1000 Hurts

About

In its own ever-pugnacious way, Shellac mellowed on its second album, 1998’s <i>Terraform</i>. Ye, Steve Albini’s lyrics still looked to lampoon or lambast the world, whether he was calling supposed friends bad name, or railing against ventriloquism, blockhead, and dummie. Taking up a third of the album, the opener was a 12-minute march of bass and drum, with Albini brooding over a band that sometimes almost went quiet. Other songs were often short and slightly less punchy, as though the vicious power trio was trying not to go too far. Was Shellac checking itself? Not at all: Released two years later, <i>1000 Hurts</i> is one of the leanest, most aggressive, and most efficient records in indie-rock history, full of transgressive invectives and lamentation, all of it spewed over a band that moved with the agility of some newly oiled and weaponized machine. Todd Trainer, Bob Weston, and Albini move like piston, all precise and purposeful. The band’s hyperbolic and meticulous rage is also funny, as the opening tandem makes clear. “Prayer to God” is a plea for divine retribution against a former lover and her new man, with violence so extreme it makes him “cry like a woman, no particular woman.” The absurdity becomes clear with “Squirrel Song,” about an off-gridder who drafts squirrels to generate his electricity, only to be let down when they litter his quarters or hibernate all winter. “This isn’t some kind of metaphor,” Albini shouts in comic summary. “God damn, this is real.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →