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Grave dancers union --- Soul Asylum --- 1992 (Columbia)

I only found out about Soul Asylum a little while ago, as I may or may not have gone on at length about, when I learned the song “Runway train” was not sung by Tom Petty (they do sound similar) and so I made it my business to check out some more of their music. As per my usual priorities this led to me downloading their discography and listening to, well, nothing really, until right now. This is the album that single came from, so perhaps a good place to start? Well, you gotta start somewhere, don't you?

It's their sixth album, and played host to a change in drummers, with original sticksman Grant Young playing on about half of the album and the man who was to replace him, Sterling Campbell, taking drum duties for the other half. Don't ask me who plays on what track, unless I can find out at discogs or somewhere: differentiating between drummers is for me an impossible task, no matter how well known they may be.

“Somebody to shove” starts the album in rocking style, hopping along nicely with a heavy guitar sound and thumping drums, and yes I still think vocalist Dave Pirner has a very Petty-like quality to his voice, very gritty and rough. There's a certain sense of punk in the guitars of Pirner and lead guitarist Dan Murphy, and the song is pretty straightforward, but a good opener. More involved is “Black gold”, which opens on a Zeppelin-like guitar line, then explodes into a riot of electric guitar and runs along in a mid-pace tempo, some nice organ coming through courtesy of Booker T. Jones III, Pirner's vocal at times more reserved than on the opener, but at others loud and proud.

This takes us into “Runway train”, which everyone probably knows by now, as it was their biggest hit single. It's a great track though, cataloguing the plight of America's runway children, then “Keep it up” is another hard rocker with a lot of guitar, upbeat yes but not that great. “Homesick” is a lot better, a slower, moodier song driven on guitar and slow percussion with a sort of campfire-style vocal. Presumably about homeless people, the song features the hook ”I'm so homesick, but it ain't that bad/ Cos I'm homesick for the home/ I never had.”

We're back rocking then with “Get on out”, with a big heavy organ sound and busy guitars, but the song quickly seems to run out of ideas. Another nice laidback ballad on acoustic guitar in “New world”, very country-oriented with a gentle vocal, almost relaxed, with a full string section breaking in courtesy of the Meridian String Quartet and taking the song up a notch. Very nice and clever use of the strings indeed. “April fool” is a big heavy rocker that marches along brashly, confident in its own ability, with stop-start guitar and laboured vocal from Pirner, who is, I think, portraying someone who's been or is out on a binge, and “Without a trace” goes somewhat back to the melody and rhythm of “Runway train”, with some nice guitar work; it contains the title of the album in the lyric ”I tried to dance at a funeral/ New Orleans style/ I joined the Grave Dancers Union/ I had to file.”

There's a return to the quasi-punk style of the opener for “Growing into you”, then the weird sound of what seems to be a gate opening at the beginning of “99%”, another stop-start rocker with Pirner's vocals routed through some sort of electronic modulator to make them sound kind of metallic or mono, sort of similar to the kind of sound Matt Johnson employed on The The's “Soul mining” album, particularly on the opening track, “I've been waiting for tomorrow (all of my life)”. We close then on “The sun maid”, a nice little acoustic ballad.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that this album has made a fan of me, but it ain't bad. There are definitely some tracks on it that sound a little contrived, others that feel like they're not up to scratch, but against that there are also some really good songs, and overall I'm impressed enough to consider listening to more music from Soul Asylum, although I have to admit I won't be frantically searching through my hard drive to get the next album up and running.

But I know what I hate, and I don't hate this.

TRACKLISTING

1. Somebody to shove
2. Black gold
3. Runaway train
4. Keep it up
5. Homesick
6. Get on out
7. New world
8. April fool
9. Without a trace
10. Growing into you
11. 99%
12. The sun maid

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