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Rating: Alongside the many noteworthy groups and artists that emerged in Minneapolis, a Midwest city in the USA, from Prince to the immense Replacements, Husker Du, and Jayhawks in a more rock scene (and surroundings), the 'Loud Fast Rules' were born in 1981 in a garage in the same city, a band formed by singer Dave Pirner, guitarist Dan Murphy, and Karl Mueller (R.I.P.) on bass, who soon adopted the brand name Soul Asylum, with which they made themselves known to the world over the following decade.
Despite the still raw debut of 'Say What You Will' (1984) and the great maturity reached only two years later with the release of 'Made to be Broken', 'While You Were Out' (along with the collection of outtakes, released only on cassette, named 'Time's Incinerator'), Soul Asylum struggled excessively to emerge from the underground band context, despite the undeniable quality of their musical proposal, overshadowed by the fame achieved by fellow citizens Husker Du and Replacements, in addition to the poor promotion by their record label of those years (the local Twin/Tone Records), which moreover considerably penalized the group also at the level of production and sound impact of the tracks.
The first major turning point for the band fortunately came in 1988, thanks to the signing with the first major record label, A&M, under whose brand this 'Hang Time', the group's fourth release, was published during the same year.
Following the line of what was proposed in the previous two albums, the opener 'Down on up to Me' immediately scratches with its riffs in full hard rock style with bluesy interludes, indebted to the great masters of the Seventies, as in the subsequent and even more convincing and captivating 'Little Too Clean'; while in 'Sometime to Return' and 'Standing in the Doorway' we are faced with two rock pieces with a strong emotional impact, which also allow something to pop in the triumphant and catchy choruses. Despite the quality and charge of the initial tracks, even just the first chords of 'Cartoon' surprise once again for the brightness and energy they manage to release, in an anthem of disarming beauty, sung in chorus by the band; with a text, however, in dark and pessimistic tones, dedicated to the youth of their generation, devoid of ideals and defeated by society; it certainly deserves to stand alongside songs like 'Can't Go Back' (also composed by Dan Murphy), 'Never Really Been', and 'Runaway Train' (signed by Dave Pirner), among the most significant and memorable tracks left as a legacy by the group.
Halfway through the album, the sweet chords of 'Endless Farewell' break the rhythm, an ethereal, evocative ballad with a desperate progression, which succeeds in the intent to bring down the night even for a fleeting moment, lulled by Pirner's subdued voice, suspended between dream and reality, and capable of releasing notes full of melancholy and sadness, immediately swept away, however, by the liveliness of 'Beggars and Choosers' and the fresh easy-listening rock of 'Marionette'; but the band immediately gets back to serious business with the brief and aggressive southern interlude of 'Ode' (strongly indebted to bands such as Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, and ZZ Top), the unleashed hard rock of 'Heavy Rotation', and the electrifying 'Jack of all Trades', once again in the name of the hard rock tinged with the blues of the beginnings, which still amazes for lightning fast accelerations, time changes, and perfect refrains. Finally, it is up to two funny folk nursery rhymes like 'Twiddly Dee' and 'Put the Bone in' to put an end to this wonderful album, while the desire to put it back on and play it from the beginning already starts to take over.
The over 40 minutes of 'Hang Time' reveal all the creativity and maturity reached by Soul Asylum, and can be considered the album of consecration, in which the intuitions of 'Made To Be Broken' come to fruition, combined with the more garage-rock attitude present in 'While You Were Out', despite the still approximate production, to the detriment of having moved to a major, continue to penalize the sound rendering of the songs.
With this album, the first part of the band's career will also end, in fact already from the next 'And the Horse They Rode in on' (1990), all the band's hardcore and garage influences will almost definitely be set aside, to turn towards a more classic rock sound, with greater concessions to pop and tracks with a more acoustic flavor but, despite it being an album of transition, it still contained within it some pieces worthy of standing alongside their most beautiful works (for example 'Spinnin', 'Veil of Tears', 'Easy Street', 'We 3', and 'All the King's Friend').
In 1992, it was the turn of 'Grave Dancers Union', a full-length in which the group finally achieved the success it had deserved even before, for what it produced in previous years, thanks to the presence of an important historically significant track like 'Runaway Train', which, accompanied by a video clip full of pain and social protest, delivered the group to worldwide fame; this despite at the level of sound very little remained of the band's beginnings, embracing sounds tending more towards folk and roots rock, while still maintaining a high quality in terms of songwriting and lyrics.
The real commercial turning point, only hinted at in 'Grave Dancers Union', instead arrived three years later, with 'Let Your Dim Light Shine', an album more constructed that distorted the band's sound in some episodes (as in the Bon Jovi-like 'Hopes Up', 'Shut Down', 'Crawl', 'Nothing to Write Home About'), but proposing, alongside tracks too much in search of the new hit like 'Runaway Train' ('Misery'), also some delicate and well-executed ballads that did not look out of place compared to those contained in 'Grave Dancers Union' ('String of Pearls', 'Eyes of a Child', 'I Did My Best'). After the relative failure of the album, Soul Asylum faced the inevitable decline, between the parallel project 'Golden Smog', in which Pirner did not participate, and the release of a new album that entirely went unnoticed (the soporific 'Candy from a Stranger, 1998) followed by the abandonment by the then record label, Columbia.
The band, without ever announcing their disbanding, faced 8 years of silence, interrupted in 2005 by the sad news of the death of historical bassist Karl Mueller, and the creation of a new album of unpublished works, 'The Silver Lining' (2006), the listening of which, however, cannot help but evoke a touch of nostalgia for the times that were, for a band that, both in the electric version of the Eighties and the more intimate one of 'Grave Dancers Union', although it collected much less than it deserved, played an important role on the American rock scene and beyond, marking a generation with songs that still remain today and will remain unforgettable, finding forever a special place in the 'soul' and heart of all the people who loved them.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Sometime To Return (03:30)
I ran away I walked a fine line
wasting time only to find
you were callin' I think finally
to remind me I am fine
What you are is what you see
and you see me and we can be
something you can call real we are we are we are
doing the best we can
working without a plan
i'm beginning to understand
its getting out of hand
I have seen these closing doors
I've woke up on this floor before
Picked it apart for hours and hours and hours
Of turning, tossing and looking and listening
to you and all the fucked up things you do
but you're doing the best you can
with every grain of sand
its trickling through your hand
sayin'catch me if you can
if someday comes early
comes whipping comes whirling
to take you for all you have learned
the tables are turning
my bridges are burning
my destination sometime to return
throw away your calender
and saddle up your salamander
get up and get down
ride in to town and look around
get up and do something
no time to choose it
do it do it do it do it
Doing the best I can, with or
without a plan, I'm taking what I can get, I haven't seen
nothing yet. If one day you wake up and find what you make up,
come and get me, come and take me there. Into your illusion,
I'll make my intrusion - anytime, anyplace, anywhere. The hour
glass is draining fast, it knows no future holds no past, and
all this shit will come to pass - never, forever, whatever.
04 Cartoon (03:53)
Now everybody's looking after me,
If I'm dragging by some coat tail, I can't see; it's too dark,
But I've got to know what's got the best of me.
When the circus that you left goes on parade,
And those things you see seem so far in your charade's too far,
But I'm feeling like I don't dare look away, Don't look away.
Did it almost make you feel, that something's got to happen soon,
When you wake up feeling lost in your own room.
If you're crying in your beer, you're gonna drown,
If you think we'll rise above, you'd better look around, you'll see.
It's a mountain made of sand crumbling under me.
Maybe I'm chasing shadows on your wall,
They loom so large, but make me feel so small somehow,
When you're chasing your own tail spinning your own wheels.
And a time to leave, and a time to stay, I guess the things I look away.
Did it almost make you feel that somethings gotta happen soon.
You're in the movies now that I'm in your cartoon.
There's a ringing in my ears that's heaven sent.
There's a beast out on the ruins, some broken down lover's lament.
It goes on and on but it won't go away.
09 Ode (02:19)
Well my friend Jud he was a fuddy-dud
Chewed his cud, was a stick in the mud
I swear he hated everyone
And he's bumming nickels and bumming dimes
But most of all you know he's just bumming time
And every day was a bad day
They walked out and on and over him, he was turning gray
Never knew love he gave up on hope
Stayed in bed and he stopped using soap was a dirty old man
But he never said poor little old me, poor poor
Now one fine day he won the lottery
Instant millionaire without a care it didn't change a thing
Drove up to Reno he lost everything at a roadside casino
You know he never made it into town
Where the bright lights trickle down, he was a casualty
And all he got was more lewd and crude, he was very rude
The only thing he hated worse than the city
Was charity and self pity he'd been around
I talked to him that's what I found, he was a casualty
Poor little old me, poor poor casualty
11 Twiddly Dee (03:01)
Twiddly dee fe fi fo fum
There's a giant sleeping and his pants are undone
He shows no pity for anyone
He's sure to be killed before the morning comes
Twiddle my fingers and I twiddle my thumb
'Cause I ain't gonna quit 'til my work is all done
I'm a high society skid row bum
Well on my way to Kingdom Come
I twiddle in the middle of the moon and sun
I'm wishing and dreaming I'm a special someone
Don't leave my load on anyone
It's way too high and it weighs a ton
Do re mi fe fi fo fum
I'm a slave to the music of a father and son
I never force it on anyone
Can't keep it a secret so I keep it on the run
They may say what they say about the way that we stay
They may do what they do about the things that we do
Ain't worried about the dumb things I done
Ain't worried about the dumb things to come
Sometimes I wanna be friends with everyone
My friends tell me it can't be done
And some days I feel I don't know anyone
Now what goes up doesn't always come down
You'll never believe the things I've found
Amazing what you learn just hanging around
Can't put a square peg in a hole that's round
They may say what they say about the way that we stay
They may do what they do about the things that we do
If we win or if we lose it's a pleasure to play
Work all night and I sleep all day
Just because I'm lucky I can live my own way
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