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

(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

moved out of my parents' place in crystal lake, IL to chicago a couple months before this album came out, believe it or not!

my bank teller's name is Krystal Lake

I should listen to this today, it's been a minute.

it's shining like a chandelier

the opening track when it kicks in is such a spine tingling moment - those synthetic strings and drums, so perfect

and this is like the southern equivalent to ok computer-kid a really, both are good in their own ways

central valley equivalent - but yeah definitely. i don't think it has quite the back bench of great songs, or the sonic variety, as ok computer. i listen to it more like an overall mood thing out of which key songs really come into focus.

oh come on it's obviously better than ok computer

i'd listen to this over okc most days

It's twinned with Van Occupanther for me. Broken robots/stonemasons staring into the wastes of modernity.

I'm with Rod Steel above. I listened to this loads in 2001, but not any more. I don't think it has aged so well. And I can't shake the feeling with Grandaddy that all their songs plod along in the same way. Off putting. Their drummer had it easy!

I mean they tapped into a vibe and concept and just kinda luxuriated there most of the time, which is as good an approach as any.

I find the 'Jed the Humanoid' songs pretty much unlistenable. They certainly proved they had nothing left in them after this came out. The album that came out a couple years ago was more of the same; it even had another 'Jed the Humanoid' song!

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