In 1991 there were two Wagon tracks I loved so much I listened to them all the time: The Concept from Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub and The Wagon from this album.
God I love(d) that song when it starts to speed up around the second minute and then leads to a shredding guitar solo.
And most of all: this was the first Dinosaur Jr album I discovered so I could not do anything else but love the whole album.
Of course in hindsight and after listening to many more of their albums, this is certainly not their best, maybe because most of the tracks (apart from the Wagon and How ‘d You Pin That One On Me) have a very acoustic feel although the electric guitar solos are there (Water and Thumb and especially the title song are the best example of that).
This is maybe also their last real lo-fi album (also because of those short pointless titles like Muck and Thumb and Puke and Cry: those that came after were produced much better and gave the guitar playing much more credit. And of course at the time I didn’t know this was the first album without one of their key members who became even more a hero to me than J.: Lou Barlow who started Sebadoh.
Before I listened back to this album I had it at the 8th rank in the Dino catalogue. I didn’t change a lot of scores but it went up to the seventh rank anyway. And to the 13th in my 1991 rank.
But The Wagon still rules and I cannot do anything else that continue to consider it their best track and don’t get me wrong this album will always have a special place in my heart.
And I LOVE this album too. I think it's great & under appreciated in the Dinosaur Junior canon. You should also check out the Whatever is Cool With Me EP from the same year. The single is one of his best, but I love the whole EP.
In 1991 there were two Wagon tracks I loved so much I listened to them all the time: The Concept from Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub and The Wagon from this album.
God I love(d) that song when it starts to speed up around the second minute and then leads to a shredding guitar solo.
And most of all: this was the first Dinosaur Jr album I discovered so I could not do anything else but love the whole album.
Of course in hindsight and after listening to many more of their albums, this is certainly not their best, maybe because most of the tracks (apart from the Wagon and How ‘d You Pin That One On Me) have a very acoustic feel although the electric guitar solos are there (Water and Thumb and especially the title song are the best example of that).
This is maybe also their last real lo-fi album (also because of those short pointless titles like Muck and Thumb and Puke and Cry: those that came after were produced much better and gave the guitar playing much more credit. And of course at the time I didn’t know this was the first album without one of their key members who became even more a hero to me than J.: Lou Barlow who started Sebadoh.
Before I listened back to this album I had it at the 8th rank in the Dino catalogue. I didn’t change a lot of scores but it went up to the seventh rank anyway. And to the 13th in my 1991 rank.
But The Wagon still rules and I cannot do anything else that continue to consider it their best track and don’t get me wrong this album will always have a special place in my heart.
And I LOVE this album too. I think it's great & under appreciated in the Dinosaur Junior canon. You should also check out the Whatever is Cool With Me EP from the same year. The single is one of his best, but I love the whole EP.
And then there was this one :
Blood by This Mortal Coil
This was a CD I bought because of You And Your Sister which is still one of my favorite songs ever and fantastically sung by Kim Deal and Tany Donnely. I didn't really like the rest of the tracks and there's a lot of filler (especially in the instrumentals) but when the female guest musicians sing it sounds fantastic after listening back to it. I had left this one out of my top chart but I have included them back in.
Yeah. We definitely do not view this album in the same light. For me, this album is all about the atmosphere & ambience. Which wouldn't exist except for those incredible instrumentals. It's very much a post-rock/goth album that could only come from only come from 4AD. The range on display in the instrumentals is particularly impressive. Everything from Flying Saucer Attack stuff (before that band even existed) to The Art of Noise. "Andialu" in particular completely freaks out my kids. Which is saying sth considering all the stuff I play. While I don't think this is the post-goth masterpiece Ivo-Russell was going for, it's definitely pretty close & essential 4AD stuff. I can totally understand why NME (in 2013) considers it one of the 500 best albums of all time.
I do LOVE that Deal-Donelly song too! And I can totally see how'd you buy the album just for that. 😁
This is to me by far the best album of Teenage Fanclub with The Concept as absolute highlight. It already starts great with that oversteered guitar leading to the song itself delivered in a style that even Alex Chilton of Big Star couldn’t match. The track is more than 6 minutes and the latter half of that is taken up by a fantastic coda leading to a violin part and a great guitar part with whoowhoo accompaniment. What a great track to start with..
The rest of the album is also never less than ingenious. Further highlights are the Star Sign which takes 1:15 minutes of guitar rumbling to develop into a great song and Alcolholiday and that beautiful violin still plays an important role in tracks like December.
I rest my case: one of the best albums of the nineties and it even rises from the 15th to the 13th rank on my 1991 chart (and from rank 98 to 77 on my overall one album per artist chart).
It's really an essential EP & an important piece of the Dinosaur Jr discog! Anyone who loves Dinosaur Jr (or even likes for that matter) should give it a spin.
mickilennialThe Most Trusted Name in NewsProfile Detroit
This is to me by far the best album of Teenage Fanclub with The Concept as absolute highlight.
One of the finest power pop acts ever. I often can't choose which is better of three of their efforts (the other two being Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain). Sublime.
This is to me by far the best album of Teenage Fanclub with The Concept as absolute highlight.
One of the finest power pop acts ever. I often can't choose which is better of three of their efforts (the other two being Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain). Sublime.
Totally. Spin took a lot of heat back in 1991 for naming this the best album of the year. I think they come out of it looking like geniuses. Easily one of the best of the year, and one of the finest power pop albums of all time. It was hardly derivative of Big Star.
Their ENTIRE discography is worth hearing. Not too many bands you can they that about! Totally agree that those three along with A Catholic Education r the highlights. 13 is underrated though. (I still need to check out The King though. )
mickilennialThe Most Trusted Name in NewsProfile Detroit
The 90s was just a great comeback era for power pop in general. Jellyfish, Lemonheads, Nada Surf, Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, Matthew Sweet... just fantastic.
In fact this is a Belgian band (from the French speaking part of Belgium; I’m from the Dutch speaking part) and had its roots in the eighties cold wave band Marine and then split up in Allez Allez (a great funk band also worth checking out) and La Muerte which was really something else. Many people compare it with the Birthday Party but I would describe it as industrial metal and the band was quickly picked up by the infamous John Peel as one of the most promising bands at the time.
This album was already their fourth and is a good example of their typical fairly extreme sound. The title song at the start already sets the pace with its intervening racing circuit sounds but the most typical and best track is But My Brain Don’t Get Higher which is exactly the opposite what it predicts because it song keeps on speeding up until it ends in total chaos. After that the speed decelerates significantly with LEssence des Chocs but the gloomy atmosphere remains.
The best tracks are at the start but the rest of the album is not bad either (and sometimes even becomes bluesy in Stone-Heart Marie).
It was already a long time I listened to this album an after giving it another spin I moved it up from the 53rd to the 35th tank of 1991.
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