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Center of the Universe (album)
1992 studio album by Giant Sand From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Center of the Universe is an album by the American band Giant Sand, released in 1992.[1][2] It was the first Giant Sand album to receive wide distribution and a traditional promotional campaign.[3] It was also the band's first album for Restless Records, which had rereleased a couple of older Giant Sand albums.[4] The band supported Center of the Universe with a North American tour.[5]
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Production
Recorded in Venice, California, the album was produced by the band; they did not want a traditional producer suggesting or correcting musical ideas.[6][7] Giant Sand entered the studio with songs for half an album, and had to finish the rest of the songs during the sessions.[8] Many of the songs are about characters on the fringes of society.[9] Vicki Peterson and Susan Cowsill, credited as the Psycho Sisters, provided backing vocals on some of the tracks.[10] Victoria Williams contributed vocals to the title track.[11]
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Critical reception
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The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that "leader Howe Gelb continues to write ragged songs that refuse to adhere to a narrative track."[15] Robert Christgau praised "Thing Like That" and the title track.[12] Trouser Press said that "the heads-down rockism of the loud'n'proud Center of the Universe is clearly descended from Crazy Horse, particularly when Convertino and bassist Joey Burns lock into a groove as primordial as the one that propels the harsh 'Seeded ('tween Bone and Bark)'."[16] The Washington Post deemed it a "post-punk version of country-rock."[11]
USA Today noted that the band "embraces both pop structure and punk abandon."[17] Spin determined that the album "opens with an explosion of pointy guitar noise worthy of the meanest Lower East Side cluster-hunch, and coalesces into a wide brainful of songs describing the world as seen from the window of a mobile home falling through deep space."[18] The Vancouver Sun opined that "Gelb songs sound likes he's using guitar strings about the size of trans-Atlantic cable, plucked with chunks of floor tile and sung in a borderline psychotic drawl."[8]
AllMusic wrote that Giant Sand "assays another fascinating set of desert-fried rock & roll, serving up one winner after another on this excellent album."[10]
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Track listing
References
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