Overlooked Albums from the 90's - #4

Dusk by The The:

This was going to be the first pick in EAR FARM's series of overlooked albums from the 90's but I decided to wait a bit. Then today I read THIS article in Stylus and I knew now was the time. From that article:

Dusk and I were in a used-book shop. I was 16, newly licensed, and the title appeared to me a promise: an album full of the gloomy gloamin’. Surprisingly, I was right. And I noticed immediately that I had heard parts of two tracks before (“Slow Emotion Replay” and “Dogs of Lust”)—on VH1’s Where Are They Now? That’s trivia, sure, but quite a coincidence for an album I fished from the dollar rack on the basis of artwork alone. At that time, I couldn’t have told you who Johnny Marr was, let alone that his ringing, muscular fretwork is the meat of the album.

Funny, Johnny Marr playing guitar on the album is EXACTLY the reason I got into Dusk in the first place. See, I was kind of a super obsessed Smiths fan back in high school so ANYthing I could find that had ex-Smiths on it I bought, often leading me to gems like this album or Billy Bragg's Don't Try This At Home. Soon after buying Dusk on the day it came out it became a staple in my listening rotation.

Anyway, there's quite an excellent sound and mood pervasive throughout Dusk and Matt Johnson's songwriting is in peak form on this album. I've listened to it countless times since I first got it back in 1993 and was lucky enough to catch them live that year opening up for Depeche Mode. The record really does stand the test of time with continued listening today - you can find out for yourself by purchasing the remastered version at the Amazon link above or go to the band's official site and stream the whole thing song by song on their jukebox HERE.


1st "Overlooked Album from the 90's" here
2nd "Overlooked Album from the 90's" here
3rd "Overlooked Album from the 90's" here

if you'd like...
Pitchfork's top albums of the 90's
1st version of their list