Customer Reviews

Spiderland

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A previous reviewer said that, and I don't think truer words could be said about this album.

Back in 1991, I was writing for a fanzine. I'd become friends with one of the other writers, and he was the one who generally got first pick of the many pre-release copies that were sent in for review. Whenever I went over to his place he'd turn me on to stuff from the latest batch that he thought was worthy of our attention. One day he seemed particularly excited and said "This record is... it's... You need to hear this." He put Spiderland on and the first song, Breadcrumb Trail, began playing. After a couple of minutes I became restless and so he skipped to the next song. Another couple minutes later, to the next. As he turned the record over to side 2, I asked something like "So... is that all they do?" He deflated and said "Man, you don't get it." And he was right, I didn't. Back in those days I was listening almost exclusively to heavy, thunderous, scary stuff like the Melvins, Jesus Lizard, Helmet, Laughing Hyenas, etc. Meanwhile, much of the music on Spiderland is barely half a step above pure silence. Lyrics are muttered or whispered. The crystal clean guitars sound like their strings are made of delicate spun glass that would shatter if strummed too hard. This music was so incredibly subdued and low key, it simply did not compute for me. But it did for him, and it seemed like any time I went over to his place after that, he was always listening to Spiderland. I made it a habit to basically ignore it as background ambiance.

A few weeks or maybe months later, I was browsing around in a mom & pop record shop. The clerk was playing something on the stereo. It was very familiar and pleasing to my ears, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I had to ask him to find out that it was, of course, Spiderland. It had taken some time, but it had finally managed to worm its way into my brain and into my heart. That was when I bought my own copy. It's been somewhere in my All Time Top 5 ever since.

I love Slint to pieces. This record is so unique on so many different levels. Words may not do justice here, but i always think of "Spiderland" as a concept album: that being a monumental night terror one night.

You are falling asleep at the beginning, and by the end of "Breadcrumb Trail," you are in R.E.M. sleep.

...Now begins the nightmare ("Nosferatu Man")

...The night-terror takes hold of your body ("Don, Aman")

...and now the aftershocks ("Washer")

..you reconcile your inner-demons and begin to wake from the night ("For Dinner...)

...finally, you wake from the dream and your life will never be the same ever again ("Good Morning, Captain")

I still find nuances that I have not yet experienced in this record. Oh, another plus, one of the best album covers/promo photos ever

Slint are the forefathers of Math-Rock, or whatever you want to call the Shellac-Fugazi-Jesus Lizard-Clutch sound. If you are a fan of these bands, get all three of Slint's releases. Trust me--after one listen, you'll wonder why you waited so long! Everything the other reviewers say is true, including Steve Albini himself. This CD is, in a word, perfect.

I will say this: Spiderland affected producer Steve Albini so deeply, he formed another one of his "crazy, self-indulgent" bands and based it primarily on the foundation of Slint's sound. He called this new band SHELLAC. Shellac's first CD, "At Action Park," almost sounds like Spiderland part II, ("Bosche's dick" is a song about Slint's sound guy; they also had help from Slint techy Jennifer Hartman) as Steve and his band mates recreate and nearly pick-up where Slint left off after their 1992 break up.

Shellac (and other bands like it) are influenced so deeply by Slint, their recordings almost sounds like an homage. But don't call Shellac posers or copy-cats; the members of Slint were playing hard core and punk in the mid-80's, as was Steve Albini and his bands Big Black and Rapeman (which coincidentally included Jesus Lizard's bass player in its line-up). In fact, these artists are so closely and simultaneously linked, where else will you find a label claiming analog recordings rule? Only on a Slint or Big Black recording, my friend.

Unheard of by many, revered by almost all those that own it, Slint's second (and last) album is regarded as one of the most influential alternative records ever released.

Brian McMahan's primarily spoken vocals offer a haunting juxtaposition to David Pajo's (later of Tortoise and Zwan) jaggedly ornate guitar playing, with the lyrics seemingly having little connection to the stop-start syncopation of the instrumental. From McMahan's tale of a ride on a roller-coaster with a gypsy fortune teller at a carnival in Spiderland's opener 'Breadcrumb Trail' to his reworking of Coleridge's opus The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ('Good Morning, Captain'), at the album's close, Slint's final work runs the gamut of marginal human experience, abstracted against a backdrop of jazz time signatures and 'spidery' guitars, to create a stifling air of impending doom. For all that however, 'Washer' is one of the most startlingly beautiful elegies committed to record.

Sexy, claustrophobic, unashamedly arty and conceptual, Spiderland is considered by many to be the first true 'post-rock' album, following their Steve Albini-recorded 'post-hardcore' debut, Tweez (1989).

Wow. I can't emphazise enough how good Slint's Spiderland actually is. I know that sounds like overblown fanboy gushing, and it probably is, but hear me out. Released in 1992, Spiderland was forgotten amidst the waves of Seattle grunge, and that's too bad, for this is an incredibly unique work.

This Louisville, Kentucky quartet was once a hardcore punk outfit, though you would never realize it by listening to this album. The guitars are spidery, the tempos slow and methodical, and the vocalist recites muted spoken word in the darkened recesses. The arrangements are somewhat spare and repetitious on first listen, yet there is an underlying mathematical structure to them--the buildups are truly staggering in their power. Overall, the sound is distant, dark, and vaguely unsettling. This album conveys the sound of an overcast and windy autumn night, the leaves rustling in the trees, the fog rolling in. Delicate and meloncholy, yet shadowy and intense at the same time.

Spiderland rewards a patient listener. The songs are extended somewhat, hovering in between five to almost nine minutes. The chiming guitars of the opener Breadcrumb Trail begin the journey, followed by the wonderfully creepy Nosferatu Man, probably the most aggressive track on the album. Don, Aman is a moody piece full of whispered lyrics and strummed guitars that ominously build and build, until a wave of distortion breaks through as if to signify something dramatic and terrible has happened. Washer, the longest track, is a downbeat and poignant song full of yearning and emotionally naked lyrics. This is not "emo"--this is way more powerful and moving than any whinery that the likes of Conor Oberst can muster up. "Wash yourself in your tears, and build your church on the strength of your faith.."

For Dinner.. is an instrumental. While it is not the strongest track on the album, it serves as a breather for the finale Good Morning, Captain, one of the most emotionally intense pieces of music I've ever heard. The way the singer whispers toward the end, "I'm trying to find my way home..I'm sorry, and I miss you," followed by a dramatic crescendo and his cries of "I miss you!"--it leaves a pit in my stomach. Every time. Sounds cliche, I know, but it must be heard to be believed.

Although later post-rock bands such as Tortoise, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and Explosions In The Sky have attempted to replicate the power of this album, nothing can beat the original. Spiderland is pure emotion set to music, and one of the most powerful records of the '90s. Calling it "essential" is an understatement.

With over 70 reviews of this i don't think there's anything i could say which hasn't already been said. So, here's the review Steve Albini wrote about it way back in 1991 :

Since about 1980, America has been host to an ever-increasing parasitic infestation of rock bands of ever-dwindling originality. It seems there is no one left on the continent with an aspiration to lay guitar that hasn't formed a band and released a record. And that record sounds a little bit like Dinosaur Jr.

Trust me on this; all but maybe three of those records are pure bulls**t.

My primary association with rock music is that I am a fan of it, though listening to the aforementioned nearly killed that. In its best state, rock music invigorates me, changes my mood, triggers introspection or envelopes me with sheer sound. Spiderland does all those things, simultaneously and in turns, more than any records I can think of in five years.

Spiderland is, unfortunately, Slint's swansong, the band having succumbed to the internal pressures which eventrually punctuate all bands' biographies. It's an amazing record though, and no one still capable of being moved by rock music should miss it. In 10 years it will be a landmark and you'll have to scramble to buy a copy then. Beat the rush.

Slint formed in 1986 as an outlet and pastime for four friends from Louisville, Kentucky. Their music was strange, wholly their own, sparse and tight. What immediately set them apart was their economy and precision. Slint was that rare band willing to play just one or two notes at a time and sometimes nothing at all. Their only other recording, 1989's Tweez hints at their genius, but only a couple of the tracks have anything like the staying power of Spiderland.

Spiderland is a majestic album, sublime and strange, made more brilliant by its simplicity and quiet grace. Songs evolve and expand from simple statements that are inverted and truncated in a manner that seems spontaneous, but is so pricise and emphatic that it must be intuitive or orchestrated or both.

Straining to find a band to compare them with, I can only think of two, and Slint doesn't sound anything like either of them. Structurally and in tone, they recall Television circa Marquee Moon and Crazy Horse, whose simplicity they echo and whose style they most certainly do not.

To whom would Pere Ubu or Chrome have been compared in 1972? Forgive me, I am equally clueless.

Slint's music has always been primarily instrumental, and Spiderland isn't a radical departure, but the few vocals are among the most pungent of any album around. When I first heard Brian McMahan whisper the pathetic words to "Washer", I was embarrased for him. When I listened to the song again, the content eluded me and I was staggered by the sophistication and subtle beauty of the phrasing. The third time, the story made me sad nearly to tears. Genius.

Spiderland is flawless. The dry, unembellished recording is so revealing it sometimes feels like eavesdropping. The crystalline guitar of Brian McMahan and the glassy, fluid guitar of David Pajo seem to hover in space directly past the listener's nose. The incredibly precise-yet-instinctive drumming has the same range and wallop it would in your living room.

Only two other bands have meant as much to me as Slint in the past few years and only one of them, The Jesus Lizard, have made a record this good. We are in a time of midgets: dance music, three varieties of simple-minded hard rock genre crap, soulless-crooning, infantile slogan-studded rap and ball-less balladeering. My instincts tell me the dry spell will continue for a while- possibly until the bands Slint will inspire reach maturity. Until then, play this record and kick yourself if you never got to see them live. In ten years, you'll lie like the c***sucker you are and say you did anyway.

Ten ******* stars.

Steve Albini.

'Spiderland' is currently a album that I have been listening to more often these days. It's an album I have had for about 10 years now, but it just recently made it's way back into my stereo. This time I actually like it.
'Spiderland' was first released in 1991 and it was Slint's second album after 'Tweez'
I read many reviews over the last few years, still not sure how I felt about this. Many stated this is the first True Post Rock album.
A statement in some ways I still don't get, but no other band influenced by Slint has come close to matching it's depressive, but atmospheric intensity.
There has been rumors that the band members of Slint had to be institutionalized during the making of 'Spiderland'-
The sound is very lo-fi. Filled with off key guitar distortions which are quite eerie and strange(one of the reasons why it took me so long to get into this record). Very disturbing, and full of slowed down tempo.
Brian McMahan's voice switches from grunge induced screams to mere whispers. And yes, I do prefer this album over another (landmark) album which also came out later in 1991. Although 'Spiderland' was sadly much less known and it still is.
This album truly does mix garage rock, grunge and punk and it's also full of mutters and talking. Really creepy, may be a turn off for some.
The song "Washer" is a very dark track. The protagonist knew his fate, but couldn't avoid it in the end. Despair can be heard throughout.
Opener "Breadcrumb Trail" - A truly gut-wrenching listen, dissonant guitars over McMahan's intensity. Then on through the closer, and best known track "Good Morning Captain" where the last lines are McMahan screaming "I'm in Hell...I'm in HELLL...I MISS YOU...!"
- It is hard to believe that these guys were just teenagers when making this album. A Record that inspired Math Rock (?) and bands like Explosions in the Sky and Tortoise. This is a 'must hear' listen and it should be heard on vinyl.

This record...is brilliant. No filler. No hits. No traditional songs. 7 minute mind-blowing works of art? Yes.

I can't remember where I heard of Slint or why I got this, but I assure you that I regret neither. The record encorporates a sense of paranoia, hope, faith, depression, lonliness, confusion and spite. It is a rare recording. A masterpiece. Never equaled before. Never equaled since. The openening of "Don, Aman" is an acapella breakdown leading into an ocean of strings, "Washer" is unequaled in gorgeous "heart-on-sleeve" humility. "Nosferatu Man" haunts like a bad dream, "Good Morning, Captain" sticks to so many surfaces, only to all be unglued with the blood-curdling screams of "I Miss You."

Stop reading.

Get this record NOW.

Listen.

There is simply no other band in rock music that sounds anything like these guys. "Spiderland" is a study in loud/soft dynamics and obtuse lyricism. Some highlights from this record are the opener "Breadcrumb Trail" which starts off quiet and builds to an amazing, heavy chorus. "Washer" is simply beautiful, probably one of my favorite songs of all time. "Good Morning, Captain" (my first exposure to Slint, courtesy of the "Kids" soundtrack) tells a bizarro story of a sea captain washed up on a shore somewhere. In a way, this track can be seen as a miniature version of the entire album. It starts off very slow and soft, with the singer muttering some cryptic lyrics, and gradually works up to a crashing, ear-bludgeoning crescendo, with the guy screaming, "I miss you!" To me this record is the perfect soundtrack for those days when you are feeling especially alone and unloved. It's not relentlessly gloomy though, just honest and emotional. I only hesitated to give it five stars, because in my opinion, with only six songs, the album is simply too short to be considered "perfect." Buy this. Go ahead. You won't regret it, I promise.

This is one of those albums you need to listen to in one continuous sitting. That being said, it is a fantastic journey. Slow, melodic runs building into fuzzed out chaos and returning to tranquility, it is a formula now used by many many bands ranging from Tortoise to bands like ISIS and Pelican.

Listen to this album a few times before judging it, at first it can be hard to take the almost nonsensical lyrics serious. It will all make sense in time, as will the utter genius of this album. Essential for any music lover.