Thrill Jockey
2000
Stalled Parade
About This Album
After a three-year hiatus, Eleventh Dream Day is back with another solid album, Stalled Parade, with a slightly broader sonic palette than its predecessor, Eighth. Don't worry, Rick Rizzo's overdriven guitars are still generally set for stun, but you can hear a little more in the way of acoustic guitars throughout the record, and Janet Beveridge Bean steps up to sing lead vocals on a few tracks. One of these, "Valrico74," strongly evokes "Cloak of Frogs" from Freakwater's End time, but Rizzo's atmospheric guitar plonking and John McEntire's understated keyboards give it a flavor all its own. The way this slow, haunting track gives way to the out and out Crazy Horse-isms of "In the Style Of...." is indicative of the effective pacing of Stalled Parade overall, eliciting a wide range of moods and tempos from track to track. The ethereal backing vocals and dream pop leanings of "Stalled Parade" quickly give way to the insistent post-punk of "Ice Storm," then to the brief abstract experimentalism of "On Ramp," and so on.

A well-sequenced album is one thing, but Eleventh Dream Day really shines when they just rock out.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,6 and 8)

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