This is quite possibly the best album you don't own.
I stumbled across this disk back in 2001. I was in a glorified cover rock band called San Dimas and we put a CD up for sale on CDBaby.com. Besides providing album distribution for independent artists, the site also makes recommendations for other bands/CDs that are similar in style so that fans of your stuff can find more music they dig. This album was one of those links from our page. I gave the samples one listen and knew I was on to something amazing. So I bought the CD...
The first day it arrived in the mail (I was living with my brother and sister-in-law in Tulsa at the time), I did my normal CD listening routine: wait until dark, lie down in bed with the lights out, put on my headphones and blast the album all the way through uninterrupted. I was in heaven. I listened to this CD 5 times through that night. For about the next 2 weeks, every night I would repeat the routine, listening through the entire album 2-3 times.... often skipping back over Stop, Wishing Song, Helen of Troy and Away.
This is a disk of flawless, noisy, shiny, battered pop songs. The sonic layers and textures these guys achieved are so lush that you feel like your sense of hearing has gained extra dimensions. Michael Bethmann's voice is an otherworldly, haunting, raspy, yet deeply expressive wonder. The guitar work is unparalleled even by the artists that obviously influenced it. The drumming... kinda sucks, yeah. But if you know what a huge nit-picker of drumming I am, then you know it is NO small statement for me to say the strength of the songs and other performances on this album completely make up for what the drummer(s) lacks.
There are a few albums that are such complete works of art that it is a heinous crime to skip songs, even for the purpose of previewing, and this is one of them. So whenever I attempt to introduce anyone to this disk, it comes with the caveat that they're in for the long haul.
I've actually listened to this album so many times that I use it to test the sound systems of cars, stereos, etc., because I'm so incredibly familiar with exactly how the sonic range should sound on this disk.
I tried desperately to capture many of this album's finer points on my latest album, and the inspiration of simple chord structures underneath a cataclysm of guitar rage still drives my approach to many of my own songs. I'm sure I'll be chasing this sound for a long time to come.
Don't have it yet? But it here:
I stumbled across this disk back in 2001. I was in a glorified cover rock band called San Dimas and we put a CD up for sale on CDBaby.com. Besides providing album distribution for independent artists, the site also makes recommendations for other bands/CDs that are similar in style so that fans of your stuff can find more music they dig. This album was one of those links from our page. I gave the samples one listen and knew I was on to something amazing. So I bought the CD...
The first day it arrived in the mail (I was living with my brother and sister-in-law in Tulsa at the time), I did my normal CD listening routine: wait until dark, lie down in bed with the lights out, put on my headphones and blast the album all the way through uninterrupted. I was in heaven. I listened to this CD 5 times through that night. For about the next 2 weeks, every night I would repeat the routine, listening through the entire album 2-3 times.... often skipping back over Stop, Wishing Song, Helen of Troy and Away.
This is a disk of flawless, noisy, shiny, battered pop songs. The sonic layers and textures these guys achieved are so lush that you feel like your sense of hearing has gained extra dimensions. Michael Bethmann's voice is an otherworldly, haunting, raspy, yet deeply expressive wonder. The guitar work is unparalleled even by the artists that obviously influenced it. The drumming... kinda sucks, yeah. But if you know what a huge nit-picker of drumming I am, then you know it is NO small statement for me to say the strength of the songs and other performances on this album completely make up for what the drummer(s) lacks.
There are a few albums that are such complete works of art that it is a heinous crime to skip songs, even for the purpose of previewing, and this is one of them. So whenever I attempt to introduce anyone to this disk, it comes with the caveat that they're in for the long haul.
I've actually listened to this album so many times that I use it to test the sound systems of cars, stereos, etc., because I'm so incredibly familiar with exactly how the sonic range should sound on this disk.
I tried desperately to capture many of this album's finer points on my latest album, and the inspiration of simple chord structures underneath a cataclysm of guitar rage still drives my approach to many of my own songs. I'm sure I'll be chasing this sound for a long time to come.
Don't have it yet? But it here:
Greg, I definitely agree with you about this album. I'm not sure how I learned about it - perhaps you (or someone) posted it on the GC board. To this day, it remains one of my all-time favorite CD's. So much emotion, such great songs (this reminds me of how I describe your music too). My older brother also loves this CD. Oddly enough, Tugboat Annie never came close to equalling what they did on The Space Around You. Simply a brilliant album!
ReplyDelete