Icky Mettle

God damn, the Archers of Loaf's Icky Mettle is a fine disc.  How the hell did  it escape my attention in 1993?  I was listening to the indie rock bands the Archers are commonly compared to--Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. and the like.  But I didn't pick it up until a few years ago, and even then, "Web In Front," the opening track, is so good that it overshadowed the rest of the album.  I'd repeat "Web" until I got sick of it and then move on to something completely different.  But the wonder that is my iPod's "Alt, Punk, Pop & Rock" playlist kept pulling up other Icky Mettle tracks until I finally saw the error of my ways.

It's weird to feel so freshly enthusiastic about a 12-year-old album.  A number of my faves from the same era haven't aged all that well, and I wonder if I'd like Icky as much today if I'd heard it back in '93.  But I didn't (hear it then), so I do (love it now).

Comments

[The Sensationalist]

Who the hell names a band "archers of loaf"? Isn't that asking for obscurity?

xo, your difficult and snarky wife

[Ed]

Touche. But the funny thing is that from like '93 to '96, they weren't obscure at all. They were actually pretty well known in the relatively small indie rock world that I thought I was in tune with. Just goes to show you that the world is always bigger than you think, and that I always know less than I think I do.