{"id":44005,"date":"2015-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/are-you-shakespearienced-reissue\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:10","slug":"are-you-shakespearienced-reissue","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/are-you-shakespearienced-reissue\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Shakespearienced? (reissue)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Before\u00a0they\u00a0signed to the national A&#038;M label, the Harvard University-born Trip Shakespeare issued two well received and critically acclaimed independent albums. The first, 1986\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/applehead-man-reissue\/\"><i>Applehead Man<\/i><\/a>  (see my review), found the band\u2019s music in an embryonic stage. 1989\u2019s <i>Are You Shakespearienced <\/i>is a more mature effort where the music has been honed by hundreds of live performances. Omnivore Recordings has now reissued both albums, complete with bonus tracks.<\/p>\n<p>The band had expanded to a foursome on this release, with guitarist\/keyboardist Dan Wilson joining original members guitar\/vocalist Matt Wilson, bassist John Munson, and drummer Elaine Harris. His presence created a fuller sound and expanded the vocal harmonies. The nearly three-year period between albums allowed the band to create many of what would become their signature songs. It all adds up to their signature masterpiece. However, when they signed to a label with national distribution, some of their creative edge was silenced as they tried to fit in to the mainstream a bit too much.<\/p>\n<p>The band\u2019s live shows tended to have an improvisational nature where they linked songs together in a chain. While some of that approach is lost in the studio, the tracks here still present a cohesive whole as they meander and flow into each other. \u201cSwing,\u201d \u201cTwo Wheeler Four Wheeler,\u201d \u201cSpirit,\u201d and \u201cReception\u201d present Trip Shakespeare at their quirky, rocking best.<\/p>\n<p>The nine-track original album is enhanced by nine more previously unreleased\u00a0bonus songs. The live favorite \u201cLook At The Lady\u201d emerges as a sonic studio track alongside such lost songs as \u201cEarth,\u201d \u201cBy Revolving,\u201d \u201cCar,\u201d \u201cBlack Road,\u201d \u201cStories End,\u201d and \u201c10,000 Watt Searching Light,\u201d which were all originally recorded about the same time.<\/p>\n<p><i>Are You Shakesperienced? <\/i>finds a powerful, creative, and wonderfully eclectic rock band at their best. It is a trip worth taking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":32252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9561],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44005","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-trip-shakespeare","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44005","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44005"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}