Slovenly - Riposte

 

It's been some time since my last comp, and will probably be a while until my next. So, to fill the gap, I shall post some more of the vinyl I have converted to FLAC/mp3. I will start with this hard to find album from one of my favourite 80s bands, Slovenly.

Artist: Slovenly
Title: Riposte
Released: 1987
Label: SST Records
Catalog#: SST 089
Country: USA
Style: Rock, Alternative Rock

Tracklisting:

A1. The Way Untruths Are
A2. Old / New
A3. On The Surface
A4. Prejudice
A5. Emma
B1. Enormous Critics
B2. Myer's Dark
B3. Not Mobile
B4. As If It Always Happens
B5. A Little Resolve


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 review by Patrick Foster:

Slovenly's third album doesn't quite pack the wiry power of its predecessor, Thinking of Empire, but it is nonetheless a potent blend of the quintet's offbeat insightfulness and guitar majesty. The band takes a softer tack on Riposte (the title meaning a quick, sharp return in speech or action), mixing acoustic guitars with their staple electric lines and succeeding spectacularly on the memorable instrumental "Emma," though songs like "Enormous Critics" (in which singer Steve Anderson advises "Don't take yourself too seriously") still prick the skin with enough force to make goosebumps appear. Riposte is the first indication that Slovenly was beginning to be drawn to longer, more abstract washes of sound -- an approach that would manifest itself on the two efforts that would follow, 1989's We Shoot for the Moon and 1992's Highway to Hanno's -- but their still-strong attraction to the straightforward art-punk of bands like Wire keeps the record from slipping down the hill of indifference. The tangling guitars of songs like "The Way Untruths Are," "Not Mobile," and the record's highlight, the stinging "Prejudice," make this album a close second to Thinking of Empire within the Slovenly canon, and a must-own for serious fans of 1980s indie guitar scholars.