Track Listing

1. Wave of Mutilation
2. Age of Consent
3. Eternal
4. I Often Dream of Trains
5. Killing Moon
6. Love My Way
7. Under the Milky Way
8. City of Refuge
9. So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
10. Boys Don't Cry
11. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50761 in Music
• Released on: 2006-06-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Grant-Lee Phillips is one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation, having written and recorded critically lauded albums as both a solo artist during this decade and with his band Grant Lee Buffalo throughout the 1990s. On his new album, 'nineteeneighties,' Grant-Lee pays tribute to the songwriters and artists who had a significant influence on his own work. Of those formative years, Grant-Lee says, "For every hokey hair band, there was once an alternative, parallel universe, existing just below the conservative, pastel surface. It was the same unstoppable energy that would come to erupt in the form of Nirvana in the early 90s. 'nineteeneighties' is a nod to some of the songs and some of the people that made a lasting impact on my own songwriting and musicianship."

'nineteeneighties' is a creative tribute to what was truly "alternative" during the formative 1980s and exhumes an age whose underground music has long outlasted the more popular songs of its airwaves. "This album is my personal mix tape, just as it's reeled around in my head for decades," states Grant-Lee.

Amazon.com
Though he has often shown a debt to REM and the Smiths, Grant Lee Phillips's most successful recordings--both solo and with Grant Lee Buffalo--represented a break with the sonic largesse and studio affectations of the 1980s. These 11 tracks serve to reconnect him with the bands and songwriters of his 20s, when he was just discovering his own voice--still one of the most expressive and supple in rock music. With a consistency that borders on singlemindedness, he drapes songs by New Order, Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Psychedelic Furs, the Church, and the Cure in his trademark acoustic warmth and draws forth the melodies and sense of longing in these Gen-X anthems. The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation" would hardly seem a candidate for a waltz through Hawaiian Americana, but for Phillips it is, and the result is beautiful, as is the light-Rubber Soul treatment of Robyn Hitchcock's "I Often Dream of Trains." The less successful interpretations simply fail to differentiate themselves from the spirit of the originals: REM's "So. Central Rain" and the Smiths' "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" are hardly rendered as carbon copies, but they lack revelation. And though Nick Cave's "City of Refuge" helps pick up the pace, the album's cumulative effect is more drowsy than daydreamy, a mood enhanced by beds of soft organ, reverbed cello, and faint guitar buzz. Call this Phillips's "synth-pop unplugged" album, but within the gauzy strumscapes are frequent moments of grace. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews

Grant-Lee stole my record collection!
Somehow Grant-Lee has managed to take the low acoustic sound he perfected with Grant Lee Buffalo and some of his more mellow solo tracks and use it on eleven wonderful songs from the alternative 80s, back when it was 'college rock'. And he's pulled it off perfectly.

These are all songs from the big names from back then, starting from the Pixies and running through New Order, Joy Division, Robyn Hitchcock, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs, The Church, Nick Cave, REM, the Cure and the Smiths. What surprises me is that most of the songs he chose are the more well-known songs of those bands rather than obscure album tracks (as tends to be the choice of a lot of indie bands), and he does the songs justice. He makes them his own, without detracting from the originals at all.

Definitely worth checking out, and definitely worth having if you grew up listening to the originals like I did!

brings back memories...
I've never listened to much of Grant-Lee's previous stuff but I heard a great review of this album on npr.org and it sparked my interest. I've huge fan of all the bands he covers on this album and his interpretations are heart felt and touching. I've really enjoyed this album! Age of Consent, Love My Way, and Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me are my favs. Check it out!

Pleasant waste of talent
Grant-Lee Phillips sings with sleepy pleasantness on this collection of covers, perfect for a late dinner in a candlelit lounge. It's a harmless place-holder while we wait for the next album of his own original songs, and is easily recommended to his fans.

If you don't already own his other music, please buy Mobilize or the Grant Lee Buffalo CD Mighty Joe Moon instead. Both display excellent songcraft, sweeter yet more intense singing, and wonderful music.