Throwing Muses (1986 album)

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Throwing Muses
Studio album by Throwing Muses
Released 1986
Label 4AD
Producer Gil Norton
Professional reviews

Throwing Muses is the name of the 1986 debut album of the band Throwing Muses, according to 4AD, the label that released the album.[1] The band itself, however, considers the album to be untitled, with Throwing Muses the name they give to another album released in 2003.

This was the first album by an American band to be released on 4AD, which had concentrated primarily on United Kingdom-based acts up to this point. This release marks a shift in the label's direction; a year later 4AD would sign the Pixies based in part on the band's connection to the Muses, and by the mid-1990s much of the label's roster was made up of American bands.

All the songs on the album were written by Kristin Hersh, with the exception of "Green", written by Tanya Donelly. The album was produced by Gil Norton, who went on to produce albums for the Pixies.

All-Music Guide calls the album a "powerful debut" whose "startling collision of punk energy, folky melodicism, and Kristin Hersh's mercurial voice and lyrics...puts the work of most self-consciously 'tortured' artists to shame." The review praises the record's "fluid, effortless emotional shifts"--also described as "violent, vibrant mood swings".[2]

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Call Me"
  2. "Green"
  3. "Hate My Way"
  4. "Vicky's Box"
  5. "Rabbits Dying"
  6. "America (She Can't Say No)"
  7. "Fear"
  8. "Stand Up"
  9. "Soul Soldier"
  10. "Delicate Cutters"

[edit] Release history

The album was originally released in the UK by 4AD in August 1986 (CAD607) on LP, CD and cassette. Sometime around the early 1990s, the album went out of print, as plans were made by the band's American label, Sire Records to issue the album for the first time in the USA, along with 1987's Chains Changed EP, which had also never seen American release. After the Muses were dropped by Sire following the disappointing sales for 1995's critical favorite University, plans for the re-issue were dropped.

The band later resurrected the re-issue project, issuing the 2-CD compilation In a Doghouse in 1998 on 4AD (DAD607CD) in the UK, and on Rykodisc in the USA. This compilation not only contained the debut LP and EP as originally planned, but also (on the second CD) the demo tape that convinced 4AD president Ivo Watts-Russell to sign the band; newly recorded versions of songs originally written in the band's early years; and the band's award-winning 1987 video for the song "Fish."

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ All-Music Guide and The New Trouser Press Record Guide (1989) also refer to the album as Throwing Muses.
  2. ^ "Throwing Muses [1986"], Heater Phares, All-Music Guide.
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