The Sophtware Slump

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
The Sophtware Slump
File:TheSophtwareSlumpCover.jpg
Studio album by Grandaddy
Released May 29, 2000
Genre Alternative rock, indie rock, space rock
Length 46:47
Label V2
Producer Jason Lytle
Grandaddy chronology
Signal to Snow Ratio
(1999)Signal to Snow Ratio1999		 The Sophtware Slump
(2000)		 The Windfall Varietal
(2000)The Windfall Varietal2000

The Sophtware Slump is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Grandaddy. It was released in May 2000 on V2 Records. It is seen by some as a concept album about problems concerning modern technology in society. The album was released to critical acclaim.

Background

Being their second album, the title The Sophtware Slump is a reference to a sophomore slump, a term given to an artist's second album which is seen to fail to live up to the first album.

Recording

The album was written and recorded by frontman Jason Lytle alone in a remote farmhouse. He has been quoted as saying, "I just remember everything out there was dusty. Humidity and dust",[1] and described having made the recordings "in my boxer shorts, bent over keyboards with sweat dripping off my forehead, frustrated, hungover and trying to call my coke dealer".[1]

Writing and composition

Regarding the album's recurring android, Jed, who appears in the tracks, "Jed the Humanoid" and "Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)", Lytle noted "I used Jed as my therapy vehicle, I guess... I was attempting to approach the subject of drinking, and possibly the fact that you may perhaps drink a little bit too much. [...] Humour has always been way up there at the top of my list of dealing with anything that could be considered serious. Sometimes you don't wanna be smacked in the face with certain bits of reality like that."[2]

The album's penultimate song, "Miner at the Dial-a-View", originates from a 1989 home demo, with Lytle noting, "After a certain point, when the Earth has been tapped of all its resources, they start mining other planets. And there's these machines – they're a lot like, y'know, the tabletop poker games that you find in bars now – and the idea is to add coins to it, and you can punch in the latitude and longitude of places on earth, and revisit wherever you want. And [the narrator]'s actually revisiting his house, and he's seeing the girl that he's got back home is hanging out with some other guy, and he misses home."[2]

Release

The Sophtware Slump was released on May 29, 2000. It reached No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release, re-entering the chart in 2001, peaking at number 63.[3] By February 2001 the album had sold 20,000 copies in the US and almost 80,000 worldwide.[4] By 2006 it had sold 107,000 copies.[5]

The album was reissued in 2011 with a second disc of bonus material containing B-sides, EP tracks, outtakes and demos.[6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 81/100[7]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[8]
Drowned in Sound 10/10[9]
Entertainment Weekly A–[10]
Los Angeles Times 4/4 stars[11]
Mojo 4/5 stars[7]
NME 9/10[12]
Pitchfork Media 8.5/10[13][14]
Q 4/5 stars[7]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars[15]
The Village Voice A−[16]

The Sophtware Slump was released to widespread critical acclaim.

The CMJ New Music Monthly noted Jason Lytle's "new infatuation with technology, expertly juxtaposed with his almost spiritual connection to the West's wide-open spaces and bird-filled skies", and stated that "Lytle expresses sympathy for the lost souls and machines of the high-tech dot-com landscape throughout the album".[4] The New York Times called the album "a heart-achingly beautiful requiem for a culture in which progress and technology have led to alienation and disposability".[17] AllMusic called it "Grandaddy's most impressive work yet".[8] The Daily Telegraph said the album was one of the highlights of 2000, describing it as "a work of rare and precious qualities. A collection of emotional, richly melodic songs that deal with modern man's uneasy relationship with technology".[18] Steve Taylor, in his book The A to X of Alternative Music, viewed The Sophtware Slump as "clean, lush and less understated" than the band's previous work, describing "The Crystal Lake" as "a perfectly executed pop song".[19]

Legacy

The indie music magazine Under the Radar ranked The Sophtware Slump fifteenth in its list of the best albums of the 2000s.[20]

Regarding the album's acclaim and legacy, Jason Lytle noted, "I would record The Sophtware Slump over again. The fact that this album has gotten this sort of acclaim only reconfirms to me what a load of shit this business is. An album about trees and computers that came out right after OK Computer? I don't get it... but I do."[21]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Jason Lytle. 

No. Title Length
1. "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot"   8:52
2. "Hewlett's Daughter"   3:06
3. "Jed the Humanoid"   4:18
4. "The Crystal Lake"   5:00
5. "Chartsengrafs"   2:51
6. "Underneath the Weeping Willow"   2:40
7. "Broken Household Appliance National Forest"   4:34
8. "Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)"   3:25
9. "E. Knievel Interlude (The Perils of Keeping It Real)"   1:57
10. "Miner at the Dial-a-View"   5:21
11. "So You'll Aim Toward the Sky"   4:43

Personnel

Grandaddy
  • Jason Lytle – vocals, all instruments, producer, mixing
  • Jim Fairchild – "on/off switch assistance", performer
  • Aaron Burtch – performer
  • Kevin Garcia – performer
  • Tim Dryden – performer
Additional personnel

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=The_Sophtware_Slump&oldid=332433"