I LIKE IT NOT AS MUCH AS MOVING BACKWARDS AND WHO SAID I WAS RUNNING THOUGH AGAIN EVERY SONG GOOD ON HERE THO GREAT TO HAVE WITH MOVING BACKWARDS AND WHO SAID I WAS RUNNING ALL 3 VERY DIFFERENT AND GOOD

there are so many differences between 'moving backwards' 'brief as lightning' and 'who said i was running?' but i like them all it's hard to pick favorites when they're all very good in a different way this is the most mellow of your stuff it feels like perfect driving music for a sunday morning or a nice summer afternoon a couple weird things on here that i didn't like though there are a couple sounds on know-it-all i don't like im not sure if it's a guitar or a keyboard but it just doesn't fit to me also another weird keyboard thing on love heroin i don't think fits either but even with that those two songs are good i wish you had more releases for me to listen to

It sounds like most bands 50th album. Identity may not be clear yet but it's so professional it doesn't really matter. It takes most bands 5 albums to establish an identity. Moving stuff.

I wrote about this CD a year ago but got an invitation to review it from CD Baby after purchasing two as gifts last week. So I thought I'd give it a listen again. The songs and production on "Moving Backwards", A. Rex's second CD are tough to beat...that album is all raw emotion and homages to other artists in the distinctive framework of writer Andrew Espinola's unique vocals and style. You can hear in him the potential to become one of America's great pop songwriters. His best work, I suspect, is yet to come. This is no less true on "Brief As Lightning", a softer, gentler group of songs leaning more on folk. In listening again, I realized some rare things are present here. One, you never really get tired of these songs. I think it's because you hear them a slightly different way each time. The deceptively simple construction masks complexities noticed only on repeated listenings. A lot of that has to do with lyrics that may have dual meanings. Second, you can actually hear all of the lyrics, which is good because they are poetry, filled with lines that would be at home in a book of quotations. The melodies are a mystery. At once memorable enough to sing along with and sometimes difficult to recall in retrospect, they can also seem repetitive at the surface. But that is not criticism. Listening again, I both recalled the songs and they sounded like something new. And...this quality bears repeating. That is rather mysterious, I think. It was "I Want To Know" that originally got my attention, but I have a lot of favorites on "Brief As Lightning"..."New Best Friend", "Know-It-All", "Never Over You" (as good as any Springstein song), "Never Been in Love", "Alcohol Always Makes You Cry" (which will make you cry without it), and the title song, which provides the kind of lead-in The Beatles used on "Revolver". It finishes with unexpected electric guitar work, a precursor to the solidly rock and roll next CD. "Brief As Lightning" is an often sad group of easy listening songs, a walk in the park. But the sheer artistry of Espinola's song-writing simultaneously reaches somewhere deep inside and lifts the listener above the notes of despair to a place that isn't sad at all. Such is the nature of true art. In that way, he can be compared to songwriters like Elliot Smith, John Lennon or Bruce Springstein, but I suspect A. Rex is a band that one day others will be comparing themselves to. As such, $5.97 is a ridiculous bargain for what may one day be a collector's item