Album: Throwing Muses
Year: 1986
Label: 4AD
Producer: Gil Norton
Best song: "Hate My Way," "Vicky's Box," OR "America"
No lie, I've never heard another album quite like it.
Even at the time it was out of place. When "Call Me" finds Kristin Hersh screaming her head off, you know you're not listening to any average band. Each song is like a small revolution within one larger revolution. Only one word comes to mind when I try and think of the album as a whole: chaos. Kristin Hersh was suffering from a mental illness at the time that caused her to hallucinate and it shows on songs like the rollicking "America" or the almost Joy Division-ish "Vicky's Box" (well, it sounds a little like Joy Division up until the line about blowjobs). Like I said, there's nothing outside of the Muses catalogue that I can think of that sounds even a little bit like it. One hell of a debut, that's for sure.
~Austin
Album: Chains Changed EP
Year: 1987
Label: 4AD
Producer: Gil Norton
Best song: "Cry Baby Cry" (no, not The Beatles song)
Leftovers from the first album... and some damn good leftovers at that.
Between their first and second albums, the band issued this four song EP that was basically picking up where the debut album left off. The songs are all fine numbers, though none of them really stand out all that much. If you like the first album, this should already be in your collection if it isn't at least on your want list.
~Austin
Album: House Tornado
Year: 1988
Label: 4AD
Producer: Gary de Parce
Best song: "River," OR "Downtown"
These actually sound like (almost) standard songs. WHAT?!
Though just as equally offbeat and abstract conceptually as the debut album, the songs on House Tornado actually flow like normal songs every so often. They're not more pop-oriented by any means, they've just gotten more traditional, some of the tracks even have hooks (!!!). Unfortunately, the new found strength in songwriting is still a bit underdeveloped and the execution comes out a little amaturish. And the result is an album full of good, but kind of same-ish sounding songs.
~Austin
Album: The Fat Skier EP
Year: 1988
Label: 4AD
Producer: Gary de Parce
Best song: "A Feeling," OR "And A She-Wolf After The War"
Pretty Throwing Muses songs? You're kidding, right?
This EP is great, let's just get that out of the way right off the bat. And the trend of writing more literate and poppier songs continues here as the trademark Muses sound is getting closer and closer to fruition. There are still some manic numbers hanging around like "Garoux des Larmes" and "Soap And Water" and they still are sounding like great tunes. But when placed directly next to grand slams like "You Cage" and "A Feeling" the style sounds a bit tired. Overall, a complete victory.
~Austin
Album: Hunkpapa
Year: 1989
Label: Sire/Reprise
Producer: Gary Smith
Best song: "No Parachutes," OR "Fall Down"
House Tornado redux.
The first half of this thing is brilliant! But, just like its predecessor, it suffers from a bit of samey-ness on the second half. But that's not to say it's not without its charms. Because there's plenty of moments here that will have any Muses fan smiling. The single "Dizzy" although being hated by Kristin Hersh is a nice catchy number that's 100% pop, but not contrived at all. While other more vintage sounding moments like "Devil's Roof" and "No Parachutes" are sure to please any fan. But, in the end, it's a transition record. One of the band's most akward albums and at some points it's just a bit of a chore to sit through. To add the bizarre feeling this album has, of all people, Bernie Worrell guests on it, lending some keyboards to the mix.
~Austin
Album: The Real Ramona
Year: 1991
Label: Sire/Warner Bros.
Producer: Dennis Herring
Best song: "Graffiti," OR "Two Step"
Real Ramona makes good on Hunkpapa's promises.
It's not that Hunkpapa or House Tornado were bad albums, they're full potential was hinted at, but never quite reached (I bet you could make a brilliant album compiling the best tracks from the two albums though). The Muses matured into the 90's quite nicely with this album, their fourth full length. Song after song of fully developed ideas, well written and thought out compositions, and some just downright catchy stuff. One of my all time favorite Muses songs is included with "Graffiti" which sounds heavenly and was their most pop-oriented material to date. But, as this album evidenced, the Muses would take on the pop arena with grace, never once becoming contrived, formulaic or manufactured. The songs actually have some spectacular, spacious melodies in some cases (the atmospheric interlude "Dylan" and the layers of "Ellen West" are just a couple examples). At once their most accessible and best material up until that point. Excellent.
~Austin
Album: Red Heaven
Year: 1992
Label: Sire/Warner Bros.
Producer: Steve Boyer, artist
Best song: "Pearl"
Sensitive rockers.
Here's a shocker: right out of the gate for the first four or five songs of this album, they rock. Hard. Then out of left field comes this intrsopective epic "Pearl" and the album becomes this weird mixture of slight rockers and surprisingly dark melancholia. The band had dissolved down to basically just Kristin Hersh and drummer Dave Narcizo by this point. And maybe that, coupled with the fact that is the first album that finds the band taking on production duties, is why Kristin was aloud to let her songs be as personal as she wanted and the reason for turning away from Real Ramona's power pop. We again finds the Muses in transition. And while it's by no means a poor or badly executed album, it's quite unorganized and inconsistent. It's hit or miss, but the hits hit hard.
~Austin
Album: University
Year: 1995
Label: Sire/Reprise
Producer: artist
Best song: "Crabtown," "Hazing," "Surf Cowboy," OR "Flood"
Muses (finally!) hit their stride with awesome results.
It was interesting to see where they would go next after the mixed messages Red Heaven sent. Enlisting super bassman Bernard Georges and making them an official three piece for this album seems to have breathed new life into the band. This album is just as much a mish mosh of styles as the previous record was, but the difference here is that the band sounds extremely enthusiastic about the material they have to work with. For every rocker like the opening track and single "Bright Yellow Gun," there's a sugary sweet melodic jewel like "That's All You Wanted." And the album is very solid and briliantly sequenced, reaching almost cinematic heights by about track ten. In fact, the whole second half of the album is more less the strongest series of tracks the band ever did. Throw a slight tinge of psychedelics into the mix and you get their finest album. Fantastic.
~Austin
Album: Limbo
Year: 1996
Label: Throwing Music/Ryko
Producer: artist
Best song: "Serene," "The Field," "Tango," OR "White Bikini Sand"
Keep on keepin' on.
It's really hard to distinguish between tracks on these later Muses albums. Not because they all sound the same, but because the records are so solid and consistent. This record in particular is like that. Even though the songs are all are very different and unique from each other, I personally have a hard time remembering specific track titles because I don't think I've ever listened to this album without letting the whole thing go all the way through. It's so good, you don't even care what the song is called. From simplistic rockers ("Ruthie's Knocking") to layered tracks with movements ("Freeloader"), the songs are very diverse and distance themselves from each other with ease. And this record is an even further mature sound that expands on the ideas that University offered. I would say University is overall their best album simply for the fact that it came first, but Limbo is a very close second.
~Austin
Album: In A Doghouse
Year: 1998
Label: Throwing Music/Ryko
Producer: artist
Best song: Uhh... right, like that's not difficult.
Early days recaptured.
In 1998, Throwing Music reissued practically all of the Muses' early recordings on this two disc set. Here we get the first album in its entirety with the Chains Changed EP appended which was a great move because the two go so well together. The real treat is on disc two however as it collects the band's demo recordings on 1985's The Doghouse Cassette. Most of the first album gets fairly different run throughs and some Muses questions are finally answered with original versions of "Sinkhole" (later to be recorded by Kristin on one of her solo EP's), "And A She Wolf After The War" (which would end up on The Fat Skier EP), and "Fish" (included not long after in a re-recorded version on the 4AD Records compilation Lonely Is An Eyesore). As an added bonus, the second disc resurrects five songs that were written by Kristin in 1983 but never recorded. The 1996 lineup of the band recorded the five songs and all of them are great, highlighted by "Catch." This is an essential compilation for fans of the band's early material as all of this stuff has been out of print for years in the United States and it appears here remastered.
~Austin
Album: Live In Providence
Year: 1992/2001
Label: Throwing Music
Producer: artist
Best song: "Teller"
Red Heaven-era live show.
Recorded in 1992 but not released until 2001 through Throwing Music's "official bootleg" series, this show is pretty good. It draws from a wide variety of sources, with a strange overlooking of the majority of then recently released Red Heaven album (though "Bea" receives a more than worthy take). They actually dig up some semi-obscurities with songs like "Fear" and "Snailhead." While calling cards like "Fish" and "Hate My Way" receive great treatment, the real surprising thing here is the very early rendition of University's "Teller." Really a treat to hear the song in its earliest stages. Overall, Kristin's mic is maybe mixed a little too low and her guitar is a little too high, but this is an otherwise top notch soundboard recording.
~Austin
Album: Throwing Muses
Year: 2003
Label: 4AD
Producer: artist
Best song: "Portia," "Half Blast" OR "Epiphany"
Hi, we're Throwing Muses. And we rock. Hard.
Going back to the basics of what made them such a unique band in the first place, this reunion album (recorded in 2001, but not released until two years later) finds the Muses rocking hard, switching tempos, Kristin yelling her throat out, and even Tanya Donelly is present, just like days passed. Make no mistakes, this is the Muses noisiest and most agressive album to date. If you've always wondered how it would sound if they just cut the crap and played the heaviest three piece rock they could, here's your answer. I don't know if this reunion was a one time only thing but they did tour for this album, so we'll see. Regardless, even if this is their last album, they will have gone out on an equally as spectacular and uncompromising note that they came in on.
~Austin
I could be a smack freak, or I could just go back to the main reviews page.
