Sparklehorse
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot

The spirit and most authentic attitude of country music are well preserved in the underground of American music. To find them, one must rummage through the Byrdsian obsession of the Long Ryders, the punk convulsions of the Meat Puppets, the quirks of Giant Sand, the whispers of Cowboy Junkies and the rock surges of Green On Red and Dream Syndicate, passing through the painful neuroses of Violent Femmes and Neil Young.
Here are the seeds of the '90s alternative country bloom that characterized the last years of American music, and Sparklehorse are among the greatest bands of the scene, with this 1995 album with the endless title being their debut and masterpiece, on par with "It's A Wonderful Life" from 2001.

Forget the boots with spurs, but not really, forget the cowboy hair, but not really, forget the desert and the Arizona strip, but not really, forget the rosy Vermillion Cliffs of the old and faded films because in the nineties they regained color thanks to the mix of genres, because on "Vivadixie...", take my word, wild, new, and raw music is played. Mark Linkous, voice and guitar: "I see songs as little planets, they don't have to be in alignment, if they orbit they become boring".

Lo-fi as religion, folk rock as a daily lithium dose, explain certain nostalgically-psychedelic suffered pieces like Homecoming Queen or Cow or Weird Sisters. The peak of this nostalgic-anemic part is Spirit Ditch: spectral strumming and fragile voice, a lazy pace that immediately sticks in your head. What is astonishing are the extravagant arrangements that embellish the classic roots-folk, giving new vital energy to the genre.
The energetic part of the album also undergoes the same eccentric treatment (Pavement weren't the only ones arranging like this at that time), certain energetic peaks of theirs (Tears On Fresh Fruit) really make you jump for their moving shakiness (at times they even resemble The Fall who come from a completely different background), and despite this addictive dirtiness, they manage to sound "straight" (if you know what I mean, listen to Tom Verlaine's guitaring) as opposed to many groups in the scene that used chords to create the Pavement-like modus operandi "waste choruses and riffs which feels very alternative" as a backdrop.
The relentless and the askew intertwine in a spartan way, always tinged with an erratic quality, where sudden parentheses made of harmonic oddities open up. I see something "Neil-Younghian" in their roots spiced with folk and alternative (fragments and disturbed sounds, wonky pop, some acid echoes); and in their way of using rock for emotional purposes (listen to Someday I Will Treat You Good).

It is one of the masterpieces of the '90s because considering the classical American song form (mainly rock) with influences of the "roots sound", thus essentially electric country, but (here's the brilliant and sparkling variation) you can find country-punk outbursts, post rock approaches, and also gospel.
In short, a completely reinvented roots rock; although fundamentally, to my way of seeing this music, Linkous remains a cow-punk, not too distant from Giant Sand of Gelb.