Slint

THE BANDTodd Brashear - bassBrian McMahan - vocals/guitarDavid Pajo - guitarBritt Walford - drumsYEAR: 1991Some bands are very good at describing their music using pictures and words. Slint would be one of them. The cover says it all - this is a dark, chilling album; full of emotion but with very little warmth throughout its forty minutes. It's music in black and white, and it's hard to imagine any other band capturing "colorless sound" so well. The album title is accurate too - the guitars on Spiderland are thin-sounding and skeletal, almost skittering across the songs like the aforementioned arachnids.The band went through quite a stylistic change from their 1989 debut Tweez to this, their second (and final) album - the former was a harsh and nearly-unlistenable collection of fractured, Big Black-esque songs (no coincidence that it was engineered by Steve Albini), while the latter is much more focused, with epic and powerful songs (none shorter than five minutes). Despite the song lengths, Spiderland doesn't have the pretentiousness and technical showmanship of prog-rock, and sticks more to creating moody, atmospheric rock songs that leave the listener kind of unsettled.Breadcrumb TrailThe album starts and ends with the best tracks, although "Breadcrumb Trail" is slightly inferior to the masterpiece "Good Morning Captain". Lyrically, this is the most playful song on the album, with McMahan quietly describing an interesting day he had at an amusement park as a story rather than as rhythmic lyrics. The instruments, however, overpower his soft voice, with David Pajo's snakelike rhythms wrapping around McMahan's words during the verse before exploding into a heavy and anthemic chorus. Although the subject of the chorus isn't very groundbreaking (a ride on a roller coaster), McMahan has a way of choosing creative words to describe it ("creeping up into the sky/stopping at the top, then starting down/the girl grabbed my hand/I clutched it tight/I said goodbye to the ground"). The band effortlessly makes the transition from quiet to loud passages, and it easily dwarfs the fine (but inferior) next four tracks. Six minutes o' brilliance. 4.5/5Nosferatu ManA more straightforward (but still complex) hard rock song, with a steady but pounding rhythm section and hard-to-hear but dark-sounding lyrics (about a vampire, I'm assuming). The chorus is the catchiest thing on the album, and McMahan does a very convincing (if unintentional) Steve Albini impression. Speaking of Albini, this sounds like a Shellac song. If you like Shellac, you'll like "Nosferatu Man". 4/5Don, AmanUnbelievably anti-climactic. McMahan once again tells an interesting story, but with no percussion, it's much easier to hear the lyrics (it's anyone's guess what they're about, though). The wiry guitars slowly build tension throughout the six-and-a-half-minute song, but except for a couple short bursts of menacing distorted guitar, there's no loud emotional payoff at the end, which is disappointing but creative at the same time. It's not bad, but it borders on 'skippable'. 3/5WasherSome sad-sounding but very nice guitar before the verse, which features McMahan inventing Conor Oberst with a timid, trembly voice and unexpectedly (almost uncomfortably) emotional lyrics. It's a very chilling song, but McMahan's lyrics seem hopeful, even when he sounds so defeated. One of those rare songs that sends chills down your spine (and surprisingly enough, it's not the only one on the album that does that). It becomes extremely tense as it goes along, but unlike "Don, Aman", it does explode into a climactic energy release near the seven-minute mark before settling down again. Muy, muy bueno. 4.5/5For Dinner...The shortest song, but it still manages to break five minutes. It's an uneventful (and kind of pointless) instrumental, that they probably threw on there to make the album longer or something. Meh. 2/5Good Morning CaptainHere's where it gets good. Seven and a half minutes of very creepy and skeletal rock. The guitar clangs in the background like a warning siren, while the snakelike bass creeps along between that and the pounding, tribal drums. McMahan speaks through the verse much like he does on "Breadcrumb Trail", but the story is much more ominous this time around, as he describes a shipwreck in chilling detail. There are the obligatory bursts of ear-piercing and melodic noise, but the album's zenith comes as the song starts to wind down. McMahan is at his most emotional, whispering the lyrics ("I'm trying to find my way home/I'm sorry/did I miss you?/...I'll make it up to you") before screaming "I MISS YOU!" as the song explodes in a jagged wave of noise. I've used "chilling" way too much during this review, but that single moment is one of the most chilling and emotional pieces of music I've ever heard. An easy 5/5.The album isn't perfect, which is disappointing, because half of the tracks indicate that it could have been (1, 4, and 6 in particular). It's definitely a 4/5, no higher or lower. The band split up after this album, and although it would have been interesting to hear the follow-up, their influence lives on in countless modern post-rock bands. - sputnikmusic