As Jason K said in an earlier review, it is unfair to compare albums as they all have quite unique sounds. Unfortunately, The Magnificent Tree simply does not hold up to repeat listenings. The first time I listened to it, I was really dissapointed. I loved Bluewonderpowdermilk and enjoyed their debut album, but TMT just doesn't have any stand-out tracks. It's agreeable enough background music and if that's all you want then it should suit you just fine. I expect more from my music and TMT rarely delivered.

The album starts out with the rather clumsy Autoharp. Nothing about this song flows. Perhaps that's the point, but the end results are pretty boring and doesn't capture your attention (a bad sign for the first track of an album!)

Mad About You is a pretty nice bit of pop. The orchestration is bright, reminding me of an old movie score. Geike's voice brings to mind images of paticularly adept lounge singer. One of the few songs that come close to being memorable, but it still ends up like sonic wallpaper.

Waves is an absolutely wonderful track. It's probably my favorite of them all. It takes all the nice things The Magnificent Tree's sound has going for it and maximizes it producing a lovely effect. The chorus is dreamy and stunning. More tracks like this in the future would be much appreciated.

Jackie Cane is my second favorite track. It wouldn't be out of place on a St. Etienne record at all. It's got a great retro feel without sounding OLD. The chorus is great and probably the most memorable of any track "Salty days for Jackie Cane..."

I love the title to this album. Something about "The Magnificent Tree" just seems really cool and it's a phrase that's just ripe for being made a part of a cool song. Fortunately track 5 does pretty deliver on most accounts. We start out with some really nice guitar picking and some beautiful voice work from Geike. It's airy and haunting and beautiful.

Vinegar and Salt is pretty forgettable in just about every way. I've often gotten involved in another activity and not realized I've even listened to it.

Frosted Flake Wood is just to bizarre for it's own good. Something tells me someone ate some of the mushrooms the song talks about before writing this song. The song is fun in a way, but it's slow and doesn't go anywhere.

I don't have much to say about Everytime We Live Together We Die a Bit More. I usually hit the next track button when I come to this one.

Out of Sight starts out with some more of the wonderful orchestration that is a halmark of Hooverphonic. It has a reasonably hooky chorus and a really nice sound. It practically cries out for deserved attention, saving what in the largely forgettable second half of the ablum.

Pink Fluffy Dinosaurs is a light peice of trippy fluff. There's nothing wrong with trippy fluff, but then there's nothing to celebrate about it either. Something about the track smacks of underachievement as well as thought no one could be bothered to come up with something to hold on to emotionally for the song.

L'odeur Animals - Slow. Very slow. Not a bad track to nod off too however.

Renaissance Affair (bonus track) - A song I already have, serving as a painful reminder of what Hooverphonic can do when they get going. Yeah. Nice Bonus.

All in all, if your a long-time Hooverphonic fan or just a fan of their earlier work I suggest you do pick up The Magnificent Tree. It's not wonderful but fans will appreciate it. If you've never heard Hooverphonic DO NOT get this album first. Do like I did and pick up Bluewonderpowdermilk, then the debut, and then this.

I dearly love Hooverphonic - in fact, they are one of my all-time favorite groups. So to all of you, I must provide a recommendation and a warning. First, please keep in mind that if there is an underlying theme to Hooverphonic, it is, "metamorphosis of the soul." Each disc they create is intentionally, vastly different; the CDs are like unique shards of the same crystal, each with its own beauty and shape.

And now, a recommendation: If you're after a top-quality, gloomy trip-hop sound with sensuous appeal, get A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular. If you want a gorgeous, strings- and synth-driven slice of ethereal pop, get Blue Wonder Power Milk. But ONLY after you own BOTH should you even begin to consider getting this one.

The reason for this? Well, on this release, Hooverphonic strive so hard to push back their own boundaries that they end up with an insincere adaptation of their own sound. Here, they almost sound like a caricature of themselves. Autoharp is clunky and abysmal; Mad About You is a catchy single that features vocals styled heavily in the direction of Portishead. Waves is adequate. It isn't until Out of Sight rolls along that we finally hear a top-quality Hooverphonic track, and even then, it seems like a pale echo of its own majestic ancestor, Battersea. By the time we've convinced ourselves that this album is "flawed, but pretty good," we're then listening to the sublime majesty of Renaissance Affair, which is there to remind us all how much more beautiful and confident their last two CDs were.

Don't get me wrong, there's some quality music here. But I fear that if you hear this CD first without ever having heard of Hooverphonic before, you won't try them again. (The band must have felt that way too, seeing how they felt compelled to put Renaissance on the end of the disc.) For die-hard fans, this is an acceptable purchase; for others, it's just flat-out disappointing.

At first I was a bit disappointed that this new Hooverphonic album wasn't as icy and experimental as the last album "Blue Wonder Power Milk"; i.e. nothing as compelling here as "Renaissance Affair" (aka the song in the Volkswagen "vapor" commercial). Yet thankfully there's nothing as "out there" as the weird, male-vocal "Electro-Shock Faders", either, so really, this album is a compromise. A bit more commercial, but still a perfect blend of trip-hop and melody, with plenty of atmosphere and mood, a la the last song "L'Odeur Animale." My one complaint, and hence one less star, is the so-called "bonus track", the aforementioned "Renaissance Affair" - not a bonus to any true Hooverphonic fan who already owns the song, but rather a bonus to Sony to hopefully drive more people to this album through the Volkswagon commercial. The true bonus track should have been the 10-minute song "Visions" that appears on the import version of this album as a bonus disc. Why that couldn't be offered to U.S. fans is, again, an example of why the record companies will, and deserve to be, eventually usurped by the Napsters and file sharing softwares of the world. A great album, but at 42 minutes, is needlessly one song too short.

Yes, as an album TMT isn't as good as the other two. However, the more I listen to it, the more I get songs stuck in my head and the more I understand that it is brilliant. The problem is that it doesn't hold together as an album. The cohesion isn't there. But what is there is a handful of solid songs a few of which verge on brilliant. The poppiest of these is Mad About You, a James Bond theme if there was ever a film about Bond's first puppy love. A couple of songs later comes Jackie Cane, a strange anthem about a used up girl. Frosted Flake Wood is maligned by some and yes it does sound like the theme to some trip-hop version of H.R. Puffinstuf, but I like it a lot simply because it's unique. There aren't a lot of songs like this out there. Finally, there's Everytime We Live Together... This song keeps growing on me. I don't have anything to compare it to other than to say that the title sets the tone for the piece. It's angry -- or at least as angry as Hooverphonic gets -- and bitter -- once again, as bitter as Hooverphonic gets.

I gave this 5 stars because despite its awkwardness as an album it is still worlds above most of what's out there. I'll take it for all its flaws as Hooverphonic are brilliant even if this as a whole is their weakest effort.

My feelings towards Hooverphonic are as follows. "A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular" is still one of my favorite cds ever recorded. That cd just clicked with me and fills me with emotion every time I hear it. "Blue Wonder Power Milk" was a solid album with the only bad songs being those with the male vocals. Then enters "The Magnificent Tree", never did I think I would see the day when the band that recorded one of my top 5 albums of all time would also record one of my most hated. Everything that could of gone wrong on this cd did. Liesje Callier had far better lyrics and a much smoother voice. The music doesn't even sound like the same guys putting it together and I truly feel that Frosted Flake Wood is one of the worst songs ever put on a cd.