A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns

Last updated
A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns
LilysBrief.jpg
Studio album by
Lilys
ReleasedMarch 1994
Genre Power pop, indie rock
Length22.03
Label SpinART
Lilys chronology
In the Presence of Nothing
(1992)		A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns
(1994)		 Eccsame the Photon Band
(1995)

A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns is a 1994 mini-album by the American indie rock band, Lilys, released on the SpinART label on 10-inch vinyl and CD. [1] The lead track, "Ginger", was used in a CK1 commercial. [1] The album was issued in the UK in 1998. [1] The album saw the band make their first major stylistic shift; The early My Bloody Valentine-influenced sound had given way to what Trouser Press described as "pleasant, straightforward guitar pop". [2]

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, some indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

Lilys are an American indie rock band formed in Washington, D.C in 1988. The only constant member is Kurt Heasley, with the line-up changing regularly. Several of the band's tracks have been used in television advertisements, and the band's biggest hit was one of these, "A Nanny In Manhattan", which reached No. 16 in the UK after being used in a Levi's advertisement directed by Roman Coppola.

Contents

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]

Tim DiGravina of Allmusic described the mini-album as "a brief mini-album of amazing songs" and gave it a four-star review. [3] He described it as "an essential release for fans of the Lilys and indie fans in general," going on to state "If music could define words, the first five songs here would be an pop/rock definition for the word beautiful." [3] Trouser Press writer Douglas Wolk described "Any Place I've Lived" as "the best melody Heasley's written to date". [2]

Douglas Wolk writer about comics and popular music

Douglas Wolk is a Portland, Oregon-based author and critic. He has written about comics and popular music for publications including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Nation, The New Republic, Salon.com, Pitchfork Media, and The Believer. He has written two books: a volume in the 33⅓ series on James Brown's Live at the Apollo and Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean ; the latter won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book and the 2008 Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation. Wolk was the managing editor of CMJ New Music Monthly from 1993 to 1997, and hosted a radio show on WFMU from 1999 to 2001. He also maintains a blog and a record label, Dark Beloved Cloud.

Track listing

CD Version

All tracks written by Lilys.

No.TitleLength
1."Ginger"5:34
2."Ycjcyaqftj"1:40
3."Any Place I've Lived"1:58
4."Jenny, Andrew and Me"4:09
5."Dandy"4:52
6."Evel Knievel"3:58

10" Vinyl Version

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Ginger" 
2."Ycjcyaqftj" 
3."Any Place I've Lived" 
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Dandy" 
2."Glosseder" 
3."Jenny, Andrew and Me" 

Personnel

Guitar fretted string instrument

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar, or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

Singing act of producing musical sounds with the voice

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, gazal and popular music styles such as pop, rock, electronic dance music and filmi.

Bass guitar Electric bass instrument

The bass guitar is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, except with a longer neck and scale length, and four to six strings or courses.

[4]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN   1-84195-335-0, p. 836-7
  2. 1 2 Wolk, Douglas "Lilys", Trouser Press , retrieved 25 December 2009
  3. 1 2 3 DiGravina, Tim "A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns Review", Allmusic , Macrovision Corporation, retrieved 25 December 2009
  4. ↑ Orgera, Alexandra; Saul, James; Howard, Brian, & Rapa, Patrick (2006) "The Lilys Family Tree Archived 2015-10-01 at the Wayback Machine ", Philadelphia City Paper , February 16–22, 2006, retrieved 25 December 2009
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