The Good Nurse

And The Critics Say...

     

"The next time you go to the record store I suggest you pick up Five Eight's new disc. It's loaded with emotion and musical muscles to boast. Very much full of the hospital, my life in shambles, I'm in pain theme. Just imagine Jawbreaker's 'Accident Prone' turned into a full length. Now that's a ballsy analogy but I mean it. Mike Mantione expresses much of his inside, takes on some role writing and reaches success with this. This album is one of my favorites right now." - Semantics "Methods and madness dominate The Good Nurse, Five Eight's painfully impassioned concept dirge. While music and medicine have been known to share a few beds in the rock world, it's never seemed quite this critical or bedridden. Intended as a sort of sickness study borne of a fixation by frontman Mike Mantione, The Good Nurse throbs with a Southern sideshow intensity previously absent in the Athens band's sweet jangle-pop, pumping up into soaring anthems and burning down into the midnight gibberish word association of creeping death and sleeping pills. Think Neil Young, feel Prozac. Littered with the no-one-smiling photos typically reserved for the space above your dead grandmother's bed, the liner notes only serve to further the elixir and death mysticism of Mantione's rural mantra. 'Something is scarred, I need defending. What did I do to bring it here?' he begs on Requiem, sincerity ringing like a sickness. Breathtaking, really. And deadly." - Magnet "Mike Mantione and Five Eight have been playing woe-is-me rock a long time; they started back when most of today's emo-boys were still in grade school. Ever since the opening strains of 'Looking Up' on their official debut album 'I Learned Shut Up' in 1992, Five Eight has been all about putting psychological distress to music. With 'The Good Nurse', Mantione and Five Eight have eschewed larger-than-life rock for a more subtle, tension-filled sound. It's a disturbing, frustrated feeling that ties this album together. There is a stark absence of hooks and riffs, and standard pop structures are thrown out the window. The result is a stream-of-consciousness concept album that puts us in the hospital ward with Mr. Mantione and his character's manic, unbalanced mind. A friend of mine once remarked that in order to fully appreciate Five Eight, you must see them live; the studio somehow could not capture their magic. That could still ring true today, but I think that for the first time in their long career, the band has found their muse in the confines of the four walls of a recording studio. The genius is shining through." - MishMash "Imagine combining the musical potency of Radiohead with the vocals of an embittered poet who evokes Michael Stipe from REM and Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows. You are now thinking of Five Eight and their release 'The Good Nurse.' The album reflects on the amount of time people spend in hospitals throughout their lives, due to both physical and mental ailments. As you can imagine, the mood is pretty grim, perfect for listening on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Even though the lyrics are downright gloomy, the music behind it is somewhat uplifting, just enough so that you don't fall into a deep depression." - Impact Press "Great dark and looming melodies drive this record along with frontman Mike Mantione's inflection of true hurt, pain, and depression in his voice. There are moments both lyrically and musically that just drive chills up and down my spine that make this disc worth several depressing listens. This full on emo disc often borders on drama rock as well, giving it an added flair." - Outback "Probably the most interesting thing about The Good Nurse is Five Eight's uniqueness. How many bands do you know that integrate a fluegelhorn, bugle, euphonium, violin and accordion along with your typical rock instruments and pull it off? Well, Five Eight does. I have to give them credit, what they pull off on this album is a quality release with good song structure, a great recording, and definitely thoughtful lyrics. If you like Damien Jurardo's storybook/personal lyrics you would find this release interesting. Those of you into Built to Spill and Modest Mouse will also find favor in Five Eight." - Decapolis