Music Banter - View Single Post - Steve Albini's bands ~ a chronology reviewed

Engine · 12-03-2011, 01:24 AM

Okay, I named this thread with the word “chronology” but I’m diverging now. I don’t feel like reviewing all of the albums in order so fuck it.

Here is a review of one of my favorite Albini albums and one of my favorite albums of all time by anybody: 1000 Hurts by Shellac.

Tracklist:
1. Prayer To God
2. Squirrel Song
3. Mama Gina
4. QRJ
5. Ghosts
6. Song Against Itself
7. Canaveral
8. New Number Order
9. Shoe Song
10. Watch Song

This is music for angry scorned grownups and this review is quite a chronological leap from Albini’s material that I have reviewed thus far. I apologize that I’ve skipped ahead but I’m only a little bit sorry because this is well worth a listen for anybody who has experienced excruciating emotional pain in an adult-like fashion.

Also, if you bought into any of the sensations that is now underhandedly marketed to an audience of naïve, nostalgic children (young lovers of 1990s Thrill Jockey, Touch and Go, Matador, etc.) then I hope you will set aside any self-important delusions of maturity that you may be harboring (you are forgiven if you are. I have them too) and just listen to this record with the open mind of a 20-something year old who likes good music and is sad and angry.

By now, you’ve certainly felt pain and Shellac knows this. 1000 Hurts is a celebration not unlike a Tibetan Buddhist funeral where the deceased is openly set upon a mountaintop and relinquished to the appetites of hungry scavenger birds. Listen to 1000 Hurts in the same way that you’d peacefully watch your dead loved ones be eaten by ravens and vultures.

I’m not going to bother going track by track, even though I’d like to, because I want you to listen to this goddamned record and form your own opinions about each song. They’re all good so go for it, don’t be lazy. They’re not only good but they’re subtly emotional and each one stands on its own merit and messages abound.

You may like some and not others. You may like them all in different ways. If you don’t like them then wait a decade or so, experience some life, re-listen and repeat. If you don’t like them after you’ve experienced real heartbreaks and the accompanying righteous anger then you probably have no soul and shouldn’t bother re-listening.

But I presume that tragedy and loss will befall the majority if not all of the music-loving public, and that they’ll feel the appropriately devastating emotions when it does. When you feel the particular pain of which I speak (you’ll know it when you do) is when you should listen to 1000 Hurts. Again and again.

Enjoy this bitterly

12-03-2011, 01:24 AM	#12 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	Shellac - 1000 Hurts (2000) Okay, I named this thread with the word “chronology” but I’m diverging now. I don’t feel like reviewing all of the albums in order so fuck it. Here is a review of one of my favorite Albini albums and one of my favorite albums of all time by anybody: 1000 Hurts by Shellac. Tracklist: 1. Prayer To God 2. Squirrel Song 3. Mama Gina 4. QRJ 5. Ghosts 6. Song Against Itself 7. Canaveral 8. New Number Order 9. Shoe Song 10. Watch Song This is music for angry scorned grownups and this review is quite a chronological leap from Albini’s material that I have reviewed thus far. I apologize that I’ve skipped ahead but I’m only a little bit sorry because this is well worth a listen for anybody who has experienced excruciating emotional pain in an adult-like fashion. Also, if you bought into any of the sensations that is now underhandedly marketed to an audience of naïve, nostalgic children (young lovers of 1990s Thrill Jockey, Touch and Go, Matador, etc.) then I hope you will set aside any self-important delusions of maturity that you may be harboring (you are forgiven if you are. I have them too) and just listen to this record with the open mind of a 20-something year old who likes good music and is sad and angry. By now, you’ve certainly felt pain and Shellac knows this. 1000 Hurts is a celebration not unlike a Tibetan Buddhist funeral where the deceased is openly set upon a mountaintop and relinquished to the appetites of hungry scavenger birds. Listen to 1000 Hurts in the same way that you’d peacefully watch your dead loved ones be eaten by ravens and vultures. I’m not going to bother going track by track, even though I’d like to, because I want you to listen to this goddamned record and form your own opinions about each song. They’re all good so go for it, don’t be lazy. They’re not only good but they’re subtly emotional and each one stands on its own merit and messages abound. You may like some and not others. You may like them all in different ways. If you don’t like them then wait a decade or so, experience some life, re-listen and repeat. If you don’t like them after you’ve experienced real heartbreaks and the accompanying righteous anger then you probably have no soul and shouldn’t bother re-listening. But I presume that tragedy and loss will befall the majority if not all of the music-loving public, and that they’ll feel the appropriately devastating emotions when it does. When you feel the particular pain of which I speak (you’ll know it when you do) is when you should listen to 1000 Hurts. Again and again. Enjoy this bitterly __________________ Like an arrow, I was only passing through.