| Rope-a-Dope | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1994 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Label | Homestead [1] | |||
| Producer | Lyle Hysen, Antietam | |||
| Antietam chronology | ||||
| ||||
Rope-a-Dope is an album by the American indie rock band Antietam, released in 1994. [2] It is named for the boxing technique. [3] The band supported the album with a North American tour. [4]
The album was produced by Lyle Hysen and Antietam. [5] Ira Kaplan contributed to the album's opening track, "Hands Down". [4] Rope-a-Dope includes a cover of Dead Moon's "Graveyard". [6]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [7] |
| Robert Christgau |  [8] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [9] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B [10] |
Trouser Press thought that "as borne out by songs like the gently psychedelic 'Pine', [Tara] Key has settled into a wafting lower register that accentuates the spooky qualities of her voice; she's also found a way to channel some of her manic onstage attack." [6] Entertainment Weekly deemed "Hands Down" "a wonderfully propulsive, guitar- and organ-driven bucket of noise." [10] The Washington Post opined that "Key's piercing guitar lines are the group's trademark, yet the gentle, [Tim] Harris-sung 'Hardly Believe' has the album's most memorable tune." [11]
Greil Marcus, in Artforum , noted that Key and Harris "can't sing," but wrote that "every time you’re about to give up on this music, Key summons a passage on her instrument that does sing." [12] Guitar Player praised Key's "spectacularly distorted tone that's exuberantly trashy yet retains razor-edged definition." [13]
AllMusic called the album "an unjustly overlooked piece of mid-'90s indie rock," writing that the "high point, and possibly the best thing Antietam ever did, is the 11-minute closer 'Silver Solace', which builds and ebbs with structural grace and contains some of Key's most remarkable singing and soloing." [7]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hands Down" | 3:31 |
| 2. | "What She Will" | 5:04 |
| 3. | "Pine" | 4:52 |
| 4. | "Certain Muse" | 2:59 |
| 5. | "Hardly Believe" | 4:34 |
| 6. | "Graveyard" | 3:25 |
| 7. | "Rope-a-Dope" | 2:58 |
| 8. | "Leave Home" | 6:08 |
| 9. | "Betwixt" | 4:27 |
| 10. | "Silver Solace" | 10:39 |
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