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RE: Sammystown, in the last few years I've gone from "enh that was no Dark Continent" to "that was better than a Stan-less WOV had any right to be" to "wow, this is actually really excellent!"― No energy, only great chaos (Dan Peterson), Thursday, March 22, 2018 10:23 AM (two hours ago)
I love
Seven Days in Sammystown! It's not 100% successful, but the best tracks hold their own w/ what came before. Along with "Far Side of Crazy" and "Don't Spill My Courage"*, I'm particularly fond of "Museums" and "Blackboard Sky". Weird combination of gothic Americana, new wave camp and L.A. noir, all strung together with a thread of weirdly affecting melancholy. Given its oddity and eclecticism, I can see why it fell through the cracks in its moment, but I'm half surprised that it remains forgotten. The curse of being neither fish nor fowl, I suppose. Too goofy and synth-driven for the alt country crowd, but too earnest & slickly commercial for new wave excavators.
* A wonderful song, but I've always been vaguely bothered by the accusatory bridge ("You say my savior has forgotten me..."). The lyrics don't seem to fit with the prior verse, which centers around the legless narrator's repudiation of condescending evangelicals. I think we're meant to understand that the target has shifted from those who would exploit his faith to those who mock him for it, but it's a bit unclear as written.
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Thursday, 22 March 2018 20:36 (six years ago) link