The 1986 Listening Post - Soul Asylum - While You Were Out

Soul Asylum - While You Were Out

#510 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

November 25 1986

Soul Asylum

While You Were Out

Genre: I swear I thought this was a 90s band….

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Freaks

Carry On

No Man’s Land

Never Too Soon

The sounds of a band barely holding it together yet making amazingly shambolic music is something I thought Pavement cornered the market on. 

I was wrong. 

In less than 1 year Pirner and the gang have put together another set of songs that belong to the future not the mid 80s. 

They still sound like the children of Du but have different producers now and the sound is cleaner and more accessible. 

The energy here is palpable. I almost forgot what it the defiance of youth screaming into a thrashing void could sound like. 

I never knew I was a Soul Asylum fan. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/while-you-were-out/162613778

The 1986 Listening Post - Soul Asylum - Made To Be Broken

Soul Asylum - Made to Be Broken

#13/1170

January 18 1986

Soul Asylum

Made to Be Broken

Genre: Alternative

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Tied to the Tracks

Another World Another Day

Made to Be Broken

Whoa!

The first thing I’m struck by is how much this sounds influenced by REM’s Chronic Town (who, of course, were influenced by so many paisley groups like the Byrds, et al). In fact, much of it sounds like children of Buck and Mills but also Husker Du and so many others. If you hate the 90s, well, this is the harbinger of a lot of that. 

Yeah I know Mould produced this. You can hear that. But I like this so much more than a lot of his stuff. 

Not enough is talked about the fact that the 60s permeated the underbelly of the 80s and became the foundation for music of the 90s. That’s evident here as we all know Soul Asylum will break through with a massive single in that decade but they were here at the formative time. 

I loved this record. And I’m still shocked that Soul Asylum has been around since 84.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/made-to-be-broken/162613050

The 1984 Listening Post - Soul Asylum - Say What You Will, Clarence

Soul Asylum - Say What You Will, Clarence

#217

August 24 1984

Soul Asylum 

Say What You Will, Clarence

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Money Talks

Religivision

What would happen if Husker Du was more musically inclined, had a better bassist and drank whiskey while listening to country music?

In other words Du meets Replacements. Which is no surprise, Bob Mould produced it. 

That’s the best I got while listening to this album. At first glance it seems amazing that they would have a hit with the melodic acoustic “Runaway Train” years later but, as the album plays out in its shambolic way, it almost feels inevitable. 

With all the crazy fun diversity on Zen Arcade think of this as Zen Junior Fun Place.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/say-what-you-will-clarence-karl-sold-the-truck/162612865