Tinker to Evers to Chance (album)

Tinker to Evers to Chance
Compilation album by Game Theory
Released March 1990
Genre Rock, power pop
Label Enigma Records
Producer Mitch Easter and Scott Miller
Game Theory chronology

Two Steps from the Middle Ages
(1988)		 Tinker to Evers to Chance
(1990)		 Distortion of Glory
(1993)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Tinker to Evers to Chance is a compilation album of songs by Game Theory, released in 1990. The liner notes describe the included tracks as songs which "reached national obscurity, as opposed to local obscurity." Band leader Scott Miller went on to form The Loud Family.

The album's title refers to the poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon", though it also suggests the band's penchant for tinkering and allowing seemingly random elements into their work. The cover image further puns on the title, featuring a piece from a set of Tinker Toys, a stopwatch ("evers"), and die ("chance").

Critical reception

The Chicago Tribune wrote in 1990 that Tinker to Evers to Chance, while displaying all of Miller's shortcomings during the band's "seven-year history of obscurity", also made a "powerful case" that Game Theory had been "unjustly overlooked."[2] Citing songs such as "the jangly, angst-ridden '24,' the lush 'Regenisraen' and the soaring 'Room for One More, Honey'", critic Mark Caro wrote that Miller "covers heart pains and dissatisfaction with a liveliness and playfulness missing from other literate popsters", displaying "an instinctive feel for pop hooks and textures, and his ambition often pays off, allowing him to hit climaxes like the acoustic guitar rush that elevates 'Throwing the Election' after you`d have thought the song was over."[2]

Track listing

  1. "Beach State Rocking" – 2:56
  2. "Bad Year at U.C.L.A." – 2:58
  3. "Sleeping Through Heaven" – 4:06
  4. "Something to Show" – 2:39
  5. "Penny, Things Won't" – 5:18
  6. "Metal and Glass Exact" – 3:37
  7. "Shark Pretty" – 4:00
  8. "Nine Lives to Rigel Five" – 2:49
  9. "The Red Baron" – 3:42
  10. "24" – 2:49
  11. "Curse of the Frontier Land" – 3:33
  12. "I Turned Her Away" - 3:00
  13. "Regenisraen" - 3:29
  14. "Erica's Word" - 3:56
  15. "Crash Into June" - 2:58
  16. "Like a Girl Jesus" - 2:40
  17. "We Love You, Carol and Alison" - 3:26
  18. "The Real Sheila" - 3:35
  19. "Together Now, Very Minor" - 3:32
  20. "Room For One More, Honey" - 3:02
  21. "Leilani" - 3:02
  22. "Throwing the Election" - 4:11

Personnel

External links

References

  1. ↑ AllMusic review
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Caro, Mark (June 10, 1990). "Game Theory Tinker to Evers to Chance". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2013-12-13.