Product Description

Throwing Muses are among the finest and most overlooked indie-rock bands of the '80s and '90s. Spearheaded by the dark,original vision of Kristen Hersh (and supported by Tanya Donelly, Muses second-guitarist and Hersh's half-sister), the band's aggressive alt-pop burst onto the scene in the early '80s. The Muses favour a lucid guitar sound, oblique, poeticlyrics, and spiraling song structures that seem to unfold organically. By THE REAL RAMONA, the band's third full-lengthrelease, they had married their unique aesthetic to a more streamlined, rock-oriented sound.
Though more accessible than earlier work, RAMONA compromises none of the group's idiosyncratic appeal. In fact, this record's shimmering pop aura makes it one of the band's most outstanding offerings. From the blast-off power hooks of "Golden Thing" and Donelly's"Not Too Soon" through the gorgeous, rarefied guitar heavenof "Two Step", this collection is pure psychedelic pop heightened by outstanding songcraft. As usual, it is Hersh's more intense, mercurial, and slightly warped songs that are stand out. Here, top marks go to "Ellen West" and "Hook In Her Head. A tapestry of floating guitars, hard edges, melody, and meaning, THE REAL RAMONA is a perfect pop album.

Track Listing

1. Counting Backwards
2. Him Dancing
3. Red Shoes
4. Graffiti
5. Golden Thing
6. Ellen West
7. Dylan
8. Hook In Her Head
9. Not Too Soon
10. Honeychain
11. Say Goodbye
12. Two Step

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13888 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
"My mouth is full of demons / I swear to God," Kristin Hersh sings with escalating fury in the middle of "Ellen West." The image is apt. The Real Ramona marked a high point for the Throwing Muses, whose debut was the first-ever American recording issued on the hip British label 4AD. The quartet excels in two largely different veins, the first a glistening, poppy one with Hersh's unnervingly crisp voice edging the guitars, and the second a more frantic, revved-up version of the first, where the drums pound harder and the vocals veer into referential terrain that's almost sublimely opaque. The key to the Throwing Muses at any stage in their career is Hersh's emotional frankness and unflinching conveyance of her schizophrenia-tinged lyrics. She makes the band magnetically frenzied, even when they're being lovely. And with Ramona, Hersh and the Muses perfected their mix. This is their last recording with band cofounder Tanya Donelly, who continued on with the Breeders and Belly. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

hook in her head
There's a hook in Kristin Hersh's head, several actually. Pop hooks, industrial strength. The songs in TRR are so hooky and memorable that they'll make you wonder if this is the same band we listened to in their 1986 debut. The songs are drenched in melody and dreamy shimmer yet also in nightmarish glimmer. Tanya's songs are her absolute best while Hersh also steps up her pop know how. The vocal harmonies reach celestial heights. TRR is a delight, not at all lightweight but their most accessible.

Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona
The band's poppiest album to date is their strongest after their debut. Kristin Hersh proves she's got the chops to write good poppy songs, topped off with her harsh vocals (although ensures her abrasiveness is still intact with Hook in Her Head) and Tanya Donelly offers up two of her best ever songs for Throwing Muses: Not too Soon sounds like the best pop song ever while Honeychain lifts you up and twirls you around its sad surreal little world. Brilliant album and Tanya's last with the band.

Childhood's End
A good way into the throwing muses, with the ability to preoccupy one's listening at first, and then remain a staple in the collection afterwards. It's difficult to see how a person could object to this album, with a please-all mixture of pop and indie.

But this doesn't make it middle-aged sludge, it's still fairly raw and edgy, with teenage vibes, and a whole lot more calmness than earlier muses.

On a negative note, the album gets off to a slightly shakey start, both in terms of recording, and the quality of the songs. This rectifies after the first two pieces, and can't dim what follows. The second (and minor) drawback is that the restraint applied seems too curtail some of the songs at mid evolutionary stage, maybe they just got bored with each one, perhaps the commercial sentiment set in; songs like "Ellen West" generate huge towers of rhythm, but topple at mid-build, even if cleverly juxtaposed with quiet melodies, there's a slight disappointment as time goes on.

Overall the atmos is much in with the zeitgeist, broken hearts, self discovery, suffering nobility, social conscience. This transitional feel, of its time, of the adolescence it can evoke, and of the band, is an evolving moment where things tip.

Listen to it by the sea.