Customer Reviews

Around the Bend

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album has more in common with Can and Kraftwerk than REM and the dBs. If you are looking for REMjr. you will be disappointed. If you're looking for a tasteful blend of prog rock and the Ventures/Duane Eddy you will be delighted.

BTW 39 minutes was a normal length for an LP in the 80s.

it is very hard to describe this cd. it is really like no other disc I have ever heard. Although I would not really call it jangle pop it makes me think of the turn of the century painting genre known as impressionism. Being from Atlanta I have heard that L.T. has just signed a new recording contract and will release a new disc in the spring of 2000 followed by the release of the long out of print outerspaceship recording. In late 1995 some friends and I saw the band at the Morton theatre in athens and they played pretty and Highland Sweetheart from this cd and it was an incredible show. The new material which made up the bulk of the set was also great. Definitely the best thing to ever come out of athens ga.

REM's Bill Berry had to choose between this band and REM. Financial factors clinched the decision, but this album shows why the artistic decision was much tougher. Mostly instrumentals with playful, interwoven guitar parts, this is an album that I still listen to regularly over a decade later. Pleasant, psychedelic, and groovy.

Love Tractor's 1983 release "Around The Bend" came out at the peak of the jangle pop craze in America. The Athens, GA based foursome was a mainly instrumental group who had connections to other Athens area acts such as Pylon and R.E.M. The strong melodies and guitar/banjo combinations make this album a unique collection of hypnotic tracks that were way ahead of their time. Tracks that stand out are "Highland Sweetheart", "Cutting Corners" and "Paint".

My midsouth cohorts now seem a bit too easily pleased. Havingconvinced me to rush out and snag this alleged gem ... I was expecting quite a bit more. Don't get me wrong--this is a nice album, and I like instrumental rock, but even with LP limitations of '83 they could have thrown in another song (this is 39 min.). I'd never heard of jangle pop, and I'll say I'm now mildly enthusiastic about it. These are tight instranthems that eclipse dittiness, but they do little more. Most lack any real punch or soul, sounding certainly well-rehearsed but thereby limiting emotional response. I was expecting a more prominent banjo and also for not quite so many almost exclusively guitar-driven cuts. One gets the feeling they are being too tidy, holding something back; it would be interesting to hear them "let it all hang out." Basically, I think I would have enjoyed this album more if it had been recorded while the musicians were drunk. Perhaps even live would be preferable.