The Sophtware Slump - One of the best second albums ever?

And starting off with my vote for the opening track.

The poll option "no" is apparently missing.

Perhaps for the first time, I'm with Geir. The opener is a stunner.

oh, this album. good god. i listened to nothing else for six months. now might be a good time to listen again, so i can make an informed judgement. but yes, the opening track was awesome ... as was the rest of it ...

i've just found my review in the archive at work. may 7, 2000! jesus wept. it begins: "Buy this album. It's as simple as that." wonder if anyone did?

I'm glad you made this poll, Geir, even if most people (like me) just vote for the opener. This is an underrated album that was kind of forgotten over the years since its release. I don't listen to all that much indie rock, but this album has a special place in my heart. It's also the pinnacle of Grandaddy's work -- I love everything up to SS and this just tops it all. Sadly, they pretty much lost it after this one, just as they started to become more widely known.

god, Underneath the Weeping Willow is fantastic, too.

miner at the dial-a-view is clever and wonderful and beautiful and

the sheer concept of that song ("miner") is jaw-dropping, let alone the way it's done.

GOD, I LOVE THIS ALBUM. why have i not heard it in so long? (a: because i think i listened to it too much.)

I love everything up to SS and this just tops it all. Sadly, they pretty much lost it after this one, just as they started to become more widely known

my sentiments exactly.

Maybe the Crystal lake, maybe Miner at the Dial-a-View, or maybe the one about that poor robot bloke thing.

i went to see them in 2000 with some mates at manchester uni. i sort of liked a couple of tunes, the cheapo keyboards were a nice touch, but generally they remind me of how boring i found that year except for slamming jeff mills style techno.

sooooo...crystal lake, i 'spose.

seeing them live was a big mistake for me. in fact, until you mentioned it, i forgot i had. wow. they were astonishingly dull.

yea, definitely. Plus I saw them on the Sumday tour, I felt kind of bad for them, like they knew they weren't as good anymore.

The Dial-A-View = Google Earth! Wonder if Jason Lytle thought the technology for his tale of a homesick satellite miner would come true so quickly...

This album is indisputably the high water mark for Grandaddy, although I have a lot of love for some of their later stuff too despite it retreading much of this ground. This thread has inspired me to rip it again for the commute tomorrow.

Of course that opening track is unbelievable, but http://www.stewdio.org/jed/

I voted for the opener, but in the days when I thought this album was the greatest achievement of indie rock, I would have also repped aggressively for "Jed's Other Poem" and "Broken Household Appliance National Forest." Both still pop into my head often! This is a pretty good album that I think I just wore out.

What a disappointing record, compared to Under the Western Freeway which I loved at the time and still do. The songs are generally slow and tedious and mopey, with two exceptions, "Hewlett's Daughter" and "The Crystal Lake" (I voted for the former). I saw them live on the Sophtware Slump tour (bought the CD there and it came with lots of little electronic parts under the (clear) panel where the CD sits, very cool) and thought they were great. The songs actually kicked a little bit there, sounded huge. The record, alas, is a dud (I realize I'm nearly alone in thinking this).

This is really an album worth hearing from start to finish, every song just makes the others better. I vote for Jed's Other Poem, it sums it all up pretty good.

terrible live show. had trendy beards before it was trendy.

Of course that opening track is unbelievable, but http://www.stewdio.org/jed/

Yeah probably the second best track, and that is a pretty neat video.

The songs are generally slow and tedious and mopey

They've always been about the slow and mopey, the first album is hardly a barrel of laffs. Crystal Lake is a decent pop single, but Hewlett's Daughter is pretty weak.

"jed's other poem" is really creepy, it's sort of where the album's theme bubbles over from half-serious sadness into real misery (which is then continued into "miner")

if i could, i would vote for the last two tracks together. as a single 10-minute opus, they're Grandaddy's finest hour by far. as it is, I'll just vote for miner. what a song.

all of the songs grew on me a lot over a long time....chartsengrafs grew on me the most, i love the contrasts in that song

LJ OTM - The last two tracks are one. I never play one without the other and So You'll Aim Toward The Sky has been known to reduce me to a blubbering heap.

But if I have to pick one track it would be Jed's Other Poem.

(I dig this album out and play it to death about once every 6 months. It still doesn't grow stale)

You saw it coming. :)

No I didn't

wow, i was only talking the other day about this album. it came out at just the right time for me; one of those records where time and space and context just all come together perfectly. there are some obvious easy targets for best song (he's simple he's dumb, miner, jed's other poem), but i don't think any can work without the others, which was being touched on with the miner/so you'll aim combination.

(to expand, i don't think by any means this is an objectively perfect album, but subjectively... see also my relationship with eels)

Crystal Lake! I love this album, too.

I would like this album, and Grandaddy more generally, a lot more with a different singer.

Grandaddy, Flaming Lips, Polyphonic Spree, Mercury Rev and yet another handful of similar bands would all be better with a different singer. They are all fucking great anyway, but the world doesn't need 10 Neil Youngs.

hell no, Lytle's vocals define a LOT of the sound, Grandaddy would be nowhere as charming without them

agreed

thirded.

been listening to this today. HOLY FUCK, it is masterful.

initial thoughts: "he's simple, he's dumb ... " won't be getting my vote.

"hewlett's daughter" might, you know. it just might. for so many wonderful reasons.

but i've not got all the way through yet ... the bus journey home tonight will remind me just how great the final two tracks are.

(wonder if i'll do what i did seven years ago and listen to it so much i then put it away for another seven years?)

i like their christmas song

so. "miner at the dial-a-view", innit? holy shit, what an absolutely awesome song. i love going back to albums i used to love but haven't listened to ... the little thrill of knowing what to expect. mind, there are moments of such beauty in that song as to make me weep afresh. or something.

"hewlett's daughter" would be my second choice.

i am extremely drunk (like poor jed) but i am now saying that the last two tracks are the absolute pinnacle of the band's career. when she is like "good luck" and he says "thank you" it is one of the most sincere, heartwarming moments in modern pop. ten-minute track, i'm telling you. whole album is awesome. last two transcendent. grimly on the (or some) money. jeez i am smashed.

i am extremely drunk (like poor jed)

louis, don't fizzle and pop or anything. or indeed just stop.

or, for that matter, write any jed-style poetry ;)

tried to sing it funny like beck

alone in the park

(jed is awes, why did he have to die)

it's a salutary tale for us all, my friend. especially if any of us happen to be robots.

i imagine this album sounds awesome when you're drunk. i should try it.

i am listening to it right now, very much inebriated. wonderful.

like i say: no fizzing/popping (or indeed poppage)/poetry etc.

yea I need to put this on.

i like this crew of Grandaddy lovers we have on this thread. basically the same 3 or 4 people have kept it going.

well maybe not, as i scroll up it's quite diverse

in any case i like to see this album get love

fizzing/popping happened earlier, now i have mere drift into sleep. poppage a dim and distant joy. poetry strictly a thing of sobriety and introspection. only thought that i can muster now: 'PLEASE MAY I NOT CHOKE ON MY OWN VOM', that and 'grandaddy are awes'.

it's a classic 90's album.

i had a legendary teacher when i was younger, he was an awesome guy who took us for summer courses, his favourite bands were the kinks and grandaddy. how, i do not know. the way grandaddy sang about broken machines...this guy thought it was the most beautiful thing. he may have had a point.

it's not a 90's album though :/

it's a classic noughties album!

dammit it's 2000 isn't it. still feels like the late 90's.

i'm about to go to bed, forgive me any error. it's still classic.

only thought that i can muster now: 'PLEASE MAY I NOT CHOKE ON MY OWN VOM'

hahahah god i nearly choked on my own tongue laughing at this.

louis's teacher OTM: the notion/sound of dying machinery is something i find heartbreakingly evocative. cf "ibm 1401: a user's manual", which literally made me weep when i first heard it (and still can).

yeah. actually, 'teacher' might be a bit inaccurate, as i say, it was a really liberal, relaxed extra-curricular summer-course he took us for. he was a teacher in term-time, but i only knew him as a friend/role-model/awesome dude. who showed us grandaddy videos. which were awesome.

i've been playing this album start-to-finish for a coupla days now (thanks to ILM); this play is nearing the end of 'the crystal lake', as good a time as any to go to bed. the problem with, say, bimble, is that he reaches this point and keeps on posting. not that i have anything against this...bimble is awesome, but i really need rest. vom potential has been reduced (with a few toilet trips)...so i think i'll survive. night everyone!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

So You'll Aim Toward the Sky 0

!

good to see "hewlett's daughter" getting a decent rep. surprised "miner" just got five.

Well, like I said, I wanted to vote for SYATTS along with MATDAV, but being forced to only choose one, I went with the 'better half', i.e. the more song-y of the two. (SYATTS works as an album-closer far better than it works on its own.)

Hewlett's Daughter has taken AGES to grow on me. I used to think it was out of place, too simple, too obviously 'pop', but that chorus has won me round after many, many listens.

i love this album and took my sign in name from it. i dont think i voted but i would have voted for simple dumb pilot - seconds comes Broken Household Appliance National Forest.

"i called you a liar, but how right you were"

Deluxe Edition, y'all.

http://jasonlytle.com/2011/08/the-sophtware-slump-deluxe-edition/

Geir... otm? If "they" dredge up a musical artefact dated back to approx two millennia AC, from whatever remains of civilization, let it be this instead of Kid fucking A.

I'm curious, LBI, what brought you to revive this thread? Did you recently re-listen to it or something? Kinda always fascinated by that impulse.

It's funny, I have strong nostalgic feelings for this album - listened to this album constantly back in 2001 or 2002, but ever since then, I've cooled on it quite a bit, save for a few songs.

So, so classic, along with a lot of the stuff that Grandaddy released before it

and after it!

birds come

and then they go

I'm curious, LBI, what brought you to revive this thread? Did you recently re-listen to it or something? Kinda always fascinated by that impulse.

It's funny, I have strong nostalgic feelings for this album - listened to this album constantly back in 2001 or 2002, but ever since then, I've cooled on it quite a bit, save for a few songs.

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Wednesday, September 26, 2018 2:51 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hadn't listened to it in years but suddenly 'The Crystal Lake' popped up in my mind yesterday so I gave it a spin! It still holds up great imo, it's a near perfect album/song cycle.

birds come

and then they go

otm

birds come

and then they go

― alpine static, Wednesday, 26 September 2018 06:32 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can't use what i can't abuse

and i can't stop when it comes to you

is there a thread for great pre-verse mumblings

fire it up sonny

moved out of my parents' place in crystal lake, IL to chicago a couple months before this album came out, believe it or not!

my bank teller's name is Krystal Lake

I should listen to this today, it's been a minute.

it's shining like a chandelier

the opening track when it kicks in is such a spine tingling moment - those synthetic strings and drums, so perfect

and this is like the southern equivalent to ok computer-kid a really, both are good in their own ways

central valley equivalent - but yeah definitely. i don't think it has quite the back bench of great songs, or the sonic variety, as ok computer. i listen to it more like an overall mood thing out of which key songs really come into focus.

oh come on it's obviously better than ok computer

i'd listen to this over okc most days

It's twinned with Van Occupanther for me. Broken robots/stonemasons staring into the wastes of modernity.

I'm with Rod Steel above. I listened to this loads in 2001, but not any more. I don't think it has aged so well. And I can't shake the feeling with Grandaddy that all their songs plod along in the same way. Off putting. Their drummer had it easy!

I mean they tapped into a vibe and concept and just kinda luxuriated there most of the time, which is as good an approach as any.

I find the 'Jed the Humanoid' songs pretty much unlistenable. They certainly proved they had nothing left in them after this came out. The album that came out a couple years ago was more of the same; it even had another 'Jed the Humanoid' song!

This was their peak, imo. And it's OK. But "greatest second album ever"?. No way.

Sorry, the OP was "One of the best second albums ever". Still no way

They certainly proved they had nothing left in them after this came out.

RONG

yeah the reunion album was a bit sleepy but the rest of the OG run has plenty of fine songs

man if only "protected from the rain" was on this thing

or "mgm grand" tho that might throw off the vibe

They certainly proved they had nothing left in them after this came out.

RONG

― imago, Wednesday, 26 September 2018 20:48 

Au contraire.

Reunion album had some great stuff too. Evermore and A Lost Machine or starters

sumday is a good album y'all are talkin out of your asses

I guess I never gave Sumday and The Fambly Cat a fair shake tbh. I can only bring to mind "Now It's On" and "Where I'm Anymore"

i can sing the entire chorus of "el caminos in the west" rn. i haven't heard that song in ten years probably

yeah this is their best record but i think my POX would only have ~3 songs from here

qualmsley, McHenry Co represent

sumday is a good album y'all are talkin out of your asses

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 19:01 (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imo, their clear best

sumday was in the final batch of like a dozen CDs i had left before i abandoned physical media

i'm a big fan of following up a sprawling masterpiece with a really solid straightforward pop album. sumday is a very good version of that

a solid straightforward sprawling pop masterpiece tbf

lol i forgot about the synthetic orchestra stabs in the chorus of "now it's on"

what a delightful song

those orchestra stabs are my favorite part of the song! grandaddy's main obstacle with me was that "solid" always teetered on the edge of "stolid" - that midtempo chug and dreary subject matter could make them feel very samey. i kinda longed for even like a sorta mediocre thrashy rocker like "electioneering" to pop up and thus give more definition to the songs around it, if that makes sense.

sumday is great yeah xposts

Sumday was the one that really made the music media take note. But it was samey. Not as strong as Sophtware

I guess I just assumed that anyone who liked vintage Grandaddy also checked out Jason Lyttle's solo album, Dept. of Disappearance, released in 2012. It's just as good as peak Grandaddy, imo.

anyone else check out the piano-only version of this album that lytle released recently? underscores how strong the bones of these songs are and a pretty great piano performance to boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndnfFi8WL9M

Yeah I loved this. Ending was killer too

New version of Chartsengrafs is of course incredible

crystal lake is good i wish they would put out a greatest hits so i do not have to buy every album for just 1 song i like on it!

I'll pretend I didn't read that..

The Sophtware Slump is a masterpiece from start to finish. Think Voodoo eloquently explains why the piano version just works so well; because the bare bones are so good, too. Def a modest highlight this year.

xzanfar otm

i believe they want you to give in

harsh

Underneath the Weeping Willow 0

i believe they want you to give in

it was always epically sad but i'm not sure i could listen to this song again right now.

this album is 25 years old

i get in a big SS kick whenever i'm driving through Vermont - i used to have a summer job mowing properties and one of the places was near Crystal Lake in Barton.

this album is 25 years old

lol when i saw them a couple years later i was like 'what's with the cats' (and i like cats)

a lot of ilx0rs seem to hate this record but geir and imago are into it, so you know it's cool

I loved this album but haven't heard in years. I lived in the Mission district in SF at the time but didn't know them, so missed that. I think I bought this record at Mod Lang.

i get in a big SS kick whenever i'm driving through Vermont

Phrasing.

italian leather winter games

inspired by the duraflames

chatboards full of folks who flake