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Spiderland

Slint Audio CD
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Music

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Biography

Slint established its earliest roots when, in 1981, at the ages of eleven and twelve, guitarist Brian McMahan and drummer Britt Walford began playing together in Louisville, KY. In 1984, Britt Walford and guitarist David Pajo started collaborating musically at the ages of fourteen and sixteen. 1985 saw the origination of Slint itself, the band then comprising Britt Walford, David Pajo, and ... Read more in Amazon's Slint Store

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Product details

  • Audio CD (1 Jun 2004)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Touch & Go
  • ASIN: B000025WR8
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 61,788 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Eight-legged gloom machine 10 Jan 2004
By russell clarke TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
I bought "Spiderland" on the same day as Codeine,s "Frigid Stars". If you are one of those less enlightened people who equate "depressing music" with being depressed that you,d have thought that was a real bummer of a day. On the contrary i was as happy as Robbie Williams in front of a full length mirror. Two stone cold classics in one day. Memories are made of this.
"Spiderland" shares "Frigid Stars" same wracked emotional landscape but is if anything even more bereft of hope.Skeletal guitars which are fleshed out by sudden squalls of caustic noise adorn this album. The sound is stark and unembellished. The vocals are mostly spoken in a tired resigned voice,dry as autumn leaves after an Indian summer.When the torpor is lifted by guitars that squeal like a stuck pig or the vocals rise to a pitiful howl its startling.
Never is this more superbly illusrated than on the albums undoubted highlight "Good Morning Captain" A plangent guitar motif gives way to a precise rolling drunbeat.The voice is innervated,bled of all emotion. The guitars occasionally morph into discordant streams of uncluttered noise. Then at the songs epoch they surge and seethe and the vocallist screams, and i mean really screams....a howl of such pain and anguish it travels up your spine like a bullet.I kid you not, it,s one of the greatest moments in the history of recorded music.
Needless to say it,s worth owning this album for that track alone and it,s one tiny problem is that nothing else comes near to matching it. In terms of consistency "Frigid Stars" is actually the superior work but at these elevated levels of artistry it,s fairly irrelevant."Spiderland"is a landmark release and listening to it again for the first time in a long time for the purposes of this review has been a draining experience.
... Read more ›
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An expressive, intense masterpiece. 28 Oct 2000
Format:Audio CD
I bought this classic album back in 1991 and am always moved by the depth, subtlety and power of the music. Dynamics are strong throughout, with beautifully constructed, sublime guitar riffs and chords, and expressive, sometimes delicate rhythms. Vocals range from softly spoken renditions of personal experiences to intense, powerful expressions of angst. Understated and played with genuine intent and purpose, a range of emotions are expressed and felt by the listener.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The album of the 1990s 3 Nov 2009
Format:Audio CD
With this masterpiece, released in 1991, Slint took the force that had driven the American underground for a decade - hardcore punk - and twisted it beyond imagination, leaving behind the unfettered aggression that traditionally characterised hardcore in favour of an abstract, minimalist beauty reminiscent of modernist classical music. Spiderland is an album of complex, mathematical rhythms, dark melodies, angular shards of guitar, stark drumming and haunting lyrical subject matter, delivered stream-of-consciousness style via Brian McMahan's tortured whispers. Slint preserve, to an extent, the soft-hard / quiet-loud dynamic that had emerged from the work of more mainstream indie bands like the Pixies and Nirvana, but the way it comes across with Slint is far more skewed and convoluted, with hushed, reflective sections getting overcome by sudden surges of white noise. The album could almost be the musical equivalent of an M.C. Escher lithograph. The general feel of the album sometimes brings to mind the music of John Fahey and Television, but nonetheless Slint succeed in creating something truly original, unlike anything that had been heard before. However, similarity to what came after is a different matter - Spiderland largely invented the genres of post-rock and math rock, and echoes of the album can be heard in the work of most musicians of these genres. Bands such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor openly acknowledge their debt to the album. In my opinion, however, no post-rock or math rock musician has ever come close to rivalling the level of Slint's achievements with Spiderland.... Read more ›
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Palace of Varieties 29 Aug 2003
By Adam
Format:Vinyl
I got hold of this in '92 after being entranced by my mate's copy in the wilds of France. There can't be many albums with a more appropriate title. The dreamscapes created are nightmarish in their intensity, compelling in their scope. I re-discovered this recently and instantly berated myself for neglecting a work of genius. One of the few albums where you can really loose yourself in a web (forgive the pun) of pinwheeling guitars. And i'm sure there's a snare-drum nod to Steve Albini in there somewhere. Shame it's not longer.

Arachnophobes avoid.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars "In the mirror he saw his friend." 21 July 2007
Format:Audio CD
Unheard of by many, revered by almost all those that own it, Slint's second (and last) album is regarded as one of the most influential alternative records ever released.

Brian McMahan's primarily spoken vocals offer a haunting juxtaposition to David Pajo's (later of Tortoise and Zwan) jaggedly ornate guitar playing, with the lyrics seemingly having little connection to the stop-start syncopation of the instrumental. From McMahan's tale of a ride on a roller-coaster with a gypsy fortune teller at a carnival in Spiderland's opener 'Breadcrumb Trail' to his reworking of Coleridge's opus The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ('Good Morning, Captain'), at the album's close, Slint's final work runs the gamut of marginal human experience, abstracted against a backdrop of jazz time signatures and 'spidery' guitars, to create a stifling air of impending doom. For all that however, 'Washer' is one of the most startlingly beautiful elegies committed to record.

Sexy, claustrophobic, unashamedly arty and conceptual, Spiderland is considered by many to be the first true 'post-rock' album, following their Steve Albini-recorded 'post-hardcore' debut, Tweez (1989).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Damn Near Perfect Album
I came to this album after listening to what I found out to be the closing track of this album 'Good Morning Captain'. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Curlysaurus
5.0 out of 5 stars How did I miss this at the time?
I stumbled acrioss Spiderland in early 2010 lurking in the bargain bin of an music shop in a small Irish town. Its not where you expect to uncover lost genre-busting classics. Read more
Published on 9 Dec 2010 by Robert Love
5.0 out of 5 stars Bare bones
The ability to forge powerful and emotionally evocative music with as little instrumentation and texture as possible. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2009 by Tom Chase
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best ones
Personally I can't see how anyone couldn't like this, then again I also can't see how anyone could think that mullets look good or that Coldplay's new album 'wasn't that bad' or... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2009 by Mr. D. P. Carter
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential album
One of the few things Pitchfork gets right, Spiderland is both one of the most "important" rock albums (whatever that means) as well as one of the best. Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2008 by Some call me... photoshop
5.0 out of 5 stars So good I own this on 3 formats...
Hell, this record is so good, I got it on cd, lp and a back up copy on minidisc just in case... if my house were on fire I would save the vinyle before my housemates - and I like... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2008 by Ben J. Johnson
3.0 out of 5 stars OK
Going after one of the holy cows of influential 'post-rock' here but just being honest, this is a good album, worthy of a place on the shelf of anyone who likes guitar music but I... Read more
Published on 19 Jun 2008 by Mr. T. Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars Short but very Sweet
Slint are an alternative rock band from Kentucky, USA. They formed in 1986 and released their first album "Tweez" in 1987. Read more
Published on 7 April 2008 by mollynew442
4.0 out of 5 stars fine stuff from dark hearts
slint,were,are,well i believe that they reformed for a few shows this year,but may not reform full time,are a band that the critics say invented the genre of post rock,this indeed... Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2007 by sean paul mccann
5.0 out of 5 stars Slint/Spiderland show London August 2007
Only took the plunge with this album earlier on this year (2007). It immediately smashed it's way into my all time top 10. This is serious stuff. Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2007 by Lombardinho
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