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The Sophtware Slump

by

Grandaddy

 
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The Sophtware Slump
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Avg: 4.5 (96 ratings)

Broken household appliance national forests, drunk robots and incest: Grandaddy at their best.

  • We Say...

    Review by Amelia Raitt

    The repeated mantra at the end of the opening track from Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump goes like this: "You're giving in, 2000 Man." It goes on for what seems like an eternity — 30 whole seconds! — until lead singer Jason Lytle finally breaks out of his reverie and urges "2000 Man" not to give up. This struggle between man and progress is the major theme that runs throughout Slump, as Lytle makes his way through broken household appliance national forests, drunk robots and a host of confusing chartsengrafs.

    But as depressing as the subject matter gets, hope peeks out of Slump every now and again. "The Crystal Lake" may be the group's finest moment, gluing together heavy rhythm guitars, Lytle's ever-present whine and a ramshackle oscillating synthesizer that seems to have been turned on and forgotten about. The same goes for "Hewlett's Daughter." Sure, the drums plod along like a drunken robot, but the opening hook is an undeniable one: "Hewlett's daughter/ Loved her father/ And I think she/ Loved me too…for a little while."

    Let's face it, though, Grandaddy is a pretty depressing band. Technology is always winning in this battle, whether it's in the sad tale of Jed, the forgotten robot, or the tinkling piano ballad "Underneath the Weeping Willow." On Slump, Lytle sounds like the American Thom Yorke — a whiny prophet that you want to hug as much as you want to punch. Luckily, with his excellent and ambitious backing band in tow, this is more Kid A than Pablo Honey.

  • They Say...

    Review by Heather Phares, All Music Guide

    Picking up where their Signal to Snow Ratio EP left off, Grandaddy's wittily named second album The Sophtware Slump upgrades the group's wry, country-tinged rock with electronic flourishes that run through the album like fiber-optic lines. Arpeggiated keyboards sparkle on "Hewlett's Daughter" and "The Crystal Lake," and wind, birds, and transmissions hover around the songs' peripheries, suggesting a Silicone Valley landscape. Jason Lytle's frail, poignant vocals provide a bittersweet counterpoint to the chugging guitars and shiny electronics that envelop him like a cockpit or a cubicle on "Chartsengrafs" and "Broken Household Appliance National Forest," and set the tone for melancholy ballads like "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot," "Miner at the Dial-a-View," and "Jed the Humanoid," the story of a forgotten, alcoholic android. Lost pilots, robots, miners, and programmers try to find their way on The Sophtware Slump, an album that shares a spacy sadness with Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider and Radiohead's OK Computer. Though it's a little more self-conscious and not quite as accomplished as either of those albums, it is Grandaddy's most impressive work yet, and one of 2000's first worthwhile releases. [The Japanese edition features bonus tracks.]

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