Turn That Noise Down - Soul Asylum

So many well-known albums turn 30 this year and Steve Taylor-Bryant and Susan Omand travel back to 1990 to revisit some of the sounds of their youth that made parents shout "Turn that noise down!" This week, Steve #@#@$* Soul Asylum And The Horse They Rode in On...

I was aware of Soul Asylum in the 90’s. I wasn’t a dyed in the wool fan but I knew a few tracks; you could not avoid Runaway Train back in the day and, whilst that track was from 92’s Grave Dancers Union, I also remember We 3 from today's TTND choice And The Horse They Rode In On because it was played during the credits on the Kevin Smith film Chasing Amy. What I didn’t know was that this 1990 release was the band's fifth album - they had been going for a heck of a lot longer than I had imagined and are in fact still going today. This is because they are good little band that do not offend anyone, write some catchy hits once in a while, and have longevity because of that but that doesn’t necessarily make them a great band. There is no risk to take when you listen to a Soul Asylum album, I could review 8 of their 12 studio albums quite simply…

Some catchy foot tappers, some tracks that aren’t for me, a couple of moments where you think you are listening to Tom Petty or The Rolling Stones, oh wasn’t that pleasant…

And that is my review of And The Horse They Rode In On as well. Not all the tracks play to my taste, som,e like the aforementioned We 3 and All The King’s Friends are brilliant and have that Petty/Springsteen era vibe to them, but mostly it was just a nice 40 odd minutes listening whilst I prepared a chilli for the kids' tea tonight. I don’t mean that as an offensive remark, I don’t mean to insult the band, there is nothing wrong with nice, especially in these trying times a few minutes of pleasant is very welcome, it's just not a band I would perhaps go and see live, I made that mistake with Del Amitri.

* "listens to" he means "listens to" - Ed

Image - Amazon