song of the day: june 10/2011

Blind Melon - St. Andrew's Fall

Album: Soup [1995]

most 90's rock bands who enjoyed massive breakthrough success with their debut album seemed to follow it up with an effort similarly styled to its predecessor, hence guaranteeing repeat success. this proved not to be the case with blind melon. it appreared as though the band rejected the jovial spirit of "no rain" and focused on much darker material for their follow-up, "soup". while it did not match the commercial success of the debut, "soup" proved to be a challenging, gripping record that is just as strong and easily more rewarding. shannon hoon was in the throes of drug addictions (which would prove fatal only two months after the album's release), and his experience of a drug detox is clearly detailed in the zeppelin-esque "2X4". hoon's lyrics often examined his growing sense of mortality, as evidenced in "the duke", "st. andrews's fall" and "car seat", while other tracks were mildly optimistic and hopeful ("walk", "new life"). "st. andrews fall" contains three separate parts, with the last providing the most brilliance. after a whirling climax, the song cuts to hoon and his guitar at their most stripped and honest - "and i can't tell you how many ways that i've sat and viewed my life today / but i can tell you, i don't think that i can find an easy way / so if i see you walking hand-in-hand-in hand with a three-armed man, you know i'd understand / but you should've been in my shoes yesterday." the rest of the instruments including strings and horns chime in as one for a stunning outro. this album deserved to be another big hit, but due to MTV and radio's abrupt abandonment of the band, harsh reviews from close-minded critics (rolling stone), and worst of all, hoon's untimely death mid-tour, all hopes of the album receiving the attention it deserved were extinguished. "soup" is arguably the most underrated and overlooked great rock ablums of the 90's, and one can only dream of what they could've accomplished had they been able to put out more than two actual albums.

amazon