Customer Reviews

Shot

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know why this album has such a bad reputation. Yes, it's the first studio LP without Steve Albini, so it sounds different; however, it's still a really great album. The 1-2-3 punch of "Thumper", "Blue Shot", and "Thumbscrews" (one of my favorite TJL songs) can hold up to any other album of theirs. The rest of the album is good, with only a few songs i dont really care for, hence the 4 stars. With Goat and Liar, all of the songs kick ass. Just because theres 2 or 3 songs that are fairly mediocre, doesn't mean this should be shunned. It's way better than pretty much any other popular band of the time. Oh, and "Skull Of A German"'s guitar line kicks my ass.

"He wants to know if he can run his fingers through my hair

He also wants to know if he can hop around my hole

Wants to see my skirt rise abuxt my hairless thigh"

"Mailman" is singer David Yow's tale of a woman being stalked by some creepy bastard who likes to send her little love notes through the mail. This is the kind of thing the Jesus Lizard excels at - making the listener just uncomfortable enough that any laughter that the odd lyrics might encourage are questioned as to whether it's because of the humor of them - or a nervous reaction to something disturbing, like when we laugh at excessive gore in a movie.

I question my reaction everytime I hear the song's signature line - "He sure as hell can't touch me." Spat with such acidic disgust that you know the female persona Yow takes on for the tune says it more out of self-reassurance than as a statement of fact. The terror of the song is that nothing has happened - yet. The only thing she knows for certain is that she doesn't want the "Mailman" touching her - whether he abides her wishes is left unanswered, in fact, whether he even does anything more than send creepy letters is unknown. The song is a snippet of a "now" when the woman in the song receives yet another letter that one can only imagine has her darting about in fear, checking with shaky hands that doors and windows are locked, that nothing in the house has been disturbed, that this man hasn't somehow infiltrated the safety of her home. We never know anything but what she's feeling and fearing while reading his words - how he wants to "run his fingers through [her] hair" and "hop around [her] hole." No - all we know for sure is that "the word he uses, the thought he thinks is getting under my skin."

One of my favorite musical elements of the Jesus Lizard is that greasy bassline that permeates everything they do. It leaves a slime wherever it slithers and in the case of "Mailman" it just makes an already odd little tune that much more perverse - but really, what Jesus Lizard song isn't perverted and greasy? That's exactly why I love them. David Yow wasn't afraid to write more-than-disturbing lyrics, and the band wasn't afraid to create music that perfectly backs it up.

If you're looking for a rock album that twists the usual power trio format into a taut, angular whirl, look no further.

If on the other hand, you have followed the Jesus Lizard and are inclined to rank their albums, you may find some faults. But to the uninitiated, this is punk-metal bliss. Fans seem to universally agree on this album, scenesters tend to diss it.

You knew what you were going to get with the Albini-produced albums. This one was a gratifying sonic surprise.

For one thing, their sound finally gets some robustness, while eschewing the too-slick sheen of their final album "Blue." Songs like "Thumbscrews" are cathartic both live and on album, and you can finally crank them up without it sounding like mud. Very pleasant mud, to be sure, but lacking the crystalline crunch and nice round growly bass of "Shot."

Additionally, it's their last recorded outing with drum-savant Mac McNeilly.

Supposedly this isn't as good as their earlier work, which is amazing since this rocks so hard. It's pretty aggressive, and what I think of as punk-metal. Imagine if Tool was more punk, or Fugazi was more metal. It also sounds better the more I hear it. "Thumper", "Blue Shot", and "Thumbscrews" are all sweet, as is "Skull Of A German". The album is hard and heavy, and the singer has a great style. I think "Shot" will go great with your next shot.

Yeah, I know that's a controversial statement. All Jesus Lizard's albums are really great, I like especially "Goat" and "Liar" besides this. But there are two things which make this the best The Jesus Lizard album for me:

1) Its sonic quality. As other reviewers have commented before me. Yes, the production makes the music sound more "mainstream", but is that necessarily a bad thing? After all, if you want the Albini sound, you can always listen to other Albini bands. The Jesus Lizard evolved into something unique with the cleaner production of this record.

2) It has the first The Jesus Lizard song I ever heard, "Good Riddance" (yes, I am younger than many other TJL enthusiasts). I got hooked immediately. I had to have the whole record. And what a record it was! Even today, there are 8 songs off this album on my "The Jesus Lizard" playlist in iTunes. It's a tie with "Goat", which also has 8 songs there (the whole album except "Karpis", which I have for some reason never liked that much). But this was the first one, and it still works for me now, 14 years later.

Yeah, Shot is a radical departure from every single one of the various styles that tJL have affected throughout their career, as well as their major-label debut (Show doesn't count) and first attempt at recording without Albini, so I was a tad skeptical. A year and a half later though, I'm convinced; Shot is every bit as good as anything else they've ever produced, just in a different way. The clipped, oddly precise intensity of the first two songs and the abrasive torpedo that is "Thumbscrews" are the record's clear high points, but there's plenty of other moments of greatness to be found amid the weird range of sounds tJL experiment with here. A few songs don't quite work, but there's been a few songs that didn't quite work on almost every tJL release up to this point; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Basically, just ignore the hipsters and buy the stupid thing; you'll probably end up liking it as much as Down, at least.

This is my favorite album by my favorite band,so I guess that makes it(in my eye's) the greatest album of all time!
The odd time signatures have always been there but the innovation of songwriting, in the reproducible live sense,peaked here. I still love Blue and all the Albini produced stuff but the atmosphere on Shot is really quite unique. No other "noise" band can touch this! Listen to the drumming on "Thumbscrews", do you think the drummer of the Go Go's(not that Gina Shock isn't cute) or the Smiths could play that all the way through as solidly and as hard as Mac? HA!
You either love these guys or hate them, and there may never be a "rock band" as creative and commercially in-accessible as this.
There's a reason why Kurt Cobain gave these guys so much respect.

I don't care what anyone else says about this album, it just simply rocks! Trephination is a creative masterpiece! More beautiful than barbie . . . This album really gets the creative juices flowing. Maybe more polished than previous albums, but there's a definite genuine quality to the music that's just downwright inspiring. Just give it a good listen and you'll se what I mean. It'll take you away . . . This CD remains one of my favorites.

I have never seen The Jesus Lizard live, which as I understand it is quite an experience, but their albums are one terrifying, brutal but equally melodic and beautiful experience. Somehow I think David Yow's has quite a talented voice, because if you can find one person who can go to different levels of blood-curdling anger, you will buy me the entire Lizard disc catalogue. "Shot" is a middling Lizard album, but has a few gems stuck in between.

I am a huge Jesus Lizard freak and I wanted to Love this album. But when I first listened to it I was very disappointed, Pissed off really. A few of the songs stuck in my head "Good Riddence" so I went back for more. It started to grow on me like a bad virus. Nobody else around me really got it but then I don't hang around any Jesus Lizard fans anyway (they are kind of stinky), so what did I expect. The guitar was weak and the drums muted and where was that thumping bass I've grown to Love. It was there very layered and not quite as loud an almost matured sound from a maturing band. Yow vocals still amaze and frighten. Their older stuff is better but this is still very good.