Ahead of the Lions

Last updated

Ahead of the Lions
Living Things - Ahead of the Lions album art.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 4, 2005
Genre Alternative rock, glam rock, garage rock
Length42:30
Label Jive Records
Producer Living Things and Lij Shaw
Living Things chronology
Resight Your Rights
(2004)
Ahead of the Lions
(2005)
Habeas Corpus
(2009)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 72/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
IGN 7.6/10 [3]
Pitchfork Media 5.8/10 [4]
PopMatters Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [5]
Robert Christgau A− [6]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Stylus Magazine B+ [8]

Ahead of the Lions is an album by rock band Living Things, released on October 4, 2005. The first single is the song "Bom Bom Bom" was featured in a Cingular commercial promoting an iTunes-compatible phone.

Contents

Some of the songs that would eventually be recorded for the Ahead of the Lions album originated from the band members' childhood. The album was recorded by Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Pixies) and produced by Living Things and Lij Shaw in the Berlin Family Basement in their hometown of St. Louis in February 2005.

Reception

As noted by Robert Christgau in the Village Voice, "Lillian Berlin is Johnny Rotten with politics. His art would be nothing without his rage; he is possessed by the need to get his point across that he grabs his brothers' music by the throat and makes it bellow his tune. But his rage wouldn't be much without his analyst, which however simplistic-and it is, though at this perilous moment no more so than apolitical cynicism or liberal equivocation-gives shape, purpose, and a referent outside his tortured psyche to feelings that emanate from who knows where." (May 10, 2005) [6]

The following is a sampling from other professional reviews of the album:

Track listing

  1. "Bombs Below" – 3:00
  2. "I Owe" – 3:00
  3. "Bom Bom Bom" – 3:06
  4. "New Year" – 3:39
  5. "God Made Hate" – 4:20
  6. "End Gospel" – 3:25
  7. "No New Jesus" – 3:47
  8. "March in Daylight" – 3:36
  9. "Keep It 'Til You Fold" – 4:10
  10. "Monsters of Man" – 2:09
  11. "On All Fours" – 3:50
  12. "I Wish the Best for You" – 4:21

Personnel

References

  1. "Ahead Of The Lions by Living Things". Metacritic . Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  2. Spano, C. (2011). "Ahead of the Lions - Living Things | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  3. Carle, Chris (November 4, 2005). "Living Things- Ahead of the Lions". IGN. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  4. Bowers, William (March 6, 2006). "Living Things: Ahead of the Lions Album Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  5. Lundy, Zeth (November 2, 2005). "Living Things: Ahead of the Lions". PopMatters. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Christgau, R. (2011). "Robert Christgau: CG: living things". robertchristgau.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  7. Fricke, David (October 27, 2005). "Ahead Of The Lions Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 27, 2005.
  8. Love, Josh (November 30, 2005). "Ahead of the Lions Review". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on April 21, 2008.
  9. LLC, SPIN Media (April 2005). "Rebels Without Applause". Spin. SPIN Media LLC. p. 94.