I remember first discovering this album back in my DC Days in the late 80's early 90's. "Let It Ring" in particularly rocked my world and I couldn't get enough of the whole S2T LP. Such fine memories from the salad days of the DC Hardcore/Straight Edge scene: Fugazi, Scream (ahem, Dave Groehl anyone?), Three/Grey Matter, Minor Threat, Tsunami, Jawbox, Embrace, 9353, Fire Party, Eggs, et al. ~ oh, the list goes on and on. S2T were a seminal part of it all.
I really like S2T's first album, however it is incomplete here. Due to rights issues, their excellent cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" was deleted from the digital version of the album. It is on the CD, which can be ordered via dischord.com (Sammich Records was Ian MacKaye's sister's record label.).
This is one of the last Shudder To Think albums I hadn't heard yet - maybe it needs to grow a little bit more. Right now I'd say it's worth hearing, but really only "Abysmal Yellow Popcorn Wall", "Take The Child", and "A Vampire's Proposal" live up to their best material.
I was excited for this release, as their contribution, "Too Little Too Late" on the Fetal Records compilation was, and is still, one of my favorite songs (I would love to find a digital copy of that song, as the version I have on my iPod was converted from my vinyl copy). This album doesn't disappoint; from the strong opening of "A Vampire's Proposal" to the last chords of "Let It Ring", these guys were an welcomed return to the ideals of independent music. While it doesn't display the confidence or maturity of "Get Your Goat" or the production of their Epic era releases, it definitely surpasses any of their releases in sense of songwriting. A highly recommended release from the DC community -or any, for that matter.
This is one of my favorites. I love Take the Child and A Vampire's Proposal especially - I've got this on vinyl!
I love Shudder to Think and I already have all their other albums so I was excited to find this one on emusic, but really, it's terrible.
