God damn, the Archers of Loaf's Icky Mettle is a fine disc. How the hell did it escape my attention in 1993? I was listening to the indie rock bands the Archers are commonly compared to--Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. and the like. But I didn't pick it up until a few years ago, and even then, "Web In Front," the opening track,
is so good that it overshadowed the rest of the album. I'd repeat "Web" until I got sick of it and then move on to something completely different. But the wonder that
is my iPod's "Alt, Punk, Pop & Rock" playlist kept pulling up other Icky Mettle tracks until I finally saw the error of my ways.
It's weird to feel so freshly enthusiastic about a 12-year-old album. A number of my faves from the same era haven't aged all that well, and I wonder if I'd like Icky as much today if I'd heard it back in '93. But I didn't (hear it then), so I do (love it now).
2 Responses
Who the hell names a band "archers of loaf"? Isn't that asking for obscurity?
xo, your difficult and snarky wife
Touche. But the funny thing is that from like '93 to '96, they weren't obscure at all. They were actually pretty well known in the relatively small indie rock world that I thought I was in tune with. Just goes to show you that the world is always bigger than you think, and that I always know less than I think I do.