A Sense of Doubt blog post #3569 - I Woke With This Song in My Head After The Election - "Grey Victory" by 10,000 Maniacs - Music Monday for 2411.25
I am a huge 10,000 Maniacs fan, which you may not know because I have not written about them at all on this blog. I have mentioned them just a few times (under ten) in over 3500 posts but never featured them.
Come on...
10,000 Maniacs
The Wishing Chair (1985)
Album Score: 11
Even from the beginning, I had the sense that 10,000 Maniacs always knew what they wanted to sound like. That sound is strewn all over this record--catchy grooves, jangly guitars up the wazoo, and splendidly carefree vocals from Natalie Merchant, the singer with the voice of melted caramel. In the debut, I described her as sounding rather timid, but that quality had left her entirely at this point. It sounds like she had at least 30 years to perfect her voice for this album.
They rerecorded a few songs from their debut, which I suppose makes it conveniently easy to hear how much they improved. In "Grey Victory," you can hear Merchant's vocals really take command over that fun, jangly groove. The jangly groove itself has also improved considerably; it still has a little bit of the intentionally-sloppy nature of the original, but it's integrated more in the background. Thus, the unusual texture is still there, but it also doesn't distract us from Merchant's singing.
My favorite song here has got to be the opener, "Can't Ignore the Train," which is what I consider to possess the band's quintessential sound. If you're outside on a cool day and feeling comfortable enough with yourself to dance around with some music, then that's the song you should listen to. Merchant's melodies all sound made-up-on-the-spot to me, but that's one of the main reasons why these guys sound so dang carefree all of the time. Unfortunately, that also means she can be somewhat inconsistent at delivering potent hooks--but at least "Can't Ignore the Train" has its fair share of them.
"Back O' the Moon" is another one of my favorites even though it's pretty much the exact same thing as "Can't Ignore the Train." But I won't criticize them for repeating themselves. How can I? They found such a nice sound, and I want them to mine it as much as they can. They even seem to resort back to that carefree vibe when they're not really trying; "Scorpio Rising" utilizes some darker and grittier guitar, but it turns out to be no match for the inner happiness that's welling out of it.
Despite the huge sonic improvements over their debut, I wouldn't be surprised if longtime fans still consider this to be primitive. Indeed, the guitars don't sound at all like they're made out of crystal, which they do in In My Tribe. It's for that reason I also wouldn't count this among their greatest album's. However, there's one thing that this album has that the others don't: its mild tendency of experimentation. I know, I already said they pretty much cemented their final sound by this release, but they do occasionally try a few things here that I don't think they would have even dared in future albums.
"Just as the Tide Was a Flowing" was an interesting attempt to combine their groove-happy ways with Medieval folk. "Arbor Day," the closing song, is a waltz. ...However, by far the most uncharacteristic piece here is "The Colonial Wing," which actually succeeds at being dark and edgy. To be sure, you'll still hear a trusty old jangle in it, but it's tighter and more violent. If you stick around for the middle, you'll get to hear a hearty smattering of distortion guitar. Merchant also sounds uncharacteristic of herself. Rather than that usual, high-on-life persona, she's singing with some intensity, reminding me a little bit of Janis Joplin.
Despite the "primitiveness" of this album, it clearly deserves to be considered among their classics. I mean, songs like "Can't Ignore the Train," "Scorpio Rising," "Maddox Table," "Back O' the Moon," "Grey Victory," "Cotton Alley," and "Tension Makes a Tangle" are difficult to argue with. Perhaps they're not perfect, but they all leave me with nothing but a big ole smile on my face. I probably wouldn't make this my first 10,000 Maniacs purchase--make it one of their later ones--but if you eventually find these guys to be irresistible, then there's no doubt you'll find The Wishing Chair to be irresistible as well.
Read the track reviews:
The Wishing Chair
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- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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