release date: May 18, 1999
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,28]
producer: Armand John Petri
label: Bar/None Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 2. "Ellen" - 3. "Once a City" - 7. "Cabaret" - 12. "Hidden in My Heart"
7th studio album by 10,000 Maniacs actually contains nine outtakes from the album Love Among the Ruins (1997), which only makes room for five new compositions.
Stylistically, it's the same ballgame as the predecessor, which means folk pop and quiet pop / rock that doesn't come close to the band's most successful releases. It's the last album to feature Robert Buck on guitar, as he died Dec. 2000, and it's also the last 10,000 Maniacs studio album for 14 years.
Although, the majority of the tracks weren't good enough for the previous album, I find it a better album without being really good. Too many tracks sound like attempts to reproduce some of their hit material from the '80s resulting in little originality. All in all, it's still below mediocre and a tepid experience far from the heydays of the Merchant era, imho.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 1,5 / 5 stars ]
