Track Listing

1. He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot
2. Hewlett's Daughter
3. Jed The Humanoid
4. The Crystal Lake
5. Chartsengrafs
6. Underneath The Weeping Willow
7. Broken Household Appliance National Forest
8. Jed's Other Poem
9. Miner At The Dial-A-View
10. So You'll Aim Toward The Sky
11. So You'll Aim Toward The Sky

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6633 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Grandaddy, for the uninitiated, are best thought of as belonging to a loose association of American bands who have risen to a modest prominence in the lean post-grunge years. Their confederates would include such determined mavericks as Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Eels, Beck and New Radicals: acts who share a certain willingness to accommodate as influences not only the music they love but the music they--and the general public--have had no choice but to deal with. Hence, all these bands can evoke the Eagles as much as the Velvet Underground and ELO as easily as Nirvana. Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump is a fine collection of songs, mostly paced at a melancholic mid-tempo and decorated by queasy low-budget keyboards and songwriter Jason Lytle's eloquently fragile voice. At his most graceful, as on the sparse piano ballad "Underneath The Weeping Willow", Grandaddy sound like the Blue Nile might have if raised in Californian sunshine rather than Glaswegian drizzle--and that's a lovely thing. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

Ironic, understated, brilliant
Are you feeling open-minded? Then I'll begin. The Sophtware Slump is one of the oddest albums you will ever buy, but what the hell: it's genius. This is an album of contrasts and innovation: lo-fi tunes, pondering lyrics, angsty vocals and great instumentation.

The Crystal Lake and Hewlett's Daughter are both lovely tunes that you may just surprise yourself by singing along to. Next to them nestles the bizarre, sardonic and totally deadpan Jed the Humanoid: with lyrics and delivery ("Jeddy 3 is what we first called him/Then it was Jed/But Jed's system's dead/Therefore so's Jed") that are understated, quirky and yet somehow powerful. There are Meanings in there, folks, and all sorts of emotions lurking: love, loss, bewilderment, but at the same time there's dry humour and an endearing simplicity that makes this unforgetable.

Enthused..enthralled..a beautiful thing.
Read all the other reviews and I concur wholeheartedly with most of them.Don't think I can add a great deal,I just felt compelled to contribute as the album is such a beautiful experience. Personally I preferred this to their debut which,although excellent,doesn't hang together quite as fully as this one. Anyhow,don't want to pick out fave tracks particularly as they change the more I play the album,but I must say that "...Dial a View" takes me away to some place wondrous..

Emotive.Immersive.Melodic.Life-enhancing.Choose your own adjectives,but don't live your live without this profoundly beautiful work of Art !!!

Whenever I'm wrong, I'll admit it....
...and I'm wrong. In my earlier review(posted just a few short days ago)I blasted the album for being slow and pondering. However, I decided to give it a second chance and after repeated listenings it has most ceratinly grown on me.

I first realised this when I found myself singing 'He's simple, he's dumb, he's the pilot' to myself at work. At home, 'The Sophtware Slump' has found a home for itself in my stereo. I bounce merrily along to 'Chartsengrafs' and nod sagely along to the wisdom of 'Underneath the Weeping Willow'. I've grown to tolerate 'Jed The Humanoid', and 'Jeds Other Poem' is beautifully written ("You said I'd wake up dead drunk on the side of the road / I called you a liar - but how right you were") - and hearin lies the strength of Grandaddy. The song hooks aren't that obvious at first, but they sow seeds in your brain and subconciously infect you until you submit. The lyrics are also superbly off-kilter ("Tyre scraps on the federal rows look like crash-landed crows" - 'Miner At The Dial-a-View') and make a delicious alternative to the usual 'fell in love with a boy/girl/sheep and then lost them, oh my heart etc' dross that most bands come up with these days.

I still hold to my beliefs that 'Broken Household Appliance National Forest' should never have been created, but all-in-all I now consider this album to be sheer poetry. What are you still reading this for??? Go buy the album now you fools!!