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Rating: It's well known that Slint created two of the most revolutionary rock music albums. Among those who embraced their vision are Louisville's Rodan, who, having masterfully understood the lesson, released "Rusty", their only album, in 1994, a great and fundamental one for the post-rock scene.
The work opens with "Bible Silver Corner," composed of acoustic-style guitar interweavings that weave a sweet yet simultaneously unsettling melody connecting well with the second track "Shiner", which might seem like a scream-out-loud hardcore piece but, upon closer inspection, doesn't have much in common with it because there's no cathartic release of anger; rather, the anger remains internal and becomes psychological, and the execution is not spontaneous and immediate but more calculated and structured to create tension. Therefore, this track is just the flip side of the first one. Unease and tension (at their peak) are indeed the key words and major expressions of the album, as the following tracks do nothing but synthesize these themes: "The Everyday World Of Bodies," perhaps the masterpiece, with its ample eleven minutes of slowdowns and speed-ups, the narrated and shouted lyrics, the rhythmic frameworks, and the guitar dialogues do nothing but create an oppressive sense of anxiety that pulls the brain like a spring until it stretches it like a guitar string almost to the breaking point; the remaining three songs, "Jungle Jim," "Gauge," and "Tooth Fairy Retribution Manifesto," averaging seven minutes each, continue to tread these paths, or rather trails, because these songs give the idea of narratives that evolve and change without leading to anything but increasing fear (very Kafkaesque), like getting lost in a dense, dark forest without being able to find a way out among the animal calls, the same sensation.
Perhaps the best thing Rodan could have done after this album was to break up, as it would have been difficult to produce a follow-up worthy of this work and also because the members went on to form very important bands (just think of the "June of 44" of guitarist Jeff Mueller) that still reinterpreted the legacy of this seminal work. The cover is splendid also because it is very significant, as during the listening experience you will feel just like that butterfly (a symbol of freedom) trapped in a box among electric wires and warm artificial lights, in a desperate attempt to escape.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Shiner (02:38)
After last night it's hard to shine
After last night I'm surprised the day even came
But it came
A train of obscene images
Moving through the black hedge
Aching and thick with rust
All showing as soon as the sun comes up
It takes light to the paper
It burns its head and throat
Spreading a rash of arsenic, magnolias and crushed coal
A fire in its heart
Will not let it die
It roars and fumes and cries all day
Shoot me out the sky
Pop pop! Down goes the enemy
The shade came under the roses finally
Us on our backs in the back yard
Under the trees
Attempting to breathe
Attempting to see
Attempting to feel anything
The rain that claimed the sky as it shined
Pulled the shutters down on light
We sigh and sit and worship it as it ends.
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By alerussian
Rusty is the whole target — encompassing styles from classical to metal, jazz to punk.
Rusty is the description a madman might give of his mental state just before falling into the abyss of madness.
By CosmicJocker
Rodan's 'Rusty' follows a path of a man in the maze of relationships with the outside world.
This underground man has finally abandoned the basement of 'Spiderland,' placing himself in the current of the world with a refined madness.
