Anodyne--the Long Cut

[bruce]

For those of you who don't know, Uncle Tupelo's last album, <i>Anodyne</i> has just been rereleased with 5 extra tracks.

As a friend of mine once said, "If I didn't know for sure that it took two hands to play a guitar, I'd swear they recorded this album while holding guns to their temples."

Bruce

[Greg]

I still haven't got the reissue, but I'm sure I will soon, UT nerd that I am.

For sheer utter depression, wouldn't you say March 16-20 trumps anything on Anodyne? Good God, that album is bleak.

[Worm]

Hmm, maybe I should get into bleak music.

[bruce]

I
For sheer utter depression, wouldn't you say March 16-20 trumps anything on Anodyne? Good God, that album is bleak.

Yeah, I guess I would.

"Ain't it hard
When the spirit doesn't catch you?
Gravity's the winner
And it weighs you down
It weighs you down."

and who can forget

"Now I must hang this morning
For the murder of Lilli Schull
Whom I so cruelly murdered
And her body shamefully burned."

Do you like Freakwater too? I'm always reminded of "One Big Union" when I listen to "March 16-20".

Not to say Freakwater doesn't have its share of bleak:

"There's nothing so pure as the kindness of an atheist
A simple act of unselfishness that never has to be repaid
And there's nothing so sure as a razor blade above your wrist
When you think you just can't stand it
You're gonna leave empty handed
Do you still dream of being saved?"

Or, good God,

"Some say timing is everything
Burnt metal spread across a service road
I'm driving towards it and I look away
An instant in time plays to
Distantly different ways
Would you bind my memories in twine?
Would you drive with me
Over the state line?
Would you be willing to do the time?
These simple sentences we would use
Either way there is something
That you are bound to confuse."

Wow. I think I need a drink now.

Bruce

[Roody_Yogurt]

I'd go with the Handsome Family:

"One night I dreamt that I dug my own grave/
And climbed down inside to patiently wait/
Down in the ground I breathed the warm air
And black birds flew down to next in my hair"