American Water (album)

American Water
Studio album by Silver Jews
Released	October 20, 1998
Recorded	Rare Book Room, Brooklyn
Genre	Indie rock
Length	47:53
Label	Drag City
Producer	Nicolas Vernhes & Silver Jews
Silver Jews chronology
The Natural Bridge (1996) American Water (1998) Bright Flight (2001)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
NME	(7/10)[2]
Pitchfork Media	(9.9/10)[3]
Rolling Stone	[4]

American Water is the third full-length studio album by indie rock group Silver Jews. Released in 1998 as an LP and CD on Drag City (DC149) in America and Domino (WIG56) in Europe, American Water was recorded at The Rare Book Room in Brooklyn and mastered at Abbey Road Studios. The album features musicians Tim Barnes, David Berman, Mike Fellows, Stephen Malkmus, Chris Stroffolino, and artwork by Chris Kysor.

According to a 1998 article in online zine Addicted to Noise, the working title for this album was The Late, Great Silver Jews — a reference to the similarly titled 1972 album by Townes Van Zandt. Among the songs recorded for the album, but omitted from the final product, were "Self-Ignition" (released as a B-side on the "Send in the Clouds" single) and "Police Conversation, 1783", which was never released.^[5]

Track listing

All tracks composed by David Berman; except where indicated

1. "Random Rules" – 4:00
2. "Smith & Jones Forever" – 3:20
3. "Night Society" – 2:19
4. "Federal Dust" (Berman/Stephen Malkmus) – 4:03
5. "People" – 4:45
6. "Blue Arrangements" (Berman/Stephen Malkmus) – 4:40
7. "We Are Real" – 4:24
8. "Send in the Clouds" – 5:26
9. "Like Like the the the Death" – 4:00
10. "Buckingham Rabbit" – 4:58
11. "Honk If You're Lonely" (Berman/Gate Pratt) – 2:49
12. "The Wild Kindness" – 3:54

References