| Separation Anxieties | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 20, 2000 | |||
| Recorded | 1999 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 52:48 | |||
| Label | V2 Records | |||
| Producer | Todd Rundgren | |||
| 12 Rods chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Pitchfork | 2.0/10 [2] |
Separation Anxieties is a 2000 album by 12 Rods. It was the band's third full-length album.
Separation Anxieties was recorded on the island of Kauai with famed producer Todd Rundgren through the course of six weeks. However, the band thought negatively of his performance. According to vocalist and guitarist Ryan Olcott, "Todd was under-performing. He was the last person to show up at each session and the first one to leave. He didn't care. He was just there to press 'record', read magazines, and drink Foster's. It was disheartening." [3] Ev Olcott remembered, "All he would do was press the 'record' button and go back to doing crossword puzzles. Some of those songs are good, but Todd Rundgren did the absolute worst job possible with that record." [4] Adding to the sessions' troubles, drummer Christopher McGuire had left the band during the recording process after just three weeks, leaving the band to finish recording the album by themselves.
Separation Anxieties garnered mostly negative reviews upon its release. Pitchfork , which had previously given 12 Rods' prior work rave reviews (with Gay? receiving the website's first perfect rating and Split Personalities receiving a 9.7), gave Separation Anxieties a 2.0 out of a possible 10, with writer Matt LeMay panning the album: "This record is acid reflux, gastroenteritis, and dysentery all rolled into one." [5] Exclaim! also gave Separation Anxieties a negative review, with writer Cam Lindsay writing that the "melodies seem to have potential, but are then ruined by either the "futuristic-ness" or the terrible lyrics." [6]
However, over time, the album has garnered a more positive reaction among fans and critics. AllMusic gave the album 3 stars out of a possible 5 and claimed that "the quirky pop edge that helped make earlier releases such a joy is still present". [7] Justin Vernon of the indie-folk band Bon Iver is a noted fan of the album, stating: "All my picks would come from the last two records. So insanely good. I went and sold 95% of my CDs and probably kept 100 or 150 of my most important records to me, and these two are list toppers." He also named four songs off Separation Anxieties as some of his favorites of the band's work, mentioning "Marionette", "What Has Happened", "Rock n' Roll Band" and "Glad That It's Over" as highlights. [8]
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive art. He also produced music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s.
Head over Heels is the second studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. The album was released on 24 October 1983 through the label 4AD. It featured the band's signature sound of "Guthrie's lush guitars under Fraser's mostly wordless vocals" and is considered an archetype of early ethereal wave music.
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12 Rods is an American indie rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The group was formed in Oxford, Ohio in 1992, later relocating to Minneapolis in 1995 where it was based until its disbandment in 2004.
A Wizard, a True Star is the fourth studio album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released on March 2, 1973, by Bearsville Records. It marked a departure from his previous album, Something/Anything? (1972), featuring fewer straightforward pop songs, a development he attributed to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs and his realization of "what music and sound were like in my internal environment, and how different that was from the music I had been making."
Hermit of Mink Hollow is the eighth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released May 1978 on Bearsville Records. All of the instruments and vocals were performed by Rundgren. He intended the songs on the album to be performed on piano with minimal arrangements, apart from the bass, drums and voices, and for the material to showcase his newly refined singing ability.
Treasure is the third studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 12 November 1984 by 4AD. With this album, the band settled on what would, from then on, be their primary lineup: vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bass guitarist Simon Raymonde. The album also reflected the group's embrace of the distinctive ethereal sound with which they became associated.
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