Track Listing

1. Guilt By Association
2. Air Traffic Control
3. Misguided Sheep
4. There's a Traitor in This Room
5. Sometimes You Just Want To
6. Tina
7. Stalker
8. Free Won't Be What it Used to Be
9. Swarming of the Bees
10. Hopesick
11. Slick Dogs and Ponies

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8974 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Customer Reviews

Another Album, but nothing great.
LouisXIV was originally a band called Convoy. Why after an indie Convoy album and then a major release called Black Licorice they decided to take on British accents and try to sound like some European band from San Diego kill their Convoy Band and become this Louis XIV was beyond me. Slick Dogs and Ponies has several songs that would have been on Convoys second major release, and that album was to be called "hopesick", and yes air traffic control was recorded for that record over 4 years ago. So when I listen to this newest album, I still see a band that plays incredible live shows, but seems to be all over the map with who they want to be as a band. They built a following with Convoy, but bailed on it to do this Louis XIV thing, and honestly the sound of Louis XIV to me just seems miss-guided unfocused and lost. Neither album from track to track keeps full interest they seem to get lost in what they are doing. Not sure what happened when they wrote their indie Convoy in the desert outside of San Diego, but seems they are still searching for a way out of their castle that Louis XIV once walked. I think they still have it in them to write a brilliant album, but releasing some songs 4 years after they should have been published, and then some filler songs really to me doesn't show this band has much focus on any great place in rock. This album is dark, with really only two good tracks on it, ATC, and the lead track.

Very Good, but doesn't Quite Measure Up
This second release from Louis XIV, although having it's moments, didn't stand up to their debut of Best Little Secrets Kept. It definitely has a more mature sound but on a deep, dark-ier, moody vibe. The duo of Brian Karscig and Jason Hill lacks the more positive, up-beat silliness and humor on this album, the craft that made their first album such a success. Perhaps it has to do with life gone wasted with success, drug use and everything a new band experiences with new fame.

"Hopesick" was the most disappointing song on the album, because it sounds like a desperate and bleak ballad of what you'd expect from a big commercial rock band and not a hip indie/alternative band. It does have a few good songs like "Guilt by Association" and "Swarming of the Bees"

Let the sun king reign
I felt compelled to write this review because this band deserves more credit! I fail to see how Pitchfork can write such a scathing review of "Slick Dogs and Ponies," because as far as I'm concerned, Louis XIV quite simply rock. I did love "The Best Little Secrets are Kept," and this album is equally inventive. Don't listen to all the unjust, hate mongering critics, Jason Hill & company are amazingly talented. I saw them live at the Metro and they blew me away...they are a great rock band, with a little blues thrown in. In a sea of mediocre/manufactured rock bands (Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance), Louis XIV is truly exceptional. I will leave it at that, and if you're not a pretentious music critic and can enjoy raw, unbridled rock, then this album will not disappoint.

Album highlights: Guilt by Association, Air Traffic Control, Misguided Sheep, There's a Traitor in the Room, Stalker, Sometimes You Just Want To, Slick Dogs and Ponies.

The only song I skip every time I listen to the CD is probably "Tina."

I highly recommend seeing this band live, it really makes me appreciate how talented they really are.