Middlescence

Amy Rigby | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 15, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Koch Records
• ASIN: B00000AFQ8
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,844 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. All I Want

2. The Summer Of My Wasted Youth

3. Raising The Bar

4. What I Need

5. Calling Professor Longhair

6. Dirty Bridge

7. Ivory Tower

8. 20th Anniversary

9. For New Times' Sake

10. Laboratory Of Love

11. As Is

12. Invisible

13. Bonus Track 1

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Staring down her Fear, September 1, 2000

By 

Gerald D. McGee (Henderson, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Middlescence (Audio CD)

Getting ready for the release of the new album by Amy Rigby. Heard she moved to Nashville. I used to live in her neighborhood in Brooklyn, so I'm curious to hear what effect the move will have had on her music. I was familiar with the first rate material on Diary of a Mod Housewife, and I find this album to be even better. Give it a second chance. Amy spends a great deal of time reflecting on the past. When she does look forward, it seems like there is a lot of dread on her horizon. I think the songs serve as a snapshot of a life awaiting transcendence. I hope she's found it, but even if she hasn't, I bet the new album is going to be way more interesting than 99% of the crap that is currently out there.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT ALBUM!!!, March 31, 2002

By 

E. C Goodstein (Northern CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Middlescence (Audio CD)

I don't disagree with the other reviews of "Middlescence," but I think it's even better than "Diary of a Mod Housewife." This
is country rock that REALLY rocks when she wants to, but also
gets the country themes too. And there are even some jazz
(or New Orleans Dr. Longhair anyway) touches & a couple folkier moments. I think it's one of the best rock AND/OR country albums of the '90s. "The Sugar Tree" is great too-- but it's a bit
more country. This one's a touch more varied IMO.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intimate observations of mid-life single parenthood, January 23, 1999

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Middlescence (Audio CD)

Rigby's debut, "Diary of a Mod Housewife," fueled by her divorce from dB's drummer Will Rigby, It effectively wedded the visceral anger of Alanis Morisette with the pop instincts of Big Star. Her follow-up traces the next step, turning from the remains of her crumbled marriage to the single-parenthood at midlife. She struggles with an empty canvas that has boundries proscribed by work and children.

Rigby captures both the lingering bitterness ("All I Want") and wistful memories ("The Summer of My Wasted Youth") of the-life-left-behind. Her present tense is a jumble of pressures, from keeping oneself emotionally intact, to juggling children, finances, and a love-life. She struggles with dating, singing to her children, "What I need / For you to disappear / But still be here / When he goes home." She ponders her 30-something invisibilty and dreams of escaping from the soap opera of her life to a fairytale world of happy endings.

Rigby doesn't so much wear her heart on her sleeve as strap it down for a dissection and probe. The results are quite illuminating, if not always comfortable.