I once read somewhere that
\nGrave Dancers Union<\/i> was a “last-gasp” effort from Dave
\nPirner and Soul Asylum. The decision had been made that if this
\nalbum didn’t take off, the band would call it a day. On the
\nstrength of the first three songs and the fanatical devotion of
\nalternative rock radio, the album did, in fact, take off, and
\nbecame the “breakthrough” album for Soul Asylum.<\/p>\n
Now, I’m someone who, quite frankly, never did like the song
\n“Runaway Train”; I thought it was too sappy and slow. Six years
\nafter
\nGrave Dancers Union<\/i> came out, my opinion of this song
\nremains the same, no matter how many times I pull this tape out of
\nthe Pierce Archives (where we’re still Sammy Sosa supporters) and
\ngive it a shot on the old JVC tape deck. Fact is, while Soul Asylum
\nhas become known for these slower songs, they’re at their best when
\nthey pull out all the stops and rock out.<\/p>\n
There are traces of this in the other big radio hit “Black
\nGold,” though even this song has gotten on my nerves thanks to the
\nconstant bombardment alternative radio has given it over the years.
\n(Hey, program directors: lighten up. The band has put out two other
\nalbums since then… any reason you ignored
\nCandy From A Stranger<\/i>?) The “minor” of the hits, “Somebody
\nTo Shove,” captures the essence of Soul Asylum much better for
\nme.<\/p>\n
No, wait, that actually isn’t true. For of the great songs on
\nGrave Dancers Union<\/i>, the best are some of the tracks that
\ndidn’t make it onto the radio. “Keep It Up” earns the title of
\n“Single That Never Was”; if any song begged to be lifted from the
\nalbum and sent out across the airwaves, this was the one. And while
\nit wouldn’t have gotten airplay due to one little word, “99%” is a
\nfeedback-laden paradise that challenges the images of Soul Asylum
\nthat the casual fan might have had.<\/p>\n
Granted, there are some weak moments on
\nGrave Dancers Union<\/i>, such as the brief, mistaken dip into
\ncountry rock on “New World” and the
\nSgt. Pepper<\/i> influences on “The Sun Maid,” a song that is far
\ntoo slow. Still, these moments aren’t many.<\/p>\n
\nGrave Dancers Union<\/i> is an album that you won’t truly
\nappreciate until you’ve given it a few spins. Sure, there will be
\nsome songs you’ll like on the initial listen – and I’m willing to
\nbet those are the singles. But once you’ve spent a little more time
\nwith the album, you’ll appreciate many of the songs that weren’t
\nchosen to be singles – songs, in fact, that were better than any of
\nthe three singles themselves.<\/p>\n
Soul Asylum could have easily packed things in after being
\ndropped from A&M after the commercial failure of
\nAnd The Horse They Rode In On<\/i>, but they decided to give it
\none more chance with
\nGrave Dancers Union<\/i>. For that, we should be thankful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7594],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39427","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soul-asylum","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39427"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39427"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}