Triage

David Baerwald | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 9, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000008D4H
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,583 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. A Secret Silken World

2. The Got No Shotgun Hydrahead Octopus Blues

3. Nobody

4. The Waiter

5. Aids and Armageddon

6. The Postman

7. A Bitter Tree

8. China Lake

9. A Brand New Morning

10. Born For Love

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unheralded Work of Substance and Vision, February 2, 2005

By 

Todd and In Charge (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Triage (Audio CD)

This is one album that does not deserve its obscurity -- it's a staggering, monumental concept album of decay, corruption, and cobbled-together life amid the angels and demons of modern American society. Serious themes, presented in an antiseptic yet apocalyptic fashion, drive home the deep skepticism of the artist toward our leaders, our corporate culture, and our ever-coarsening society. Try to imagine Steely Dan, with Tom Waits on board, only more cynical and jaded, and you have started to capture the mood of Triage. Truly not what you would expect from a member of David and David, this album is a Los Angeles bookend to Roger Water's equally bleak Amused to Death. A must-have if you are in a bad mood (or want to be in one).

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now More Than Ever, April 12, 2006

By 

Robert Carlberg (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Triage (Audio CD)

This is an album I bought when it first came out, in 1992, and I played it to death. Baerwald's gleeful cynicism and weary pessimism were perfectly in tune with the "read-my-lips" presidency of George H.W. Bush. The nihilistic lyrics and extravagant production made an interesting dynamic contrast, and I found Baerwald's take on the issues of the day -- AIDS, nuclear armeggedon, homelessness, government corruption and corporate greed -- to be invigorating.

Then January '93 rolled around and Bush was ceremoniously thrown out of office. In the giddy optimism of the era [misplaced, it turned out], Baerwald's relentless negativity sounded completely out of place and I couldn't listen to this album anymore.

Ten years passed. Suddenly I kept hearing new bands that reminded me of "Triage" -- The Books, Aki Peltonen, Clothesline Revival, Robert Een, Johann Johannsson -- eventually the draw became irresistible and I had to buy "Triage" again.

And you know what? It's 1992 all over again. Only worse.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thinker's Rock, December 13, 2005

By 

J. Merritt - See all my reviews

This review is from: Triage (Audio CD)

"Triage" is the somber wake-up call to 1990's "Bedtime Stories." Where the first album had its moments of humor and light, "Triage" is a headlong journey into hearts of darkness; sexual degradation, defeated love, Bremerian isolation, government abuse, and blind cultism, to name a few. Stylistically, it varies with its subject matter, from the languid and haunting pace of "Secret Silken World" and "Brand New Morning," to the mechanical chopping of "Got No Shotgun Hydra Head Octopus Blues," to the bitten-off beats of "The Waiter," to the spare notes of "China Lake" and "The Postman." It isn't as easy an album to like as "Bedtime Stories," but it's every bit as good and even more thought-provoking. Springsteen sells more copies, but Baerwald has more to say. Now if only it were possible to actually buy it.