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| Spending Time On The Borderline | 
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| Artist: Ozma
Label: Kung Fu Records
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy Used: $0.86
You Save: $13.12 (94%)
New (17) Used (19) from $0.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 54716
Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 610337880727
EAN: 0610337880727
ASIN: B00008MJ3V
Release Date: May 6, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Speechless... December 31, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I picked up Rock and Roll Part 3 and Spending Time... and I love them both. Ozma's sound has definitely matured on Spending Time on the Borderline though and has made me a sold-out Ozma fan! Ok sure that they sound like Weezer, less so now, but WHO CARES! Weezer rocks and so does Ozma. You can't tell me that there aren't a million punk bands out there that don't sound just alike. Everyone sounds like somebody else, and who better to sound like then Weezer. People should stop avoiding this band because they sound like Weezer. I haven't been too impressed with Weezer's newer stuff anyways, yet Ozma has managed to hold on to the vitality and awesome melodies from their previous albums and add to the mix other influences. Although songs like Turtleneck Coverup, Game Over, and Bad Dogs sound quite abit like their geek-rock counterparts, Ozma has managed to find their own twist and identity and what better compliment then being compared to Weezer. They must be doing something right! I'm excited to see how this band with shape up in the coming years, but as for now I'll be blasting Spending Time on the Borderline for a good long time.
Great December 6, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very good album.
By the way, every sentence in Drew Sullivan's review is incorrect.
Amazing Album May 29, 2003
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Spending Time on the Borderline is in my opinion Ozma's best album. I have been listening to it nonstop ever since I bought it a few weeks ago. Ozma is progressing in a rad way; each of their cds shows musical and lyrical growth. Tracks like Eponine, Gameover, Turtleneck Coverup, Restart, and Wake Up are tracks that especially stand out on this album.
 maybe 3.5 actually, good job Ozma! May 20, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didn't know what to expect from Ozma after the DDD. How could they get any better? In "Spending Time," Ozma's sound and songwriting has matured greatly. But gone are the witty quotable one-liners, strange as it is. They've got a bit of a country rollick in "Come Home Andrea" and "Your Name" is a ballad. My friend used to complain that although Ozma would start off all jazzy or bluesy or with a different style, they'd always go back to the same ole same ole Weezereque distortion somewhere in the song. Not so on here. My favorite song on this cd at this moment is "Curve in the Old 1-9" because of its passionate rockin' chorus that comes out of nowhere. Also, Ryen's guitar skills are quite impressive for a "mere punk rocker." I enjoy this cd as a whole because it's catchy and I like catchy music. But it's not formulaic to the point of conformity. Sometimes, though, the sound seems a little silly and childish to me, a kid who first fell in love with Ozma two years ago with "Rock and Roll Pt. III." Maybe I'm growing up. I dunno. But give it a spin, it's a fun listen nevertheless!
Definitely not a Weezer clone anymore. May 18, 2003
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ozma has been pegged for years as a cheap Weezer imitation. While both bands do share many things in common - an unhealthy obsession of foreign culture [Weezer with Asia, Ozma with Russia], powerful, chunky guitar riffs, a fascination with MOOGs - I detect something more there. Listening to the band's newest release, "Spending Time On The Borderline," I don't hear Weezer as much as I hear Cheap Trick.Yeah, that's right, Cheap Trick. One of the greatest, yet most underappreciated, rock bands of our time [not to mention they're from my hometown and I know all their kids]. Ozma's opening track, "Spending Time," is chock full of so much 70s bombast that it would have sounded great live at Budokan. Sure, there's some MOOG in there, but Weezer this is not. The band then takes two completely different stylistic turns with the next two songs, "Your Name" and "Come Home Andrea." The former is a moody, soft ballad comparable to something like Elliott Smith, and the latter is almost an alt-country song, reminding me of earlier Wilco or maybe the Jayhawks. So far, this album is all over the map, and I like it like that. The album's single, "Bad Dogs," is as hard rock as this band has ever been. To be fair, this does sound like Weezer. A lot. Moving on - Some of the material on this album dates back to the band's first tour with Weezer in 2001, as I remember hearing "Eponine" live in Milwaukee and being blown away by the song. Finally, the track makes it to an album [along with other long time fan favorite "Game Over"], but it lost a bit of it's shine over the past 2 years. It's still a great track, and fun as hell to belt out "OOOOOH! My Eponine / can't you hear the words I sing / can't you hear the woooooooooords I sing" as you drive down the street. The instrumentation on this album is rather impressive. Keyboardist Star Wick once again picks up the flute on some songs for a new-jazz flavor, and the band drops string arrangements in a handful of tracks, as well as marching drums [in the aforementioned "Bad Dogs"]. The group is still stuck in a "pop" mode, but they seem to be experimenting as much as they can under their pre-defined role as a band. I have never been the biggest fan of this band [writing them off after they opened for Weezer, and only owning "Rock and Roll Part 3" because I got it for free], but after this album, they've definitely piqued my interest. The band's past has been cemented in geek rock history, but tracks like "Curve In the Old 1-9" shows me that Ozma is just getting started. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what they do next.
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