Saturday, March 15, 2008

Anyone Knows Those Things

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Although pretty much all of The Embarrasment vinyl was re-issued on the Heyday double CD about a dozen years ago, I can say that the original vinyl of this (the Death Travels West LP) is still a pretty awesome thing to own. The painting that makes up the front and back cover art might look dorky as little computer images here, and you need to hold the LP jacket in your hands to get the full effect. The other little touches (the reverse Day/Night labels on the record, the way track 8 gets listed, the insert with the so-called "Dirty Room" photo) are pretty cool, also.

Since I've already used up my supply of adjectives on effusive praise for Chemistry Set and Matt Keating records lately, for once I'm gonna go with someone else's description (the guy at www.embarrassment.org) for this one:

"Arguably the strongest set of work put out by the Embos, it remains, many years after its release, a pop masterpiece and perhaps one of the true high points in the independent record movement in the 1980s. The sound ranges from driving and bright to grinding and dank, from desperate and punkish to clean, clear, and bright. And the whole thing rocks..."

Some have said that this is a concept record, and that the songs follow a storyline. It's a thought that's supposedly never been confirmed by the band, and I'm going to ruin any narrative string by leaving off three of the songs here anyway. Yeah, this new internet thing really sucks, but I'm sure you've already figured that out by now.




The Embarrassment -

"Careen"

"Drive Me To The Park"

"D-Rings"

"Hip and Well Read"

"Death Travels West"

(these files are now listen-only)


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1 comment:

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. For those of you who missed the boat, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original files.