Wishing Chair

10,000 Maniacs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002H2U
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,335 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #39 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Jangle Pop

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Their finest hour, December 6, 2002

By 

Kevin Scott (Winnipeg, MB, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wishing Chair (Audio CD)

They never topped this one. It remains one of the greatest rock albums of all time and certainly one of the most criminally underrated. The six-piece Maniacs on this album showed many different sides and colors - leading some to the conclusion that the album is disjointed; well, what's wrong with that? Who wants to listen to a bunch of clones of the same song? The shifts in style are fascinating - it's sometimes hard to believe it's the same band you were listening to moments before. This album's production is also top-notch - they were lucky enough to have the legendary Joe Boyd, a man known for letting bands sound like themselves. (Nothing he's produced EVER sounds dated...check it out.) It's worth comparing this to the clinical and overly-glossy production jobs that followed on their following albums. Lyrically this is how I prefer to hear Natalie Merchant, too - with words that suggest and evoke. She's drawing pictures rather than preaching and moralizing which would be an irritant on later albums. They tip their hat to traditional folk on "Just as the Tide Was A-Flowing", and their love of the material is very evident here; they also deliver some stormy rockers like "Scorpio Rising" and "My Mother the War", but sadly this marked the end of their edge; they'd never do anything this raucous ever again. The absolute best thing about this album is that they sound like a group without any obvious front man (or woman); it sounds like the ideas came from several personalities. A brilliant, timeless masterpiece from start to finish.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wishing it was Alway this Good, December 1, 2001

By 

JBT "jbttttt" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wishing Chair (Audio CD)

Critics and fans who accuse Natalie Merchant of being too moody and dour need look no further than "The Wishing Chair" to see that there was a time when the girl could rock. "Scorpio Rising," and "My Mother the War" prove it. "The Wishing Chair' documents a young band on the way up -- young, precocious and full of talent. The songs were in large part taken from earlier independent releases from the band. The band never sounded so folky...and never did again. But thats ok, they went on to do great things in spite of the odds. This one is a jewel.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vastly Underrated, October 21, 1999

By 

Scott Briggs ([e-mail]) (Brooklyn, N.Y. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wishing Chair (Audio CD)

Whoever said above that there's a reason this album is found in the bargain bins just proves my point that what this actually proves is that almost nobody has any taste in good music. Also, most 10,000 Maniacs fans only came into the fold with Blind Man's Zoo, In My Tribe, or egads, the Unplugged album, which is basically fine but ignoring their earlier work is unfair to the band, plus The Wishing Chair is actually an underrated, charming, infectious, affecting, magical, wonderful recording that stands up to any of the band's later works.