The Sophtware Slump - One of the best second albums ever?

"jed's other poem" is really creepy, it's sort of where the album's theme bubbles over from half-serious sadness into real misery (which is then continued into "miner")

if i could, i would vote for the last two tracks together. as a single 10-minute opus, they're Grandaddy's finest hour by far. as it is, I'll just vote for miner. what a song.

all of the songs grew on me a lot over a long time....chartsengrafs grew on me the most, i love the contrasts in that song

LJ OTM - The last two tracks are one. I never play one without the other and So You'll Aim Toward The Sky has been known to reduce me to a blubbering heap.

But if I have to pick one track it would be Jed's Other Poem.

(I dig this album out and play it to death about once every 6 months. It still doesn't grow stale)

You saw it coming. :)

No I didn't

wow, i was only talking the other day about this album. it came out at just the right time for me; one of those records where time and space and context just all come together perfectly. there are some obvious easy targets for best song (he's simple he's dumb, miner, jed's other poem), but i don't think any can work without the others, which was being touched on with the miner/so you'll aim combination.

(to expand, i don't think by any means this is an objectively perfect album, but subjectively... see also my relationship with eels)

Crystal Lake! I love this album, too.

I would like this album, and Grandaddy more generally, a lot more with a different singer.

Grandaddy, Flaming Lips, Polyphonic Spree, Mercury Rev and yet another handful of similar bands would all be better with a different singer. They are all fucking great anyway, but the world doesn't need 10 Neil Youngs.

hell no, Lytle's vocals define a LOT of the sound, Grandaddy would be nowhere as charming without them

agreed

thirded.

been listening to this today. HOLY FUCK, it is masterful.

initial thoughts: "he's simple, he's dumb ... " won't be getting my vote.

"hewlett's daughter" might, you know. it just might. for so many wonderful reasons.

but i've not got all the way through yet ... the bus journey home tonight will remind me just how great the final two tracks are.

(wonder if i'll do what i did seven years ago and listen to it so much i then put it away for another seven years?)

i like their christmas song

so. "miner at the dial-a-view", innit? holy shit, what an absolutely awesome song. i love going back to albums i used to love but haven't listened to ... the little thrill of knowing what to expect. mind, there are moments of such beauty in that song as to make me weep afresh. or something.

"hewlett's daughter" would be my second choice.

i am extremely drunk (like poor jed) but i am now saying that the last two tracks are the absolute pinnacle of the band's career. when she is like "good luck" and he says "thank you" it is one of the most sincere, heartwarming moments in modern pop. ten-minute track, i'm telling you. whole album is awesome. last two transcendent. grimly on the (or some) money. jeez i am smashed.

i am extremely drunk (like poor jed)

louis, don't fizzle and pop or anything. or indeed just stop.

or, for that matter, write any jed-style poetry ;)

tried to sing it funny like beck

alone in the park

(jed is awes, why did he have to die)

it's a salutary tale for us all, my friend. especially if any of us happen to be robots.

i imagine this album sounds awesome when you're drunk. i should try it.

i am listening to it right now, very much inebriated. wonderful.

like i say: no fizzing/popping (or indeed poppage)/poetry etc.

yea I need to put this on.

i like this crew of Grandaddy lovers we have on this thread. basically the same 3 or 4 people have kept it going.

well maybe not, as i scroll up it's quite diverse

in any case i like to see this album get love

fizzing/popping happened earlier, now i have mere drift into sleep. poppage a dim and distant joy. poetry strictly a thing of sobriety and introspection. only thought that i can muster now: 'PLEASE MAY I NOT CHOKE ON MY OWN VOM', that and 'grandaddy are awes'.

it's a classic 90's album.

i had a legendary teacher when i was younger, he was an awesome guy who took us for summer courses, his favourite bands were the kinks and grandaddy. how, i do not know. the way grandaddy sang about broken machines...this guy thought it was the most beautiful thing. he may have had a point.

it's not a 90's album though :/

it's a classic noughties album!

dammit it's 2000 isn't it. still feels like the late 90's.

i'm about to go to bed, forgive me any error. it's still classic.

only thought that i can muster now: 'PLEASE MAY I NOT CHOKE ON MY OWN VOM'

hahahah god i nearly choked on my own tongue laughing at this.

louis's teacher OTM: the notion/sound of dying machinery is something i find heartbreakingly evocative. cf "ibm 1401: a user's manual", which literally made me weep when i first heard it (and still can).

yeah. actually, 'teacher' might be a bit inaccurate, as i say, it was a really liberal, relaxed extra-curricular summer-course he took us for. he was a teacher in term-time, but i only knew him as a friend/role-model/awesome dude. who showed us grandaddy videos. which were awesome.

i've been playing this album start-to-finish for a coupla days now (thanks to ILM); this play is nearing the end of 'the crystal lake', as good a time as any to go to bed. the problem with, say, bimble, is that he reaches this point and keeps on posting. not that i have anything against this...bimble is awesome, but i really need rest. vom potential has been reduced (with a few toilet trips)...so i think i'll survive. night everyone!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

So You'll Aim Toward the Sky 0

!

good to see "hewlett's daughter" getting a decent rep. surprised "miner" just got five.

Well, like I said, I wanted to vote for SYATTS along with MATDAV, but being forced to only choose one, I went with the 'better half', i.e. the more song-y of the two. (SYATTS works as an album-closer far better than it works on its own.)

Hewlett's Daughter has taken AGES to grow on me. I used to think it was out of place, too simple, too obviously 'pop', but that chorus has won me round after many, many listens.

i love this album and took my sign in name from it. i dont think i voted but i would have voted for simple dumb pilot - seconds comes Broken Household Appliance National Forest.

"i called you a liar, but how right you were"

Deluxe Edition, y'all.

http://jasonlytle.com/2011/08/the-sophtware-slump-deluxe-edition/

Geir... otm? If "they" dredge up a musical artefact dated back to approx two millennia AC, from whatever remains of civilization, let it be this instead of Kid fucking A.

I'm curious, LBI, what brought you to revive this thread? Did you recently re-listen to it or something? Kinda always fascinated by that impulse.

It's funny, I have strong nostalgic feelings for this album - listened to this album constantly back in 2001 or 2002, but ever since then, I've cooled on it quite a bit, save for a few songs.

So, so classic, along with a lot of the stuff that Grandaddy released before it

and after it!

birds come

and then they go

I'm curious, LBI, what brought you to revive this thread? Did you recently re-listen to it or something? Kinda always fascinated by that impulse.

It's funny, I have strong nostalgic feelings for this album - listened to this album constantly back in 2001 or 2002, but ever since then, I've cooled on it quite a bit, save for a few songs.

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Wednesday, September 26, 2018 2:51 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hadn't listened to it in years but suddenly 'The Crystal Lake' popped up in my mind yesterday so I gave it a spin! It still holds up great imo, it's a near perfect album/song cycle.

birds come

and then they go

otm

birds come

and then they go

― alpine static, Wednesday, 26 September 2018 06:32 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can't use what i can't abuse

and i can't stop when it comes to you

is there a thread for great pre-verse mumblings

fire it up sonny

I guess I never gave Sumday and The Fambly Cat a fair shake tbh. I can only bring to mind "Now It's On" and "Where I'm Anymore"

i can sing the entire chorus of "el caminos in the west" rn. i haven't heard that song in ten years probably

yeah this is their best record but i think my POX would only have ~3 songs from here

qualmsley, McHenry Co represent

sumday is a good album y'all are talkin out of your asses

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 19:01 (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imo, their clear best

sumday was in the final batch of like a dozen CDs i had left before i abandoned physical media

i'm a big fan of following up a sprawling masterpiece with a really solid straightforward pop album. sumday is a very good version of that

a solid straightforward sprawling pop masterpiece tbf

lol i forgot about the synthetic orchestra stabs in the chorus of "now it's on"

what a delightful song

those orchestra stabs are my favorite part of the song! grandaddy's main obstacle with me was that "solid" always teetered on the edge of "stolid" - that midtempo chug and dreary subject matter could make them feel very samey. i kinda longed for even like a sorta mediocre thrashy rocker like "electioneering" to pop up and thus give more definition to the songs around it, if that makes sense.

sumday is great yeah xposts

Sumday was the one that really made the music media take note. But it was samey. Not as strong as Sophtware

I guess I just assumed that anyone who liked vintage Grandaddy also checked out Jason Lyttle's solo album, Dept. of Disappearance, released in 2012. It's just as good as peak Grandaddy, imo.

anyone else check out the piano-only version of this album that lytle released recently? underscores how strong the bones of these songs are and a pretty great piano performance to boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndnfFi8WL9M

Yeah I loved this. Ending was killer too

New version of Chartsengrafs is of course incredible

crystal lake is good i wish they would put out a greatest hits so i do not have to buy every album for just 1 song i like on it!

I'll pretend I didn't read that..

The Sophtware Slump is a masterpiece from start to finish. Think Voodoo eloquently explains why the piano version just works so well; because the bare bones are so good, too. Def a modest highlight this year.

xzanfar otm

i believe they want you to give in

harsh

Underneath the Weeping Willow 0

i believe they want you to give in

it was always epically sad but i'm not sure i could listen to this song again right now.

this album is 25 years old

i get in a big SS kick whenever i'm driving through Vermont - i used to have a summer job mowing properties and one of the places was near Crystal Lake in Barton.

this album is 25 years old

lol when i saw them a couple years later i was like 'what's with the cats' (and i like cats)

a lot of ilx0rs seem to hate this record but geir and imago are into it, so you know it's cool

I loved this album but haven't heard in years. I lived in the Mission district in SF at the time but didn't know them, so missed that. I think I bought this record at Mod Lang.

i get in a big SS kick whenever i'm driving through Vermont

Phrasing.

italian leather winter games

inspired by the duraflames

chatboards full of folks who flake