10,000 Maniacs - OUR TIME IN EDEN

I used to admire it very much. I still like the Merchant piano tracks like "Noah's Dove."

The main reason I started this poll is because this album admittedly confounds me a bit. Like, I think most (though not all--"Candy Everybody Wants" is condescending and schoolmarm-ish in the exact way that the band is often accused of being, only sometimes unfairly, I'd argue) of the songs here are solid, but the mushy arrangements stifle many of them; I don't think "Stockton Gala Days" or "Gold Rush Brides" would have ever grown on me unless I'd heard the MTV Unplugged album, which rescues a few of these songs. That said, I love the horns on "Few and Far Between," the intensity of "Jezebel" and the winsomeness of "If You Intend."

"Candy Everybody Wants" is the song everyone thought "You Happy Puppet" was, but it's still got a good groove and solid Steve Gustafson bass line so I forgive it.

I'd vote for either "Far and Few Between" or "Gold Rush Brides."

I don't think "Few and Far Between" understands what to do with the tension between the peppy horns and Merchant's starchy voice and pedantic lyrics. A better vocalist would have kept the tension interesting.

However! The single's essential for the Byrne-Merchant duet on Iris Dement's "Let the Mystery Be."

Oh yeah, that cover is on the Campfire Songs comp as well.

The mismatch of Merchant's singing/lyrics and the Maniacs' jangly folk-pop was a big criticism of them by David Browne back in the day. Accordingly, he was a fan of her first solo record, but that's where I mostly stopped caring.

Write in for the Stipe-Merchant duet on REM's "Photograph," which came out around the same time.

voted for "Jezebel", it was 1992, quiet verse-loud chorus was the thing. the Unplugged version fails here, missing the drums cracking in. plus is this the closest to a sex song they ever pulled off?

This is a very lush album. Very nice while it's playing.

I still love this album. Natalie had really matured as a lyricist by this time and this record contains some of her most moving, truthful and inspired work. Her voice is so rich and the band never sounded better either. Voted "Stockton Gala Days" by a nose from "Noah's Dove", but it could have been half a dozen of these.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Very good album. Poll results/turnout pretty sad, but I missed it altogether somehow

Heard this album seemingly hundreds of times on family road trips but apart from "days" and "candy" nothing ever stuck in my mind. It was like hearing a new Maniacs album every time because I didn't remember anything other the aforementioned two singles.

you win a prize for that

Has that ever happened to anyone else with an album? Probably just my pre-adolescent pea brain

I keep coming back to this lately. Just an exquisite batch of songs, and a brilliantly sustained mood. 11 votes? And lame #1 tbh

Nah, #1's the best (maybe of their career!). Some other good songs that got 0's tho... I like "Circle Dream," "Few & Far Between," "Candy"...

I like "These Are Days," but it's been movie-soundtracked to death like no other song from the 90s other than "Dreams" by the Cranberries.

It's an excellent song, and I'm not hating because it was the hit single. I think deep cutz like Noah's Dove, Jezebel, and the ones morrisp names are just better!

I vividly remember a reviewer at the time writing that this album "taxis busily around the runway without ever really taking off"; but I just did some searching, and sadly can't confirm the source (or existence) of this line I've been appreciating for 26 years (I thought it was Jon Pareles in the NY Times, but nope).

If the album itself doesn't have a satisfying crescendo, many of the individual songs do

I went to a prom where These Are Days was the theme. I am pretty sure my parents still have the embossed champagne glass/souvenir with the theme on it. 10k Maniacs aged poorly for me.

When the earnest pep-rally/student-council types (inevitably) proposed using "These Are Days" as our h.s. class graduation theme, me and my smart-aleck pal (who both liked the song but recognized it was hella obvious and reflected limited understanding of the band's catalog) rolled our eyes and snickered, "It would have been funny if they chose, like, 'Poor De Chirico'..."

To pick a rose you ask your hands to bleed
What is the reason for having roses when your blood is shed carelessly?

FUCK YEAH!!

I sort of underrated this album when it came out (despite being a huge Maniacs Head at the time) – maybe because it sort of chugs along at too unvarying a clip, etc. – but I'm listening to it now, and these songs are some pretty hot sh1t!!

this may be a case of a band having perfected their craft to the point that their "best" album is almost a bit boring, or easy to overlook... its surfaces are so smooth and uniform, even for a group that wasn't exactly known for jagged edges.

Bassoon solos!

I like this album a lot. Great guitar sound throughout.

Shame on me for ripping on the late Paul Fox’s production up thread. I had this album on this morning, and it sounded pretty great, though I still might prefer the Unplugged renditions of “Stockton Gala Days” and “Gold Rush Brides” (would have to relisten to that album to verify). “Jezebel” and “Few and Far Between” are still stunning, and “If You Intend” remains one of my very favorite songs about depression.

Yeah it sounds terrific!

God, but I listened to this album almost obsessively at the time.

You win a prize. For that.

Lol

It was my first experience with them, thanks to an SNL performance.