Vinyl Records, LPs and CD Marketplace
 
   
Cart Sign In



Soul Asylum

 - 

Candy From A Stranger

 

Tracklist

(CD)
1   Creatures Of Habit      3:23
2   I Will Still Be Laughing      3:45
3   Close      4:32
4   See You Later      4:43
5   No Time For Waiting      3:14
6   Blood Into Wine      4:03
7   Lies Of Hate      4:39
See more tracks

* Items below may differ depending on the release.

          

Review


A dozen years ago, on their milestone Made to Be Broken album, Soul Asylum ranted with all the bottled rage of youth about "just killing time." On Candy From a Stranger, they've finally offed the bugger. Tinged with an autumnal air of wistfulness, this set of downbeat power pop and countryish laments from frontman Dave Pirner finds the group's brashness giving way to resignation, its resolve yielding to fatalism, and its rock & roll will turning to mush. Pirner sounds weary of life underneath the volcano, professing caustic self-pity… Read More

with the carefully enunciated opening line of "Draggin' the Lake": "Sent on a mission to find out just how much shit one man can take." Such sentiments are nothing new for Soul Asylum, whose previous album, Let Your Dim Light Shine, opened with a song called "Misery," which repeated the words "frustrated incorporated" as if the band had a corner on the market. What's different is that instead of kicking at his chains, Pirner now sounds acclimated to them.

His dolorous mood is matched by restrained production that takes the rock & roll edge off the guitars. Pirner is awkwardly sentimental one moment ("Close," in which he sings like Axl Rose by way of Billy Joel) and resigned to inhabiting a darkening chasm the next ("Blackout," a New York vignette wherein it's hard to discern whether the singer or the city has blacked out). Not that Candy From a Stranger is entirely a lost cause. "Creatures of Habit" opens the disc in a whirling, neopsychedelic haze reminiscent of the Beatles' "Rain," moving from what passes for positive thinking ("If the darkness has no end/Light up the darkness") to a sweetly hook-y sing-along chorus. "No Time for Waiting" is illuminated by Pirner's palpable yearning and driving melodicism, while "Lies of Hate" flexes some sorely needed muscle via heavy, Led Zep-style riffing.

By and large, however, there's something defeated and unresolved about this album, evident in defensive entreaties like, "Please don't ask me how I am/A little tired, a little scared" (from "Cradle Chain") and "Am I still here?/Can you see me?/Please say yes" ("Draggin' the Lake"). Something about Candy From a Stranger – namely, its enervated revisiting of old themes – feels like treading water. Another album like it three more years down the line might seem more like drowning. (RS 787)


PARKE PUTERBAUGH




Soul Asylum Discography        Recently Listed             

Refine Search Results

Artist
Title
Label
Cat Num
Barcode
Genre
Country
Seller
Priceto





No Vinyl+CDR





    
2 Listed For Sale:   soul asylum        candy from a stranger        2CD        Clear Filters

Page 1 of 1
Show
  Artist   Title   Format   Condition   Seller Price    
Soul Asylum - Candy From A Stranger   Soul Asylum   Candy From A Stranger
16 Track 2 Disc Set With Info Sticker On Case Europe, Columbia, 4872659, 1998-05-18
  2CD   EX/EX Vinyl Tap
United Kingdom
$7.07    
Add to Cart
Details
  SOUL ASYLUM   Candy From A Stranger+bon
  2CD   MDRMUSIC
Spain
$14.63    
Add to Cart
Details
Top of Page Page 1 of 1
Show


Search SOUL ASYLUM at