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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best, May 9, 2002
I ran across Sophtware Slump after hearing two songs on the BBC's Later with Jools Holland. Since I started listening to Rock in the 60's, this band seemed to have taken a half century of music and made everything work. It reminds me of a lot of 60's bands, but the construction of the music is remarkable. Moving backwards, I picked up this album. It may be better, but it is different.Sophtware Slump has kind of a theme, but it's not trying to make a pompous point. It just contains a lot of extended explorations on a theme of detached emptiness. The songs are complex, with songs within songs and miscellaneous 'noises'. The Bonzo Dog Band explored 'dada' music, and their last songs push rock music to some kind of limit. This music is more 'impressionist'. The words are creating moods, not just saying 'something'. The clever lyrics and mystical chants in several songs are beautiful, in SS. This is a less complex CD, and it's more of a 'flat out', pedal to the metal straightaway, kind of rock. Heck, buy both albums. UWF has less 'content', perhaps. It includes songs like "Poisoned at the Hartsy" that are very cute and endearing, but a little limited. Some of the songs are absolutely haunting, and that is the strength of this album versus SS. "NonPhenom" is so unique that it is almost hypnotic. The message is obvious, and it is delivered with precision. It's a depressing theme, but it's kind of an inspiring song. It's like, "Oh, well. Yeah, that's what happens... I guess it's not really my problem." It's beautiful. "Laughing Stock" is an incredible piece of rock music. It's just a very clean wall of sound that pulses out and then retreats. This is very polished rock music. "Freeway" is a melody with no lyrics. It evokes several things, but much of their music seems to be about feeling emptiness without being overwhelmed by it. "Summer Here Kids" is, again, a lot of musical power under complete control, with a definite mood. JLytle can create art with his music. He can move me without being trite or doing much of anything that anybody has done before, exactly. The way the tracks are put together is wonderful, although this album has songs that open in fairly distracting ways. It's complex music, and the execution of SophSlump is more polished. This album has a more raw 'hard rock' quality. "Broken Appliance" on SS, with a kind of edgy uncontrolled rawness, doesn't work as well as "Summer Here Kids", which goes in the same direction. "Why Took Your Advice" is a melancholy song about relationships, but it IS impressionist. It's about radios and microscopes, but, of course, it isn't. The song is doing everything it can to make you feel, well, what you might feel in a relationship. A fairly sour relationship. Don't worry about the birds. You'll wonder why everyone doesn't use birds. It's silly to say he redefines rock, but he uses fairly simple themes to create music that completely involves the listener. These are songs about being left out, or left behind, or not liking being where you are, or wishing you could get back to something, somewhere, but you aren't sure quite where. Lytle makes a compelling case that this is what music should do.
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by Grandaddy 
