Sony
2000
The Madding Crowd
About This Album
Nine Days references Thomas Hardy in the title of its major-label debut, The Madding Crowd, but beyond the literary association the group is also making a point about its songs, which are embedded in modern life, not, as in Hardy, far from it. Co-leaders John Hampson (he of the smoother voice and the somewhat perkier attitude) and Brian Desveaux (whose throaty singing usually expresses more desperate feelings) have written an album's worth of songs about personal relationships that are often rocky, but always involved and involving. The "I" who is addressing a "you" most of the time frequently is trying to get back into her good graces, while admitting mistakes, though sometimes "you" isn't in such great shape, either. "If I Am," for example, begins with the line, "So you're standing on a ledge," but pledges, "I will not let you down," an assurance with a double meaning. You don't have to listen for the Hammond organ wail to realize that these guys have been influenced by Bob Dylan, and they erase any doubt in "Bob Dylan," for which they have received permission to sample excerpts from the master's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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