Customer Reviews

Hang Time

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Me, being a avid fan of soul asylum after yes, sadly enough from their 2 breakout albums, GDU, and LYDLS. I probably first really picked up on them '96 or '97. Little did i know that they would be one of my favorite bands.

Hang Time supports this notion of a favorite band simply b/c this is an excellent album. Let's start w/ the basics:

Sometime to Return: this was recorded on the best hits album, which is where I first heard the song. It ranks up w/ one of their best efforts as any single. I dunno if it even made it big as a single nonetheless, it's a classic for any SA fan.

Cartoon: also on the best hits album, sort of brings me back to my childhood. it's the kind of song that the more you listen to, the better it gets, so fans...keep on listening to cartoon!

Endless Farewell: I think this is the best song on the album. It's the longest song at 4min and 21 secs, but it's sort of like a testimony of breakup song. it's a song you listen to when life is a little down. a rainy day song.

Marionette: This is quite a playful song. SA isn't known to really to create much seriousness into the lyrics of a song. but the deeper meaning is quite something else. take a listen to this song a few more times to get the full meaning, i think you'll appreciate the band a little more.

Well, the rest of the songs, although short and the typical early grunge sound of SA, generally tie the previous songs together to make the album better. twiddly dee is a fast little ditty of maybe a country tone to it. little too clean can almost be on the made to be broken album, if it wasn't for the little melodic guitar solo in between lyrics which i think is the turning point from fast hard grunge punk to substance songs.

Give it a try. Hang Time is definately worth your time if you are even remotely interested in soul asylum, or even if you just want to try some of roots of grunge, check them out!

In my humble opinion, this is the best Soul Asylum album that they made. Long before the commercial hit of Runaway Train, there was this hard rocking album. One of the best live bands ever as well (if not for the Who they'd be the best!). I hope the best for there new album on the soon on the way!

I bought this the year it came out in '88 after hearing it played in a music store. It's probably the best thing they ever did. Been waiting for them to match it but SA went gradually down hill after this. They caught on to mainstream audiences with Grave Dancer's Union and the bland radio friendly MTV sellout "Runaway Train" and it did em in. But Hang Time is great, highly recommend this lost classic.

After buying the newest release, The Silver Lining, and seeing them live in August of this year, I had a vague recollection of this cd. I seemed to remember all of my guy friends having it, playing it in their cars, and me NOT liking it very much. Curiosity getting the better of me, I bought a copy to see if it was the cd I remembered. Yes, in fact, it was. But with one big difference. No longer a slave to the hair bands of 1988, when this disk came out, I fell in love with it immediately. It suffers some from minimal production, tinny, little bass, and a serious issue with guitars completely drowning out the vocals. (There's a great counterpoint vocal in Cartoon that is all but inaudible and completely indecipherable.) There are strong songs on this disk (Sometime to Return, Cartoon, Beggars and Choosers) that deserve better than they got, and of course there is some attitudinal racket. Soul Asylum was big on great songwriting peaks followed quickly by a tumble into a sonic abyss, but overall it's a great record. Not without its jokes, Twiddly Dee is a mosh squaredance, and Put the Bone In is...I don't know what it is. Funny is what it is.
I love this cd now. I'd love to see some of these songs get some new treatment, just to see what they could be, although I've heard some of them live and they're just amazing. If you have never heard anything pre-Grave Dancers, pick this up. And pick up the followup as well. Great music, missed by the world.

This album displays all that is great about Soul Asylum. Catchy hooks, raucous guitar, and clever lyrics. The guitar interplay between Dan Murphy and Dave Pirner is phenomonal, and their talent becomes even more evident live. Their shows from the late 80's/early 90's are still some of the best I've ever seen. This is the quintessential guitar rock record. I remember something Dave Pirner said in an interview, as Soul Asylum toiled in obscurity back in the early 90's, "We had guitars first, so we win". Amen.

"Hang Time" is one of Soul Asylum's best albums. It has the raw energy that is just the aura of the band, and which is unfortunately lacking in their latest effort "Candy From a Stranger".

It's got a hint of the kind of music that they would write on "Grave Dancer's Union", but it's more similar to "Horse". The music on "Hang Time" isn't especially heavy, but don't expect to find the same kind of music as on "Candy From a Stranger" and "Let Your Dim Light Shine", either. Both of these albums are great too, but "Hang Time" really shines.

I would say that "Hang Time" shows the transition that Soul Asylum went through from punk to rock. I guess I prefer them as a rock band than as a punk band. The work they produced in this CD is better than any of their earlier efforts, though there were some great ones on those too, like "Closer to the stars" ("While You Were Out") and "Never really been" ("Made To Be Broken").

"Hang Time" is an excellent rock album that you shouldn't miss out on. "Sometime to Return" and "Cartoon" are excellent if you're feeling depressed. "Endless Farewell" is poignant and just beautiful. I love the humour in some of the songs like "Standing in the Doorway", "Ode" and "Twiddly Dee", - they always manage to make me smile.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, if you don't have it, get it, get it, get it!

This is one of the best of the late eighties alternative bands along with Husker Du, the Replacements, and R.E.M. (although R.E.M. sold out at the end of the decade). This album is large! That's the only way I know to describe the sound of it. Layers and layers of guitars and vocal harmonies. "Cartoon" is a favorite of mine. It sounds like Crosby, Stills, and Nash or the Byrds plugged into a room full of Marshall stacks! "Endless Farewell" is a beautiful ballad that expresses one's dispair when they are faced with saying goodbye to someone (or something) that they know it is best for them to leave behind. "Sometime to Return" is the should've been number one hit of 1988. I still can't figure out why the radio stations didn't pick this one up. If they had it would have definately propelled Soul Asylum to superstar status. The music is very well produced. It's raw, it's ugly, it's what rock and roll is and should still be. The lyrics are suprisingly deep and insightful for such a young man as frontman Dave Pirner. EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT. Any self respecting rock and roll fan should AT LEAST give this vulgarly overlooked work or art a listen.

I can't agree with the reviewer who said that anything the Mats did is better than Hang Time, and this is coming from a HUGE Replacements fan. Soul Asylum were spottier than the Mats, but this album holds its own with anything from Westerberg and Co. It's darker, heavier, and more ecclectic than anything the Replacements were doing at the time (or even close to it), and there's simply not a bad song on the album.

Is it the first grunge album, though? You be the judge.

Recorded as they were shifting from punk to something a little more musical, there's just not a bad track on this album. If you like the Foo Fighters or that type of, what to they call it now: Modern Rock? This is gonna do it for you. Seriously, just listen to the track "Standing in the Doorway:" Everything Dave Grohl has ever done is contained within. If you want a new copy of this, there's a compilation album called "Welcome to the Minority" that bundles this and their other A&M Records output.

This is a superior record to all that followed. They were signed to A&M by someone who had landed the major-label gig, and were allowed to sound like themselves. After this album, the guy was fired and they were not properly supported by the label. In fact, the next album "...And The Horse" was very good but didn't get the proper promotional push, so it didn't sell well, despite great songs being all over it. When they submitted the NEXT album, "Grave Dancers' Union" the label balked and said "I don't hear a single", so they were dumped. Sony picked that album up and "Runaway Train" became their biggest hit ever.
Which leads back to this album: It was produced loud and not smoothed over like the ones that would follow. It rocks and you will roll with delight when you blast it out loud.