monstrosity titled "The Blind Leading the Blind." Chris Thile composed it, and he sings sweetly, but his vocals usually seem to have nothing to do with the backing music. It would be as if you sang "Amazing Grace" while a band played "Devil Went Down To Georgia" at the same time. Even within the instrumental passages, the banjo, fiddle and other instruments are often working against eachother rather than playing together. I admire people who can get anything out of this collection of loosely strung together bits and bops. My reaction was more like the way a Jackson Pollock painting strikes me. Sorry, not my cup o' tea.

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Rating: - The Best Album I've Heard in Years
Copied from here: http://moultano.blogspot.com/2008/03/best-album-ive-heard-in-years.html

"Punch" is the second album from the newly renamed "Punch Brothers," their first being "How To Grow a Woman From the Ground." It's unclassifiable music, which clearly springs from bluegrass but with influences too numerous to count. It mixes the idioms and instruments of bluegrass with the complex harmonies of contemporary classical and jazz. I guarantee you've never heard anything like it. It makes Bela Fleck sound tame and traditional. Chris Thile, the frontman for the group has been called "the most virtuosic American ever to play the mandolin," and the other members of the group receive less effusive praise only because their instruments are more common. Here they are put to good use playing things that have never before been played on these instruments.

The meat of the album is contained in a bewildering, four movement, forty minute piece entitled "The Blind Leaving the Blind." Despite the length and the stretches of dissonance, it's never inaccessible for long; the lyrics and melodies stay rooted in telling the emotional story of Chris's recent divorce. Every so often they break into an old-fashioned bluegrass jam, but then change keys in a few measures to remind you what you are listening to. On my first pass through it was exhausting to listen to, and it was a stretch for the band as well.

"For me, when I first received the score and saw what Chris was asking me to play on my instrument, that had to have been just as traumatic as him getting his divorce papers," Pikelny says. "He figured, 'Hey, if you have the notes there, you'll figure out a way to play it.'"

Chris Thile's voice, though adequate, doesn't match the quality of the playing and composition, and the album suffers from what I call "Great Album Syndrome." (Every truly great album must have one unbearable song, i.e. "The Crunge" or "Fitter Happier." On this album it's the first track, "Punch Bowl.") However, if hearing a banjo in a song doesn't immediately turn you off, (I understand that excludes a fair number of people) then give this a listen.

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Rating: - Spellbinding
I am attracted to artists who cross musical genres and create a unique sound. Bluegrass meets classical meets folk meets blues. The Punch Brothers forge ahead into new musical territory with the same fearlessness as supreme artists Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer. Chris Thile's 4 part piece "The Blind Leaving the Blind" is spellbinding and beautifully lush with complex themes. Chris has brought together a group of fabulous musicians who can match his high level of precision performance and artistry. Punch is a groundbreaking piece of work. The entire CD presents a cohesive landscape of ideas and feelings that delights from beginning to end.

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Rating: - About time for a longer work from a mature composer.
If you'd like to hear what happens when a (primarily) progressive folk composer, a man used to shooting off five-to-ten minute pieces, tries his hand at a mature work of 40 minutes, give this album a listen.

I've seen the tour supporting the show and I love the album. It's interesting to see how a multi-movement work will translate into a tradition full of short, repetitive tunes, but I really admire the guts here. He really achieves a mood here, and if you're really floundering for something to latch onto, try to focus on how he moves from section to section within the piece.

I'm sorry not everyone here enjoyed it, though I've learned not to waste my breath when it comes to defending music of the avant-garde persuasion. ("Trying too hard to be different"? Whatever that means. They made an experimental album, end of story.) Not that Chris has ever exactly courted the traditional bluegrass community--I mean, let's be realistic here.

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Rating: - Thile is in his own world
Chris Thile is absolutely a prodigy turned polished, advanced musician.
Trouble is that he gets too far out there in his own complex, chromatic musical world that he loses many of us. The expression to describe the music on this album is "Irritatingly aphonic" IMHO. I keep waiting thru the aphonic stuff for the big payoff...and it just doesnt happen.
Too Bad.
On this one, he lost me...as he has, to a lesser degree, on many of his solo albums. But one thing you have to admit, he can damn sure play that mandolin. Just stick with "How to Grow a Woman..." (superb) and wait for their next album. Keep them headed in the right direction and do not buy this album.