Paper Tigers
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:
Top
Paper Tigers
- Artist: Caesars
- Rating:
- Release Date: April 26, 2005
- Genre: Rock
Review
As the sticker on the album cover proclaims, the Caesars' fourth album (and second to receive U.S. distribution) Paper Tigers "features '"Jerk It Out"' as heard in the iPod Shuffle commercial." It's understandable that the band and Astralwerks want to capitalize on the song's success, but this is now the third Caesars' release to include it. "Jerk It Out" originally appeared on the band's 2002 album Love for the Streets, was collected on the 2003 comp 39 Minutes of Bliss (In an Otherwise Meaningless World), and now appears on this album as an extended remix. For better or worse, "Jerk It Out" remains the best song on all three of these albums; even though the remix of it dilutes the momentum that made people pay attention to the song in the first place, it still has more charisma than the rest of Paper Tigers. 39 Minutes of Bliss (In an Otherwise Meaningless World) suggested that the Caesars were becoming too polished and contained to really work as a garage rock-inspired outfit, and on this album the band ditches that sound -- save for a few spiky Farfisa organ riffs here and there -- for a lusher, poppier approach. Occasionally, as on the end-of-summer power ballad "Spirit" that begins Paper Tigers, this sound works, but more often than not, it ends up being ambitious but not distinctive. Songs such as "Out There," "May the Rain" and the aptly named "Throwaway" have pretty melodies and harmonies, but just aren't that memorable. Often, the intricate production ends up overpowering the album's weak songs (although the evocative, Mellotron-laden "Winter Song" comes close to a happy balance between sound and songwriting). "It's Not the Fall That Hurts" -- which keeps some of the hooky, nervy energy of "Jerk It Out" without being a blatant rewrite of that song -- and the cheery pop of "Soulchaser" are two of the too-few highlights on Paper Tigers. Ultimately, it's a flimsy album; though it's pleasant enough as background music, upon closer listening it falls apart. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi| Paper Tigers (1984 Album by Paul Metsa) | |
| Paper Tigers (2006 Album by Luomo) |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Paper Tigers
For other uses, see Paper tiger (disambiguation).
| Paper Tigers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Caesars | ||||
| Released | April 26, 2005 | |||
| Recorded | 2003-2004 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 47:33 | |||
| Label | Toshiba-EMI (Japan) VJCP 68748 Virgin CDVIR219 (UK) Astralwerks ASW 60828 (US) |
|||
| Producer | Joakim Åhlund, Michael H. Brauer | |||
| Caesars chronology | ||||
|
||||
Paper Tigers is the fourth album by the Swedish band Caesars, released on April 26, 2005. The album was released on Virgin in the United Kingdom, Astralwerks in the United States and Toshiba-EMI in Japan.[1] The album contains the re-release of the song "Jerk It Out."
|
Contents
|
Recording
Recording for Paper Tigers first began in the winter of 2003 at Silence Studio. The sessions then moved to Joakim Åhlund's Decibel Studio, in Stockholm. The album was mixed in New York by Michael Brauer.[2]
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Joakim Åhlund unless otherwise noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Spirit" | Joakim Åhlund, Nino Keller | 4:51 |
| 2. | "It's Not the Fall That Hurts" | 2:49 | |
| 3. | "Out There" | César Vidal | 3:03 |
| 4. | "Jerk It Out" | 3:17 | |
| 5. | "May the Rain" | 3:08 | |
| 6. | "My Heart Is Breaking Down" | Max Group | 2:35 |
| 7. | "Paper Tigers" | 3:58 | |
| 8. | "Your Time Is Near" | 4:49 | |
| 9. | "Throwaway" | Joakim Åhlund, César Vidal | 2:49 |
| 10. | "Winter Song" | 3:05 | |
| 11. | "We Got to Leave" | 3:23 | |
| 12. | "Soul Chaser" | 4:13 | |
| 13. | "Good and Gone" | 3:02 | |
| 14. | "(I'm Gonna) Kick You Out (bonus track on certain editions)" | 2:50 |
Personnel
The following people contributed to Paper Tiger:[3]
Caesars
- Joakim Åhlund - Audio Production, Guitar, Mixing, Producer
- Nino Keller - Drums, Vocals
- David Lindquist - Bass Guitar
- César Vidal - Guitar, Vocals
Additional personnel
- Hector Araya - Strings
- Chris Athens - Mastering
- Michael Brauer - Mixing
- Lasse Mårtén - Engineer
- Kristoffer Nergårdh - Piano
- Pontus Olsson - Engineer
- Ismail Samie - A&R
- Fredrik Wennerlund - Photography
- Björn Yttling - Farfisa Organ, Phillycorda
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    link |
| Entertainment Weekly | (A) link |
| The Guardian | link |
| Pitchfork Media | (4.9/10) link |
| PopMatters | (5/10) link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
Paper Tigers has received mixed to positive reviews. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album has a 63 out of 100, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."[4]
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A grade, writing that the album was "one meaty, vigorous track after another of modern-Mersey-beat pop..." Browne concluded his review with: "All retro rock should sound this good."[5] In another positive review, The Guardian's Dave Simpson wrote that Paper Tigers "is a treasure waiting to be found by the rest of us," and called the album "simultaneously ecstatic and melancholy."[6]
On the other hand, Allmusic's Heather Phares criticized the album, writing that beyond "Jerk It Out," "It's Not the Fall That Hurts" and "Soulchaser," there were not many other memorable songs on the album.[7] Stephen Haag of Popmatters also criticized the album's lack of memorable tracks, writing "If folks are purchasing Paper Tigers expecting a dozen more tunes like 'Jerk It Out'... they’ll soon find that Caesars is guilty of bait-and-switch."[8] In another mixed review, Marc Hogan of Pitchfork Media described the album as "...one or two decent singles surrounded by a bunch of mediocre-or-worse filler."[9]
Singles
- "We Got To Leave" - released February 16, 2005.[10]
- "Jerk It Out" - released April 18, 2005 on Virgin Records in the UK
- This single has been featured on iPod shuffle advertisements, the British television series "Teachers" and on the video games "FIFA Football 2004", SSX 3, and as downloadable content for Rock Band 3.
- CD DINSD274: "Jerk It Out" / "The Longer We Stay Together"
- "7" DINS274: "Jerk It Out" / "Up All Night"
Charts
Album
| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Heatseekers | 44[11] |
Singles
| Year | Song | Peak positions | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [12] |
US Alt [11] |
US Adult Top 40 [11] |
European Hot 100 [11] |
|||||||||
| 2005 | "We Got to Leave" | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2005 | "Jerk It Out" | 8 | 40 | 38 | 20 | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||||||
References
- ^ Paper Tigers - Caesars. Allmusic. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
- ^ CAESARS|Press. caesarsweb.com. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
- ^ Paper Tigers - Credits. Allmusic. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Critic Reviews for Paper Tiger. Metacritic. Retrieved 21 June 2011
- ^ Browne, David. Paper Tigers Review. Entertainment Weekly. 18 April 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Simpson, Dave. The Caesars, Paper Tigers. The Guardian. 9 December 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Phares, Heather. Paper Tigers - Caesars. Allmusic. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Haag, Stephen. Caesars: Paper Tigers. Popmatters. 2 May 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Hogan, Marc. Album Reviews: Caesars: Paper Tigers. Pitchfork Media. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ We Got to Leave - Single. iTunes. Retrieved 21 June 2011
- ^ a b c d "Paper Tigers - Caesars". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/album/the-twelve-caesars/paper-tigers/676953. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
- ^ CAESARS. The Official Chart Company. Retrieved 21 June 2011
External links
|
|||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Paper Tigers
(2005 Album by Caesars)
Paper Tigers [Bonus Track]
(2005 Album by Caesars)
Convivial
(2008 Album by Luomo)
Reactionaries
(Quotes About)
» More