Kranky
2005
Let Us Never Speak Of It Again
About This Album
Factors like packaging and song titles often tell you a lot about a band and the music it makes. Out Hud are an exception to the rule. Looking at S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D. or Let Us Never Speak of It Again, it'd be easy to be tricked into thinking that Out Hud might be a sloppy jam band or, given their song titles, somewhat akin to unkempt jokesters like Ween or the Dead Milkmen. They're nothing like that at all. The way they present themselves contradicts the tightness of their complex arrangements and the elasticity of their buoyant sound. Fans know this all too well; perhaps that's why they make every effort to steer expectations of the uninformed somewhere toward a more acceptable direction: "Think of the B-52's, digitized, playing "'Mesopotamia'" without Fred Schneider, at twice the speed and length." So think of something like that, rather than Rusted Root as a musical comedy troupe -- though comparisons to anything '80s-related is dangerous since the songs are never made to sound any older than the day they were recorded. Plenty has been learned from electro-disco, post-punk, and dub production techniques (disembodied howls, unexpected slides down echo chambers, processed sounds zipping in and out at all times), but the band leaves plenty of room for its own ideas.
Track List (try tracks 4,6,7,9 and 10)

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