Umber (album)

Last updated

Umber
Bitch Magnet - Umber.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 15, 1989
RecordedJune 14–15, 1989
StudioWaterfront Studios (Hoboken, New Jersey)
Genre Post-hardcore, noise rock
Length35:47
Label Glitterhouse Records
Producer Bitch Magnet, Mike McMackin
Bitch Magnet chronology
Star Booty
(1988)
Umber
(1989)
Ben Hur
(1990)

Umber is the first full-length album by the American post-hardcore band Bitch Magnet. The band had added second guitarist David Galt since their previous year's release, the eight-song EP Star Booty . In 2004 Umber was listed in Mojo's "Lost Albums You Must Own". [1]

Contents

Music

Music journalist Andrew Earles described the sound on Umber as "an aggressive and heavy approach to post-hardcore/indie rock that had alot[ sic ] in common with the aggro noise rock that dominated the Amphetamine Reptile and late-'80s Touch and Go rosters." However, Earles stated that Umber "lacked the unweildy, testosterone-fueled depravity and nihilism" of these albums, and that the album instead "[relies] on the hazy, often buried but melodic" vocals of Sooyoung Park. [2] Jason Ankeny of AllMusic described the album's third track "Clay" as a "taut exploration of extremist spatial dynamics." He described the album's fifth track "Douglas Leader" as a "quietly hypnotic minimalist ode 180-degrees removed from everything else in the Bitch Magnet oeuvre to date." [3]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Uncut Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]

Umber was first released in 1989 on LP by Glitterhouse Records with an all yellowish-umber colored cover with the band's name and album title set in a small bold font at its center. The record's 10 tracks were paired with the band's previous eight-song EP, Star Booty , and issued by Communion on cassette and CD that same year.

Jason Ankeny of AllMusic gave the album three and a half stars out of five. [3]

In 2011, Umber was remastered by Alan Douches and released in a box-set containing with the rest of the band's catalog. [6]

Track listing

All songs written by Bitch Magnet

No.TitleLength
1."Motor"3:48
2."Navajo Ace"2:33
3."Clay"3:38
4."Joan of Arc"2:35
5."Douglas Leader"4:48
6."Goat-Legged Country God"3:05
7."Big Pining"3:17
8."Joyless Street"2:17
9."Punch and Judy"2:54
10."Americruiser"6:52

The 2011 box-set also contains alternate versions "Motor", "Joan of Arc", "Big Pining", "Joyless Street" and "Punch and Judy".

Personnel

References

  1. "Lost Albums You Must Own". Mojo . March 2004. Archived from the original on February 23, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  2. Earles, Andrew. Gimme Indie Rock. Voyager Press. p. 36.
  3. 1 2 Umber - Bitch Magnet | Album | AllMusic , retrieved April 3, 2025
  4. Ankeny, Jason. "Umber". Allmusic. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
  5. columnist (March 2012). "Bitch Magnet: Umber". Uncut . p. 81.
  6. "Albums: Bitch Magnet". Temporary Residence Limited. Archived from the original on June 28, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2012.