The Prayer Chain - "Mercury"

The Prayer Chain - Mercury

1995, Rode Dog

1. Humb

2. Waterdogs

3. Grylliade

4. Creole

5. Sky High

6. Mercury

7. Shiver

8. Manta Rae

9. Bendy Line

10. Sun Stoned

Um... yeah... what happened here? I've heard that the record company wanted another Shawl but the band pretty much gave them the finger (figuratively speaking) by producing Mercury. The band trades in their catchy alternative songs for these long, sprawling, complex compositions that have little in the way of hooks. "Waterdogs" and "Grylliade" probably sound the most like the old Prayer Chain, but the rest of the disc is psychedelic and demanding. It gives the listener little to latch on to. Some of the songs contain Eastern scales and other assorted experimental stuff. I remember seeing these guys in concert when this album came out and man... were they ever boring. Mercury is NOT the kind of music you play to a crowd wanting to have fun. Mercury is the kind of music you play alone in your room while staring at those velvet posters they sell at Spencer's that glow under ultraviolet light. Yeah... I was bored, the crowd was bored, heck - even the band looked bored. Never really got into this one but now as I'm writing this I'm thinking I need to go back and check it out....

UPDATE!... and check it out I did. I don't know if it's my age or the fact that I went through a huge Pink Floyd phase a few years ago, but I liked this a lot better. Granted it's still not "groovin' in the car" music but it's good background chill-out music. There are a lot of layers here and it takes some getting used to, but overall the experience was more positive than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to really listen to something like this (much the same as Pink Floyd).

Useless Fact: This was the band's last official album. They came out with Antarctica but I think that was just a live album with a few unreleased tracks on it. Steve Hindalong (The Choir) produced this album as he had with the others and wrote the lyrics to "Bendy Line."

The Prayer Chain - "Shawl"

The Prayer Chain - Shawl

1993, Reunion

1. Crawl
2. Dig-Dug
3. Fifty-Eight
4. Like I Was
5. The Hollow
6. Never Enough
7. Wrounde
8. Grin
9. Big Wheel
10. Pure
11. Worm
12. PsychoFlange

After hearing and absolutely loving their Whirlpool EP my friends and I were going out of our minds waiting for their full length album. When I first heard it, I was not disappointed. It sounds like an extension of Whirlpool for the most part. I reacquired a copy a few years ago but hearing it now... it just doesn't do it for me like it used to. It reeks of the early 90's alternative, which isn't bad but somehow annoys me. Some of the sad-sack lyrics in this one irritate me. I guess when I was a young, introverted, sensitive teenager it really resonated with me, but now I laugh at songs like "Dig-Dug" - so FULL of angst! So much doubt! Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. It's just having worked through a lot of my issues (and still continuing to) I just can't rage at the sky anymore. I'll probably give this another spin at some point and if my opinion changes I'll update this entry.

Useless Fact: The opening track contains the lyric "Shine is dead" because the band was so sick of playing that song from the EP.

The Prayer Chain - "Whirlpood EP"

The Prayer Chain - Whirlpool EP

1992, Reunion

1. Mercy

2. Some Love

3. Shine

4. I Believe

5. Follow Me

6. Whirlpool

I used to be a pretty big Prayer Chain fan but not so much anymore. Out of all the Prayer Chain stuff I had this is the only thing I ever have the desire to listen to. I don't think Shawl has aged very well and it's depressing to boot. I was never that into Mercury in the first place so I don't ever listen to that either. That leaves this little EP. It's buoyant, bouncy alt-rock with some atmospheric elements added in. It's pretty cool and when it first came out my friends and I were all waiting with anticipation for a full length. "Shine" was most people's favorite though I really liked the lyrics to "Some Love" which was a call for acceptance for people whom the church at the time didn't really care about. Steve Hindalong of The Choir produced.

Useless Fact: The band got to hating "Shine" so much that when they finally did put together a full album the lyrics in the very first song went "Shine is dead!"