Live a Little

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (263 ratings)
Sample Album
ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 40:51

eMusic Review

Avatar Image
Matthew Fritch

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Sad-poet turns in another solid set of minor-key guitar pop
Label: Ashmont Records / Redeye

It's OK to scoff at the notion that Live a Little is the Pernice Brothers'”back to our roots” album. Over the course of five studio full-lengths, singer-guitarist Joe Pernice has been so consistent in his pursuit of minor-key guitar pop that he's become a sad-poet caricature, a middle-aged bearded Bostonite with an MFA and a breathy Elvis Costello falsetto. But reunited with producer Michael Deming (who contributed to the 1998 debut Overcome by Happiness) and reverting to the use of orchestral strings, Pernice sounds inspired and positively breezy. When he coos “I'm sick of the cynical” on going-home anthem “Somerville,” the rose-colored sentiment feels entirely new.

Write a Review19 Member Reviews

Please log in before you review a release. Log in

user avatar

Classic

conconstance

The pop, harmonizing, writing and arrangements of these songs are amazing. Classic, really. Listen and download all that is Pernice Brothers and Scud Mtn boys. awesome

user avatar

A Worthy Addition

link670

Along with the Clientele, this band has saved the 21st century with a genre that can perhaps be best described as "forward-looking retro": timeless in the best sense being instantly familiar but not exactly like anything else you've ever heard. While this one's not exactly "Discover a Lovelier You" it's a worthy addition to the Pernice discography.

user avatar

A Return to Form

MammothMan

This album is most closely akin to the Pernice Brother's first album, "Overcome by Happiness." After a misstep, Pernice has returned to form.

user avatar

Solid Album. Recommend.

paultaylor_2009

"Live a Little" is an overall solid album filled with many quality rock-pop ballads. Varied instrumentation and vanilla vocals are the Pernice Brothers strong points. The tracks share a very consistent sound, although I think the album still seems to lack cohesiveness (although this is nitpicking a bit). Overall, I recommend this album whether you are familiar with their works or not. Enjoy!

user avatar

Best of the Year

cuzn_dupree

Upon first listen, you will immediately recognize a group of well-crafted, catchy pop songs. After further and closer listens you will grow to appreciate just how good, both lyrically and musically, that this album is. My best of 2006.

user avatar

Sqeaky Clean

ModernJazzGiant

This album makes me feel like I just got out of the shower. Very clean and refreshing. The songs are tight and compressed and the harmonies are spot on. A good download, and best played in the early afternoon. PCH One is a must for driving.

user avatar

Perfection

2perishable

Pernice has always made great records, this time round he adds some new touches. Even pulling out a few Beatlesque sounds.

user avatar

Another gem

Shugooch

Not as focused as Discover a Lovlier You but not as meandering as Your, Mine & Ours. This is more of a collection of good songs but not one outstanding track which makes it okay by me. Somebody put these guys on a Zach Braff soundtrack and make 'em a few bucks already!

user avatar

Another brilliant album

Mikaj

Thanks to emusic I'm a huge Pernice Bros fan. This album while not as great as previous (thus 4 instead of 5 stars) is a welcome release in the sea of recent mediocrity. Joe Pernice is a wonderful writer and singer.

user avatar

So disappointing

mikerea

It is hard to understand what has overcome the perfect songsmithery of Joe Pernice, a writer who has been capable of something that sounds a lot like song perfection on earlier albums like Overcome By Happiness or Discover A Lovelier You. Live A Little trades on weedy rehashed Pernice Brothers knock-offs that blow past like feathery leaves, and then they're gone. Perhaps Pernice only had the one idea of a way to craft a song that sounds so beautiful it conceals the deliciously lacerating lyrics he sings so sweetly (like Elvis Costello with singing lessons). The best seconds of Live A Little come in the guitar solo in How Can I Compare, which itself suggests someone ran out of ideas early on in the project. The single Somerville has something about it, in a way that the album doesn't - some sense of a reason to be. It and the album's last song are all you need download. Otherwise avoid altogether and buy their first album instead.

Recommended Albums

They Say All Media Guide

Joe Pernice and his compatriots have taken one step forward and one step back on the fifth studio album from the Pernice Brothers, Live a Little, and both moves have served them well. Live a Little finds the band teaming up again with Michael Deming, the producer who worked with Joe Pernice during the latter days of the Scud Mountain Boys and was behind the board for Overcome by Happiness, the Pernice Brothers’ debut. Live a Little lacks the gloss of Discover a Lovelier You or the harder surfaces of Yours, Mine & Ours (both of which were produced by Thom Monahan), but it also feels considerably fuller and more mature than the quiet, tentative texture of the debut. Live a Little sounds more open and roomy than the past few Pernice Brothers efforts, while at the same time reflecting the lusher pop sound the band has embraced since 1998; a bit of the gingerbread has been stripped away, but the sound is still classic-style pop at its most delicious, buoyed by Deming’s subtle string charts. And while there’s a bit less of the “sunshine pop for a cloudy day” mood of their previous albums on Live a Little, Joe Pernice remains one of the finest songwriters at work today, and these 11 new songs (plus a remake of “Grudge F***” from the final Scud Mountain Boys album) find him in superb form — the melodies are intelligent but hooky, with the touches of tart sophistication never getting in the way of their sweetness, and his lyrics walk a glorious tightrope between the classic adolescent obsessions of rock (i.e., girls) and the more troubling concerns of adulthood (i.e., women). And as usual, Joe’s collaborators deliver the goods, especially Peyton Pinkerton on guitar and James Wallborne on keyboards, playing these songs with the passion and skill they richly deserve. No one in indie pop has consistently delivered such impressive results in the new millennium as Joe Pernice, and Live a Little makes it clear he isn’t done making superb music anytime soon. – Mark Deming

more »