10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe

voted "Hey Jack Kerouac" instinctively. "Just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day", the rush of that line: the joy of escape, a teenage joy, to will an apotheosis from letters. but I think of his mother too, because there was so much waste in their lives, no bye bye.

The Cat cover is the only possible wrong answer here. For all of Merchant's notoriously schoolmarm-ish pretensions, I love how she sings "Don't Talk" as if her scorn and her empathy are at war with each other. The band is at their best on this album, as well: I adore the wistful arrangement of "Gun Shy," the anxious jangle of "Cherry Tree" and the general ease with which the band meets the particular demands of each song.

Still, gonna have to go with "Hey Jack Kerouac," both because of that slightly "off" sound of the rhythm guitar and for the line "Allen baby, why so jaded? / Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded," which stirred queer feelings in me as a 14 year old even as I had no knowledge of the subject matter yet.

for the line "Allen baby, why so jaded? / Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded," which stirred queer feelings in me as a 14 year old even as I had no knowledge of the subject matter yet.

me too! & I turned out to prefer women but at the time I think maybe I wanted otherwise? maybe this song is what turned teenage me onto the fluid sexuality of the beats? It seemed so...free?

fwiw, I think she was calling out Ginsberg with that line.

Debatable. But if so--and don't get me wrong, there is plenty to call out Ginsberg for--my lack of context helped in this case.

Voted "Verdi Cries" instantly. It's gorgeous and the lyrics have a subtlety and a depth to them that's missing on the rest of the album imo.

(xp For sure - I’m not critiquing how you heard it as a teen. I didn’t know the stuff about Ginsberg then either.)

A gateway album for me.

Very tough for me. Saw them several times in 88, 89 (opening for R.E.M.?) with these songs well polished. Lead track and Jack very strong. Also with Lily Dale on Verdi Cries. Ended up voting for Don't Talk.

I recently revisited this band’s catalog (well, the Natalie years), and was surprised to find that the songs I responded to the most on this album were the ones that stood out least in my memory (Cherry Tree, The Painted Desert).

I was also surprised at how thin and shrill the production or mastering (“DDD”) of the disc sounds by modern standards. It’s almost unlistenable, actually! It sounds better when you stream it; maybe my copy has disc rot or something.

Is this their best album? I find it a bit ‘airy’ production wise. Have to go with the opening track as the fave. I can never quite unlink them in my mind from Eddie Brickell.

"Like the Weather" for me, but man this album triggers nostalgia of a kind I'm not normally prone to

One night in the early days of lockdown, I was out walking the dog in my neighborhood. Everything was dark and dead quiet, a little spooky; it was early enough in lockdown that there weren't even cars going by. And then I heard a voice singing opera from a second-floor window. Not a recording, just someone practicing. It was the most beautiful little spark of humanity in the middle of a whole lot of sheer nothing, and I thought of "Verdi Cries" even though that's almost the opposite of what "Verdi Cries" is about.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

also voted "like the weather." this is a very pleasant album.

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

RIP Robert Buck... love the wall of guitar sound in this era, especially live.

I’ve always wondered about the interpersonal dynamics in this band... their early lineup took a while to gel; that guy John Lombardo left in ‘86 (citing "creative and political differences,” according to Wikipedia without a footnote), but then came back one or twice, and then rejoined after Natalie left; etc. I kind of wonder to what extent they got along (especially Natalie with the guys generally).

Did anyone else ever read the band name and album title as the full statement "10,000 maniacs in my tribe"?