Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23237 in Digital Music Album
• Published on: 2008-03-14
• Released on: 2008-03-18
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

A Heartfelt - and Heartrending - Sentiment from Someone Who Has Been There
Just two days after the tragedy of 9/11, 22-year-old Tomas Young enlisted in the Army to defend the nation he loves. Though he expected to fight al-Quaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, in 2004 he was shipped off to a different war. After barely a week, he was shot in a Humvee that lacked armer; paralyzed by a bullet in his spine, he returned home. As he regained conscousness at Walter Reed, among his wounded peers, he asked himself what Iraq had to do with the attacks of 9/11, Islamic terrorists, or weapons of mass destruction. On this remarkable album are 30 songs that helped get this courageous American through his ordeal in Iraq and back home. These songs are brutally honest; you won't find the typical sanitized pop of the airwaves here. The music speaks from the heart; we may not "enjoy" or be entertained by the tracks, but these songs will always touch you. Bruce Springsteen's "Devil and Dust" is a sincere and heartfelt ballad. Eddie Vedder of Pear Jam who wrote two original songs for this album: "Long Nights," which speaks of Tomas's deep feelings when as he struggles through another day or night, and "No More," which captures the political reality and antiwar sentiment captured in the documentary of the same title. In the words of Eddie Vedder, Tomas's music should "be heard behind the White House gate."

Enjoyed the CD, some songs more than others
I bought this CD because I was a huge fan of Eddie Vedder's songs from the Into The Wild Soundtrack.
Although I did like his music, I was more impressed by Brendan James first song, Heroe's song. It was the one song that didn't seem to have a political statement, more so a story about a soldiers struggling. Very moving song-literally brought me to tears.
A must buy for the amazing collaboration of talent.

buy this CD, and see the movie
Full disclosure: I'm a child of the 60s, now nearing 60 myself, and my musical tastes are what you'd might guess. So most of disc one are not my cuppa tea - I say most because track 14, "The Fourth Branch" by Immortal Technique is a revelation - I keep playing it, can't get enough of it, it's almost hypnotic in its combination of musicality and politics, which are broad, deep, and acute. It's worth the price of the disc. But the second disc, to me, is gold - Pearl Jam's cover of "Masters of War" is ground-shaking. I'm in love with this disc. And do yourself a favor, go see the film and take everyone you know with ya.