One for that rainy-day, difficult-but-rewarding pile. This Dublin trio whips up dense stormclouds of guitar and electronic "orchestration" which singer Ken Griffin seeds with evocative streams of lyric fragments. --Jeff Ba... more »teman« less
One for that rainy-day, difficult-but-rewarding pile. This Dublin trio whips up dense stormclouds of guitar and electronic "orchestration" which singer Ken Griffin seeds with evocative streams of lyric fragments. --Jeff Bateman
"Rollerskate Skinny were probably one of the best if not "The best" irish band to grace the planet. I think this album shows their true strengths and pulls a lot of influences from My Bloody Valentine (apart from Kevin Shields brother) and early Mercury Rev, this album is fantastic. The last song Bell Jars Away sums it up, beautiful and melancoly at times and uplifting at others, amazing harmonies...I love this record..."
Genius!
kicker cornelius | montgomery, al | 02/05/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
""horsedrawn wishes" is very similar musically to the flaming lips (especially the "hit to death in the future head" album).i first heard of skinny from a compilation my friend made. the e.l.o. song "mister kingdom" came before it, and somehow subconsciously "mister kingdom" and "speed to your side" melded into one song. really, i dont know how but the songs still to this day sound like they were meant to be played one after the other. so, when i got "horsedrawn wishes" i noticed that really, the entire album has that sound! it's amazing! recurring musical and vocal themes weave through the songs and its another album that i'd describe as "disney world-ish". thats how it sounds to my ears! buy it!"
Don't Miss Kid Silver
William S. Williams | Chapel Hill, NC | 01/07/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is an excellent album, full of subtle harmonies and lots and lots of noise. In fact, this is a very noisy album, but beautiful nonetheless. Standout tracks include Swab the Temples and Speed to my Side. If I am not mistaken, the remnants of Rollerskate Skinny are now in a band called Kid Silver whose album "Dead City Sunbeams" gets my vote for best album of 1999."
Total genius
Man Under Glass | Dublin | 04/04/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"That's how i'd describe this album, plain and simple. How this album is always overlooked (it was only voted 14th in the greatest Irish albums of all time in 2005) simply astounds me. Huge walls of layered guitar, fantastic drumming, effects, samples...brilliant. If every band in the world sounded like Rollerskate Skinny, the world would be a better place.
Also buy Dead City Sunbeams by Kid Silver (Ken Griffen) and Kindness by The Radio (Stevie M).
I think Ken's in a band now in New York called "Favourite Sons". And i'd say they're brilliant too."
Smoke damage
C. L. White | Minneapolis, MN | 05/24/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Horsedrawn Wishes is one of my favorite albums of all time. That said, when I first listened to it, I hated it. I kind of heard it as a mix of other pop and progressive excesses that I distrusted.
Gradually I understood Horsedrawn Wishes as a collection of impressions. This music is the closest you will come to a voice inside your head, recycling all kinds of found motifs, riffs, harmonies, sounds and swirling chaos into something that's referential without being clever, except in the way that the subconscious is clever - punning stupidly but with hidden import and intimacy. There is so much tension and so little resolution on this record. Everything just keeps winding up. When the resolution comes, it crashes down on you like crying your eyes out.
The only problem with this record is that the production is a little bit muddy. In a perfect world, this record would get remastered and rereleased. In this world, you can still find it in cutouts for a few dollars. That's a pretty good situation for the poor music fan, not so good for Ken Griffen, whose marvelous Kid Silver suffered a similar fate."