Every cloud has one...

soul asylum - the silver lining

sometimes i wish i had been 21 years old about 10 years earlier than it actually happened. the minnesota music scene was (and for the most part still is) one of the healthiest around. bands like husker du, trip shakespeare, live animal sandwich (haha, stebbing) and the suburbs filled local hotspots nightly. i really missed out :( one of the bands from the 80's has proven to have sizable staying power. soul asylum released their first disc in 1984 and with this relase coming 22 years later, they are still going strong.

i have to be honest and admit that i didn't even realize that this album was in the works. it had been so long (back to 98) since SA had realeased a new disc that they kind of fell off my radar.

the band has gone through some tough years since that last release. most notably the death founding member/bassist karl mueller. dave pirner moved from mpls to new orleans and they picked up new drummer michael bland (i have a friend who has a great story about him) who is just a monster.

the disc isnt as great as 'grave dancers..." or "let your dim..." but it definitely has its place among the ranks.

some nuggets to put on your iTunes wishlist:
stand up and be strong - the first cut from the disc contains some great hooks. saw them do this on leno last month. really nice.

bus named desire - great rock tune. sounds errily similar to another song by a popular 3 letter band.

oxygen - the build-up from start to finish is really cool.

rating: ***/5