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| Dance the Night Away - AllMusicGuide |
| Massachusetts - Amazon.com Review, and 17 Customer Reviews. |
 | Massachusetts | |
Please don't expect any critical distance in this review. This album is solely responsible for my love of alt-country - bought on the reading of a single review in The Sunday Times. I have not looked back since - gone onto to Johnny Cash in one direction and Willard Grant Conspiracy in another but this remains a central point.The album begins with In A Ditch and is a very maudlin song - "I used to know the face broken on the steering wheel" but the delicate melody and guitar work make it quietly inspirational. The title song Massachusetts is, for me, one of the greatest songs ever written.It's a song about things you're left behind but never stop thinking about - like the first time you fell in love and those teenage passions and gestures that you never feel again but never leave you. This is followed by Glass Jaw that emphasises the vulnerability that a broken heart can leave. Joe Pernice deconstructs pop music songwriting and puts it all back together with an Americana panache that takes your breath away. He embarasses almost all of the show-business Country establishment by showing them what country can be. | |
| Massachusetts - AllMusicGuide |
| Pine Box - AllMusicGuide |
 | The Early Year | |
This is the double CD re-release of the Scud Mountain Boys first 2 albums: Pine Box and Dance The Night Away. The slow version of Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves is an acquired taste but it is good to hear the song stripped of all it's theatrical bombast of the well-known version. Wichita Lineman is a pretty good version but the original didn't need a re-interpretation. Most of the other song are good but overall the atmosphere is just a bit down and just a bit slow. The absolute highlights (strangely enough they are on both albums) are the songs Freight Of Fire and Silo, the latter is one of the finest songs the Scud boys ever wrote.If Massachusetts leaves you wanting more of the country side of Joe Pernice - there are enough good songs and points of interest to justify buying this but don't expect anything like the fireworks they produced on that classic album. | |
| The Early Year: Pine Box & Dance the Night Away - Amazon.com Review, and 4 Customer Reviews. |
