Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
26 used & new from £2.98

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Available to Download Now
 
Buy the MP3 album for £6.98
 
 
 
 
The Grotto
 
See larger image and other views
 

The Grotto

~ Kristin Hersh
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Price: £6.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, July 15? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
22 new from £3.99 3 used from £2.98 1 collectible from £9.99
Buy the MP3 album for £6.98 at the Amazon MP3 Downloads store.


Frequently Bought Together

The Grotto + Sunny Border Blue + Learn to Sing Like a Star
Price For All Three: £21.64

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Sunny Border Blue

Sunny Border Blue

~ Kristin Hersh
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.98
Learn to Sing Like a Star

Learn to Sing Like a Star

~ Kristin Hersh
4.8 out of 5 stars (8)  £7.68
Strange Angels

Strange Angels

~ Kristin Hersh
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £7.79
Hips and Makers

Hips and Makers

~ Kristin Hersh
Sky Motel

Sky Motel

~ Kristin Hersh
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £7.79
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Audio CD (17 Mar 2003)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: 4ad
  • ASIN: B00007KN39
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 36,271 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Extraits
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Sno Cat 3:37£0.79
Listen  2. Deep Wilson 4:18£0.79
Listen  3. Snake Oil 3:53£0.79
Listen  4. Vanishing Twin 3:35£0.79
Listen  5. SRB 4:50£0.79
Listen  6. Silver Sun 5:32£0.79
Listen  7. Vitamins V 6:32£0.79
Listen  8. Arnica Montana 5:36£0.79
Listen  9. Milk Street 5:56£0.79
Listen10. Ether 5:39£0.79


Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
The release of The Grotto once again gives credence to the legend that genius and madness go hand in hand. For Boston's Kristin Hersh the legend is simple reality, as her songs and lyrics are driven by a bipolar disorder that sees her veer between extremes of manic ecstasy and mind-numbing despair controlled by constant medication.

The simultaneous release of this fifth solo album and a new self-titled set by her reformed cult college-rock heroes Throwing Muses only serves to illuminate the very different sides of her unique talent. While the Muses still offer a restless but infectious alt-pop, The Grotto highlights the dark, stark and folky side of Hersh's muse. Acoustic guitar mingles with doomy cello on downbeat but graphic conversations with various troubled souls (many residing in her own head), and the overall effect resembles the more pastoral and insular moments of REM (Hersh worked with Michael Stipe on 1994 solo debut Hips and Makers). Nevertheless, the most memorable tunes seem to have been given to the Muses this time around, and The Grotto's bleak ambience and uniformity of sound makes it her most disappointing solo outing to date. Diehard fans, though, will continue to invest time in Hersh's unwavering integrity and intensity. --Garry Mulholland

CD Description
Throwing Muses frontwoman releases her sixth solo album. Slow-moving and introspective, this is Hersh at her most intimate, her acoustic guitar fleshed out with sparse arrangements for piano and violin provided by Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and Andrew Bird (Bowl Of Fire) respectively. Released to coincide with the reformed Muses' latest eponymously titled effort.


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterwork of latent majesty, 12 April 2003
By M. Brown (Cardiff United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Ignore the negative reviews of the album. This is the most important album Kristin has made since Hips and Makers. It acts well as a haunted companion to that first solo outing. Written and recorded while Kristin was pregnant for the fourth time, these ten pieces, which work well as a suite, are full of a vulnerability and anxiety. Kristin has never sounded more worn out, more sad. Her voice resonates, as if she's singing from the bottom of a well. This is an album whose mood will not leave the listener when the music has finished. There is a delicate, troubled beauty here which is not easily shaken off. Kristin is accompanied by plaintive violin and fractious, occasionally manic piano by leftfield icon, Howe Gelb. Gelb does not so much play the piano, as run at it and haul it to the ground like a wild animal. His playing gives the album an edginess reflected in the lyrics. It should be said that the words are surprisingly clear and unjumbled this time around, and when read on the page, read like modern poetry. 'Snow buries Whitehall/White powdered Nembutal/And I can't think anymore/ My feet are like ice and the moon shines/On Christmas trees and plastic deer/I decide to forgive and forget' (Sno Cat). Drug dependency is a familar theme here. Vitamins V is a reference to vodka and valium, which are a pretty numbing cocktail. Kristin sings: 'You're gonna want to ride back here with me/I've got the coolest view/and on vitamins V/I can't seem to lie to you'. The imagery throughout this album is unforgettable. 'A fulgent fourth grader/dressed in nylon and blue/A sheepish smile just for you' . . . 'indigent darkness thick as a dream/a liquid party underneath' . . . 'a snake and a girl in the snow' . . . 'a man made of butterfat'. This is real poetry: 'a bottle green sky/stinging yellow hair/in a dizzy of deviation/giddy in the glare'. And who could capture the anxiety of a parent more vividly and more memorably than this: 'you're trying to shield your glass newborn from the dodgeballs/and aching for children that you have never seen'. The whole album is a midnight soliloquy, performed in the moonlight. High points are Deep Wilson, SRB, Silver Sun and Vitamins V. But the whole work is wonderful, from the first to the last second. And will haunt you always. Okay - it's a difficult album; one will not receive instant gratification from it. At least half a dozen listens are required to fully appreciate its depth and singularity. But this only emphasises the value of the album. There will not be a more valuable album released this year. In ten years time, many music critics will be looking pretty sheepish, because of their knee-jerk dismissal of the album. How many critics said at the time of the release of Hips and Makers, that it was a masterpiece? And yet, how many were willing to say it several years later? This is another human masterpiece from an incredible human being and artist. Ignore this album, and you will ignore an unforgettable slice of humanity. And you will be a poorer person for it.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Destined to be a sadly-ignored classic, 11 Jun 2003
By A. Dean - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Kristin Hersh has released six solo albums now, all strikingly different from both each other and her more known work with Throwing Muses. This stand strongly at almost the very forefront of her music. Where, exactly, I could not say for I am a rampant fan of her work and my bias changes on almost every listen to her albums. What is for sure is that this is one of the very finest.

At first listen I was struck most by how sparse, how bleak, how almost grim the songs sound. It took several listens for my ears to properly translate it to my brain, but afterwards both my brain and my heart were in rapture. The down-trodden, lacy beauty of tracks like 'Deep Wilson', 'SRB' and 'Silver Sun' were the first I felt that I 'got', but the rest soon followed.

Few of the songs here have big, catchy choruses. In fact, none do. The instrumentation is limited to acoustic guitar, piano and violin. Between them they create a sound that is absolutely other-worldly. Kristin's voice wraps around her guitar like a watchful, emotional mother looking over her child, on 'Deep Wilson'. Fragments of bewitching scenes and moments are sung of, seemingly random but all strange and striking. Both down-heartening and oddly up-lifting at the same time, its wonders cannot be easily put into words other than through the use of impressed superlatives.

'Arnica Montana' is a tougher tune, piano and violin playing along with a strongly strummed guitar in a way approaching jazz, or blues, but not in any way typically heard. After a few listens it hits you: this is desert music. The sparseness reflects life living in a vast, dusty space. Both exhilerating and humbling, being a dot in an immense place is used in the music, giving it a certain gravity that's hard to explain.

On first listen you may wonder why I say all of this. That it is just 'another acoustic singer-songwriter album'. It really is so much more than that. Not quite any particular genre, this is honestly something special. Unlike anything Mrs. Hersh has ever released before, unlike anything else I've ever heard. Its nearest contemporary would perhaps be Giant Sand (whose Howie Gelb plays piano here), but only as a kising cousin.

Buy this, and those hot, still, long summer nights will have the most wonderful soundtrack.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars exceptional, 26 Mar 2003
Kristen Hersh it seems, has been very busy lately. Not content with simply ending a 7-year hiatus to resurrect her seminal rock group Throwing Muses, she has also released The Grotto, her first solo material since 1998's brilliant "Strange Angels". For those of you not accustomed to either of her incarnations, you really are missing out on some musical artistry of the highest order.
Musically, her solo work is the polar opposite to the angst-ridden rock of Throwing Muses, with her ethereal vocals meandering beautifully through a landscape of acoustic strummings. Kristen has employed the musical services of some exceptional musicians, with piano-work by Howe Gelb providing some much needed depth, and the criminally infrequent violin flourishes of Andrew Bird supplying an undertone of emotion.
Hersh's vocals are emotionally fragile, yet they are delivered with a mesmerising authority, demanding your concentration, causing you to really feel the passion running through each song. Don't let this album pass you by.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Hersh's best work yet
Frankly, there is little that can be said about this album that has not already been mentioned in other reviews, but it is so special that I feel compelled to write. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2004 by A. Hillier

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!
This is by far the most beautiful and hypnotic album i have ever heard. i was blown away from the first track (Sno Cat) and was impatient to listen to the rest of the album... Read more
Published on 11 May 2003 by souraya

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Grotto
48% buy the item featured on this page:
The Grotto 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
£6.98
Learn to Sing Like a Star
19% buy
Learn to Sing Like a Star 4.8 out of 5 stars (8)
£7.68
Hips and Makers
13% buy
Hips and Makers 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
Strange Angels
10% buy
Strange Angels 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)
£7.79

Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

Discover Health & Beauty

 

More From Kristin Hersh

Hips and Makers

Hips and Makers ~ Kristin Hersh

In 1994, Kristin Hersh took a sabbatical from her beloved and... Read more

 

Up to 50% off Dental Care

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush - Pack of 2
Put a sparkle in your smile with up to 50% off selected Oral-B and Philips rechargeable toothbrushes.

Up to 50% off power toothbrushes

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates