Tindersticks Album: “The Hungry Saw”

Disclosure: I like a lot of lo-fi music such as early Pavement, Guided By Voices, Billy Childish and what not. I also have several crappy sounding live bootlegs (Stones, Zappa, etc) that I love despite poor sound quality.

Times New Viking make an album like Vampire On Titus sound like Sgt Pepper. This would not normally be an issue with me but this cd is mixed WAY TOO LOUD. If you don't believe me, try this: listen to the amazon samples of your favorite album. Now listen to the samples from this album played at the same volume. This is not a bug on amazon's part, the disc is just insanely loud. Consequently the utter lack of any dynamics whatsoever completely ruin what might have been an enjoyable album. Instead the listener is left with nothing to grab a hold of save for some ho-hum melodies and middling vocals. "Times New Viking vs Yo La Tengo" shows some potential but unfortunately is the second to last song on the record is is tellingly an instrumental.

It is possible to make a great sounding lo-fi record. Albums such as Bee Thousand have a warm sound that really evoke classic recordings of the mid-60s. Unfortunately this is not one of those albums.

I bought this CD after reading some great reviews and the descriptions of the music sounded exactly like something I would like. And it is. That's why I still rate it 3 stars. It's just that the Cd is mixed so loud that it's damn near unlistenable. I consider myself well versed in lo-fi and I love the music. But the problem with this CD is not the recording quality per se, it's the recording mix volume and/or the volume of the source material mixed to the CD. If you purposely want to shock the crap out of someone, stick this sucker in and let 'er rip. The title of this CD make actually refer to your ears.

I thought punk was dead until I heard this album. This is a revolution in the genre, reflecting some of the great punk bands of our time such as Sex Pistols and the Ramones. It's loud, fast and totally addictive. I highly recommend this if you're not a sensitive listener!

This record will end up on every top 10 list come next december. I have listened to it at least 10 times in a row since purchasing it this morning. All I can say is WOW... It is sooo frikken good that I can't contain myself. This is THE album for everyone that longs for the part of the eighties that didn't suck (i.e. hardcore music) These guys are like a breath of fresh air. If I had to compare them to anyone it would be the illegitimate step child of Husker Du and Pixies. But don't let that make you think that these guys are on some nostalgia trip, they are definately music rooted in the 21st century they just also understand their place with the narrative of american indie music is all. First and foremost they just seem to be having a great time while making music that will make you want to bounce up and down and smile. I cannot recommend this record enough!!!