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Tracklist (CD)
1 | | Eat For Two | | 3:26 | 2 | | Please Forgive Us | | 3:22 | 3 | | The Big Parade | | 4:00 | 4 | | Trouble Me | | 3:08 | 5 | | You Happy Puppet | | 3:35 | 6 | | Headstrong | | 4:13 | 7 | | Poison In The Well | | 3:05 | See more tracks8 | | Dust Bowl | | 4:11 | 9 | | The Lion's Share | | 3:00 | 10 | | Hateful Hate | | 4:28 | 11 | | Jubilee | | 5:59 |
* Items below may differ depending on the release.
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Review It's easy to polish the furniture or feed the baby while listening to a 10,000 Maniacs album, which is both the group's saving grace and its biggest shortcoming. Earnest and well intentioned to a fault, singer Natalie Merchant covers all the politically correct topics in her songs, but she does so to the breeziest sort of New Age pop, as on the band's 1987 breakthrough album, In My Tribe. As a result, the Jamestown, New York, quintet has vaulted from college-radio favorites to gold-record stardom, yet one doubts Merchant means for songs like… Read More Tribe's child-abuse study "What's the Matter Here?" to be hummed along to while washing the dishes. Some of these contradictions remain on Blind Man's Zoo, the Maniacs' fourth album. Producer Peter Asher is once again at the helm, and as on Tribe, he creates the same lemon-meringue cushion for the band. Unless you're staring at the lyric sheet, you'd never know "The Big Parade" (about the Vietnam War memorial wall), "Jubilee" (concerning religious fanaticism and prejudice) and "Poison in the Well" (about ecological suicide) are among Merchant's most ambitious compositions. Asher's approach works perfectly for the first single, a tender "You've Got a Friend" update called "Trouble Me," but it backfires on "Please Forgive Us," in which Merchant uses a fluffy melody to apologize obliquely for U.S. military aid to foreign governments. Still, Blind Man's Zoo may be the Maniacs' best record. The band sounds more focused, its flowing-river rhythms and Robert Buck's darting guitars more powerful than ever. The album's best songs merge the smoothness of "Like the Weather" with the more disturbing lyrics and textures of the Maniacs' pre-Elektra recordings. In "Eat for Two," a pregnant young woman bitterly ponders her fate as Dennis Drew's piano drives the music along; the dirgelike "Hateful Hate," Merchant's attack on colonial imperialism, is colored by Buck's sirenlike lead. In "Dust Bowl," beautiful in a mountain-ballad way, Merchant takes the role of a downtrodden working woman with children; the song's opening lines "I should know to leave them home/They follow me through the store with these toys I can't afford" are some of Merchant's most vivid. On those songs, Merchant's voice sounds more than ever like the late Sandy Denny's, and the Maniacs sound like a band, not just an anonymous group of sessioneers. The Maniacs also demonstrate that within their lilting music, they are capable of living up to the twisted inspiration of their name. (RS 558) DAVID BROWNE |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Europe, Elektra, Ekt57, 1989 |
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LP |
GOOD PLUS (G+)/GOOD PLUS (G+) |
UNDERFLIP RECORD Spain
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$3.10 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Multiple Surface Marks !!!!/ With Inner / Sticker On Cover Europe, Elektra, Ekt57, 1989 |
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LP |
GOOD PLUS (G+)/VERY GOOD (VG) |
VINYL-POOH Spain
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$3.22 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo - Plus Inner Lyric Sleeve & Insert 2 copies |
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LP |
EX/EX+ |
Left Legged Pine United Kingdom
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$9.48 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo - Plus Inner Lyric Sleeve & Insert
Uk (german Pressed) 11 Track Vinyl Issue With Polylined Inner Sleeve And Foreign Language Lyric Folder (ex/ex+) Elektra, Ekt 57 |
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LP |
EX/EX+ |
Left Legged Pine United Kingdom
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$9.48 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo - Plus Inner Lyric Sleeve & Insert
Uk (german Pressed) 11 Track Vinyl Issue With Polylined Inner Sleeve And Foreign Language Lyric Folder (ex/ex+) Elektra, Ekt 57 |
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LP |
EX/EX+ |
Left Legged Pine United Kingdom
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$9.48 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Matt Finish Sleeve Near Ex. Some Foxing To Printed Inner Sleeve And Four Page Insert. Pressed In Germany. A Few Small And Fine Surface Marks To Vinyl, Plays Ex With Just A Small... |
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LP |
EX- / EX- |
Vinyltone United Kingdom
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$10.60 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Original German Elektra Ekt 57. Stickered Sleeve Has A Small Corner Crease, Otherwise Good. Light Foxing To Inner, Also Includes Translated Lyrics Insert. Glossy Vinyl With Some... |
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LP |
EX-/EX |
Vinylnet Scotlan United Kingdom
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$11.04 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
1989--with Inner Sleeve--very Light Wear And Slight Wrinkle On Cover--very Minor Hairline Marks, Close To Ex Can, Elektra, 96 08151 |
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LP |
VG+/VG++ |
Pleasure Of List Canada
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$12.00 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Ring Wear On Cover/ Au, Elektra, 608151, 89 |
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EX/M- |
Timewarp Records Australia
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$12.00 |
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10,000 MANIACS |
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Blind Man's Zoo
German/eu Pressing Of The 1989 Lp Including 'eat For Two', 'please Forgive Us', 'the Big Parade', 'trouble Me', 'you Happy Puppet', 'headstrong', 'poison In The Well', 'dust Bow... |
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Vinyl Exchange United Kingdom
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$12.55 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
D, Elektra, Ekt57/9608151, 1989 2 copies |
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M-/M- |
Music Kitche Greece
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$16.74 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Mans Zoo
Elektra Ekt 57/printed Inner+printed Lyr |
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LP |
EX/EX |
Sounds Travel United Kingdom
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$18.82 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
With Ois...sleeve: Edge Wear Us, Elektra, 608151, 1989 |
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LP |
VERY GOOD PLUS (VG+)/VERY GOOD PLUS (VG+) |
mion.berlin Germany
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$28.20 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Ekt 57
stickered Sleeve With Multilingual Insert - Hmv Price Sticker On Sleeve Elektra |
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LP |
EX/EX |
Acousticsoup United Kingdom
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$31.36 |
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10,000 Maniacs |
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Blind Man's Zoo
Includes Original Inner Sleeve W/ Lyrics, Press Packet W/ 8"x10", Saw Cut Us, Elektra, 9608151, 1989 |
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LP |
NEAR MINT (NM OR M-)/NEAR MINT (NM OR M-) |
BullTrax United States
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$46.74 |
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