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- Artist: Chris Stamey
- Rating:
- Release Date: October 22, 1991
- Total Time: 56:02
- Genre: Rock
Review
Chris Stamey's Fireworks wasn't released until 1991, but it was originally recorded in 1988 as Stamey's second solo album for A&M records, who rejected the resulting tapes as too weird and uncommercial. One wonders if anyone at A&M had ever actually heard any of Stamey's music (other than 1987's uncharacteristically straightforward It's Alright, his sole A&M release), since "weird and uncommercial" are the North Carolina-based rocker's calling cards. In fact, Fireworks is less extreme than earlier experiments like It's a Wonderful Life, but songs like the title track, an impressionistic soundscape of overdubbed guitars, are hardly Top 40 fare. Guests include ex-Sneakers bandmate Mitch Easter, Peter Buck, and NRBQ's Terry Adams, but this is definitely Stamey's show all the way. His idiosyncratic songwriting sense (the liner notes claim, not entirely helpfully, that the opaque "The Brakeman's Consolation" is an answer song to an old Cher single) and knack for sweetly memorable melodies battle it out throughout the album, giving Fireworks an odd but productive tension. It's Alright has the edge in terms of songwriting, but this is perhaps a more interesting album overall. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| The Company of Light | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:08) |
| Something Came Over Me | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:39) |
| Glorious Delusion | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:13) |
| Time Is Running Out | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:05) |
| Two Places at Once | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:17) |
| Perfect Time | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (5:30) |
| The Newlyweds | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (3:36) |
| On the Radio (For Ray Davies) | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:58) |
| All the Heart's Desire/Black Orchids | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (6:30) |
| Fireworks (Still Life #5) | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (4:16) |
| The Brakeman's Consolation | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (3:20) |
| I Want You | Chris Stamey | Chris Stamey | (3:16) |
| You Don't Miss Your Water | William Bell | Chris Stamey | (3:39) |
