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Rating: What Does Desolation Sound Like?
With randomly plucked guitar strings and a featureless voice trying to tune in to lyrics composed by a misfit. In the year of the BeeGees and Tony Manero, Jandek releases an album of nine songs (?) written by a catatonic Will Oldham. Post-nothing laments that have no intention of being remembered or even noticed. They even have titles ("Naked In The Afternoon", "Show Me The Way, O Lord") but are interchangeable: your favorite radio DJ announces one and plays another. You won’t notice. It closes with the electric "European Jewel" which is not even completed. Surely, the world is full of Jandeks. Lonely individuals, shut in their rooms with the curtains drawn, strum and sing to the ceiling the renowned line "that's your condition...". Continuously. And that's it.
Side notes: 1) I have no intention of reviewing the other 42 albums released (4 just this year). Do something yourselves. 2) Jandek is now a star. He even holds concerts. 3) the correct rating would be one and five stars, since I can't, I take the average. 4) before the expert says it: "Your Condition" appears on "Later On", 1981.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Naked in the Afternoon (04:44)
I got a vision, a teenage daughter
Who's growing up naked in the afternoon
I know a brother close to his mother
Who stays out late in the evening time
I keep repeating, it takes a beating
To grow up naked in the afternoon
You are a cowboy if you wear those boots
You are a cowboy when you wear those boots [3x]
Big time in the city [4x]
I got a letter
I read in the paper
It said a man was shot to death
It said a cow gave poison milk
Big time in the city when you wear those boots
I keep repeating, it takes a beating
To wear those boots in the afternoon
You call it a question
You call it a color
I got a letter
I think it's a vision
Big time in the city
I got a vision
I know a brother close to his mother
After the morning
You've had your rest
Well I got a letter
You are a cowboy
Big time in the city
Time to go naked in the afternoon
Take off your hat, take off your coat
Big time in the city
You've had your rest
I got a letter
You are a cowboy
Read in the paper
Big time in the city
It's time to go naked in the afternoon
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