Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Requiem For Dying Mothers: Part 1
2. Requiem For Dying Mothers: Part 2
3. Down 3
4. Austin Texas Mental Hospital: Part 1
5. Austin Texas Mental Hospital: Part 2
6. Austin Texas Mental Hospital: Part 3
7. Broken Harbors: Part 1
8. Broken Harbors: Part 2
9. Broken Harbors: Part 3

Disc 2:

1. Mullholland
2. The Lonely People (Are Getting Lonlier)
3. Gasfarming
4. Piano Aquieu
5. Fac 21
6. Ballad Of Distances: Part 1
7. Ballad Of Distances: Part 2
8. A Lovesong (For Cubs): Part 1
9. A Lovesong (For Cubs): Part 2
10. A Lovesong (For Cubs): Part 3

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18541 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-30
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.com
Put on Stars of the Lid's Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid and bliss out. Unspeakably sublime, the latest effort of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie, who distance themselves from their hometown Austin, Texas, boogie rock scene, is a minimalist, parametric--and ambient--symphony with a faint rock sensibility that refuses to beg for attention. Tired Sounds is built from formal patterns with layers of melody, texture, atmosphere, and rhythm--but not in the way we normally know it and without the use of drums. Unidentifiable guitars, strings, keyboards, and horns, from soprano to bass in tone, are synthesized with occasional field recordings sounding like audio samples of our universe from the last century and the next galaxy. The work recalls impressionist classical music more than indie rock, and one might mathematically graph the patterns of the six suites that stretch across two CDs and six sides of vinyl with names like "Austin Texas Mental Hospital" and "Requiem for Dying Mothers." Transcendent yet subtle, Tired Sounds will require many listenings to fully grasp, remaining a fascinating puzzle to contemplate and enjoy. File under life-affirming ambient. --Jillian Steinberger

Customer Reviews

yawn
I bought this CD because so many people gave rave reviews for it. I have an open mind to all kinds of music, but this stuff was just waaay too minimalistic for me. It seemed to drag on and on. I have enjoyed drone and ambient music but this is just too tedius for my tastes. I gave it to my son who is a big fan of bands like Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor.

Wonderful - Hypnotic, beautiful, sleep inducing
I Just got into The Stars of The Lid recently and I now have all of their albums. Here is one of the best Ambient groups around. Their music is minimalist but very carefully put together, processed, and recorded. It is also hypnotic. You may not even notice the musical changes until well after they happen because this is so subtle. No beat. No melody or only the faintest suggestion of one beginning to rise up out of the sound. This could have been a disastrously pretentious failure. Instead, the talent of the group hold all of its fragility together perfectly. Highly recommended for drone heads, ambient heads, those who need music to sleep to, chilling out.

If you're not on the list you can't come in
This is music for
people who write poetry, for people who work at home
for people who hate airports or traffic jams or shopping malls or trains
or who love the aftermath of late, late nights
and who dream a lot when they are awake.
It is music for the finest film you never saw,
or for people making plans inside their head
and it is music for people like me.