Asylum 24

Soul Asylum's breakthrough, million-selling Grave Dancers Union yielded the mega-hit "Runaway Train" and put the band in a whole new league; longtime fans were predictably disappointed with the slick results.

Soul Asylum's Grave Dancer's Union (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) features a second LP of bonus, rare tracks recorded from the band’s live performances in 1992 and 1993.

Joni Mitchell's ongoing Archives series has been an overwhelming success and the third volume somehow manages to outdo its predecessors.

Soul Asylum was formed in Minneapolis in 1983 mixing tuneful but unrestrained punk, hardcore, 1970s rock, country and self-effacing kitsch. One early review described their sound as follows: some unholy mix of Kiss and Hank Williams thrown under the wheels of a runaway train. All elements contributed to the band being credited with a grunge precursor title, a claim often recited in comparisons between pre-Nirvana Minneapolis and Seattle bands. "Change of Fortune" is Soul Asylum's 11th full length studio album.

By 1985, Kiss were a shadow of their former selves. Gone was the raw rock of their not so distant past, as well as their memorable "heavy Beatles" songwriting. In its place was a sound that was too similar to other pop-metal bands at the time, as well as unimaginative, predictable songs, as evidenced on Asylum.

For the third album collection of the Joni Mitchell Archives project, The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) covers what is arguably the knottiest and most challenging period in a career known for being knotty and challenging. While there are certainly fans who have a preference for Mitchell's diaristic/post-folk sounds of the late '60s/early '70s Reprise era or the exploratory fusions of pop and jazz of her first three Asylum albums, most of those fans can find space to love all (or at least most) of the work she released between 1968 and 1975.

For the third album collection of the Joni Mitchell Archives project, The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) covers what is arguably the knottiest and most challenging period in a career known for being knotty and challenging. While there are certainly fans who have a preference for Mitchell's diaristic/post-folk sounds of the late '60s/early '70s Reprise era or the exploratory fusions of pop and jazz of her first three Asylum albums, most of those fans can find space to love all (or at least most) of the work she released between 1968 and 1975.

It is a crystalline piano that opens this album before being joined by the rhythmic pair and then becoming heavily percussive before returning to more softness for a sinuous solo that alternates pearled notes and bushy chords.

Since the ’80s, Soul Asylum have been a group known for their raucous but emphatic combination of punk energy, guitar-fueled firepower, and songs that range from aggressive to heartfelt. All of these things are present in spades on the Minneapolis band’s gloriously, joyously loose 13th studio album, Slowly But Shirley.

For the third album collection of the Joni Mitchell Archives project, The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) covers what is arguably the knottiest and most challenging period in a career known for being knotty and challenging. While there are certainly fans who have a preference for Mitchell's diaristic/post-folk sounds of the late '60s/early '70s Reprise era or the exploratory fusions of pop and jazz of her first three Asylum albums, most of those fans can find space to love all (or at least most) of the work she released between 1968 and 1975.