Hope Chest

10,000 Maniacs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 5, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002H8D
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,700 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

10000 MANIACS Hope Chest (1990 US 14-track CD album featuring The Fredonia Recordings 1982-1983 young girl in confirmation dress picture sleeve with deletion cut in spine)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Maniacs' Music: A "Must Have", June 7, 2001

By 

Timothy J. Slivinski - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hope Chest (Audio CD)

"Hope Chest" collects the early, independently released tracks that 10,000 Maniacs recorded before signing with Elektra. The mix of styles from post-punk to new wave to neo-reggae to dance beat is fascinating in itself. Equally interesting is the groups' subject matter in its songs: a painter ("Poor De Chirico"); a bullfighter ("Death of Manolete"); atomic boms and/or warfare ("Orange" and "Grey Victory"); multiple personality disorder ("Katrina's Fair") and two tracks putting anti-war British poet Wilfred Owens' verse to music ("The Latin One" and "Anthem For Doomed Youth"). It is clear from the very start that the Maniacs never intended to build a career on catchy pop melodies about love. And for the most part, they remained true to that vision in their music. The sound is a little more raw, a little rougher; Natalie's vocals sound a bit immature at times, but she was only in high school when some of the tracks were recorded. The polish of later CD's is missing, and that is exactly what makes "Hope Chest" so engaging. "Planned Obsolescence," the CD's opening track, may be the most amazing song the group ever recorded. With its loopy new wave sound and its insistent beat and Natalie's echoing lyrics, it still asks a profound question: Can science and fact ever truly replace faith and belief? This CD has become more of a favorite the longer I have owned it. If it is not in your collection, it is an amazing document of a tremendously talented group at the very beginning of its all too brief career.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early 10KM, August 23, 1999

By 

P. B. Pereira (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hope Chest (Audio CD)

This is really interesting stuff. There seems to be a lot of different influences here, while later 10KM releases have a more concise feel, as a whole. Hope Chest is more varied. I'm not going to pretend I know what those sounds are (except for the obvious reggae influence in several of the songs), but I do know there're a lot of them. It's the sound of a band experimenting and it sounds good. There's a certain raw edge here and the lack of production values only adds to that energy.

However, as some have noted, this might just be for diehard 10KM fans. The main reason for this, I think, is that the sound and the songwriting are a little rough around the edges; meaning, a lot of what Natalie sings is slurred mostly because the words aren't always timed perfectly to the music. The effect is rather as if Natalie is singing in a foreign language (which she actually is, when the odd Latin phrase pops up). You can see how she slurs many words and phrases when you try to follow the lyrics on the lyric sheet. This could possibly put off the casual listener.

My suggestion for anyone wanting to sample the Maniacs is to start with The Wishing Chair (my favorite) or In My Tribe, then on to Blind Man's Zoo and Our Time in Eden (and then possibly on to Natalie's solos), then back to Hope Chest. I think it could be something of an experience to hear Hope Chest after hearing their more finely tuned records. Well, it was for me, anyway. It's also interesting, I think, to compare the four songs on Hope Chest ("Grey Victory", "Tension[Makes a Tangle]", "Daktari" & "My Mother the War") to their rerecorded equivalents on Wishing Chair.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice collection for the hard core fan, October 24, 2004

By 

Michael Beaumont (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hope Chest (Audio CD)

You really have to be a true fan to enjoy all this. It shows the great song writing ideas that were going on in the early years, but also displays a lot of inexperience and not the greatest recording quality.