Night Life

I listened to the first song on this album, "Night Life", whilst actually driving in the middle of the night, and it absolutely fits the mood of the night, as does the rest of the album I'd say. However, issues arise when you sit down and actually focus on the music, as it becomes very same-y, and the longer-than-average country album (for the time) makes the repetitiveness all the more present. I enjoy the fact that his voice isn't that exaggerated warble that many country artists do, it makes it not excruciating to listen to, but otherwise a very safe album just a couple years before popular music as a genre really started expanding as an artform.

Another country album I really just had no time for.

Never heard of this guy before. I love the title track! This album has a real mood, and I like the production a lot. The music really does evoke the nightlife setting described in the lyrics. Price has a fantastic voice too. This might be the best (non-Johnny Cash) country album I've ever listened to. Having said that, I do find a lot of the songs quite similar, and the lyrics are a bit preachy in places. Some people just like to go to clubs and drink alcohol, Ray.

I absolutely love the mood and atmosphere of this album. I often think of music in terms of "day music" and "night music" and this is pretty much THE epitome of night music. Bittersweet and seductive. Romantic but honest. I feel like almost any professional musician would have to identify with that title track. I remember hearing Willie Nelson's version of it first when I was a kid, and I love that version too, but there is something about this version that is so much more haunting. The rest of the album doesn't quite have the same magic as that opening track, but it's still top notch crying-in-your-beer country. The playing, production, and arrangements are all spot on. I especially love that splash of reverb on the vocals. The fact that the songs all adhere to that theme of the trials and tribulations of life in the bar scene is what makes it so great (and believable). A perfectly executed concept album before concept albums were a thing. The intro is a bit goofy, but quaint in an old fashioned way. And goddamn that cover is so cinematic.

Ray Price is a 50's - 60's country artist. His backing band is called the Cherokee Cowboys, and has featured the likes of: Johnny Paycheck, Roger Miller, and singing backing vocals and playing bass on this record, Willie Nelson.

At the start of this album, specifically on the song "Night Life", Ray sounded like a cross between Frank Sinatra and George Jones, which I didn't really care for. After that, though, he settled into the traditional old country western, with themes of drinking, heartbreak, and chasing women. Notably: the songs "Lonely Street" and "The Twenty-Fourth Hour" are very strong to the old country genre with the fiddle/steel guitar and sad theme.

I didn't think I knew any of Ray's stuff. I had heard of him before, but turns out I knew "The Wild Side of Life", and it is a great song.

Now I must say, country isn't my favorite genre of music, but it is moreso the shitty pop country they are making today. The old classic country still had talented artists and really good songwriting. Today, anybody can be a country star, as long as they sing a song about a dog or a truck, or a beer.

Overall, not a bad album. I don't think I would gravitate to it often, but can see how it definately influenced a lot of country artists that came later on.

Favourite songs: The Wild Side of Life, Pride, Sittin' and Thinkin', The Twenty-Fourth Hour

Least favourite songs: Night Life, Lonely Street, There's No Fool Like a Young Fool

3/5

Note: the album cover is kinda creepy. A lad leering at a couple who is just trying to have a drink. Greasy.

It feels like I'm playing the next installment of the Fallout franchise.

This is one of the best country albums I've heard and I'm certain there's a place, time and crowd for it.
It's just not here, now, and me.

This album lines up with the stereotypes of country music that I was indoctrinated to dislike as a youth. The album has the feel of a honky-tonk meets crooner longue act, which could potentially be enjoyable, if wasn't for the fact that the whole thing is so monotonous and monotoned. For kicks, listen to the first 10 seconds of the tracks 'A Girl in the Night', 'Pride' and 'If She Could See Me Now' respectively, and see if you can figure out which is which.

And that's kind of my problem with the whole thing. It's basically the same song, over and over and over again. Heck, the first distinguishing moment I heard in any of these songs didn't come until 1m15s into the 11th track (out of 13). It's like the whole album is just one big song, or that each song is just a shortened version of the whole album. In effect I listened to the whole album 13 times, and that's about 12.5 times more than I ever wish I had.

Feeling ill, so I'm listening to this and reading Dickens. Somehow they go together!