release date: May 11, 1989
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,14]
producer: Peter Asher
label: Elektra Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Eat for Two" - 4. "Trouble Me" (4 / 5) - 5. "You Happy Puppet" - 7. "Poison in the Well" - 11. "Jubilee"
4th studio album by 10,000 Maniacs released on Elektra and once again with producer Peter Asher. Stylistically, the band keeps to a defined combination of folk pop, jangle pop, and pop / rock, which works for the band without the need to try out other styles or look for a progression in their sound, and the album sounds like a continued chapter to In My Tribe. They have their distinct and unique style, which binds them to traditional folk roots but also to a contemporary jangle pop, and you sort of know what you may expect.
The album is not bad but far from one of their best - the sound is similar to In My Tribe but it simply doesn't contain a decent amount of great and memorable tracks, and everything is just... quite solid workmanship, which isn't bad - it just doesn't really move me that much, and it stands as a rather forgettable album in between two great ones.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
