Icky Mettle

Icky Mettle
Studio album by
Archers of Loaf
Released1993
Recorded1993
GenreIndie rock
Length38:02
LabelAlias
ProducerCaleb Southern
Archers of Loaf chronology
Icky Mettle
(1993) 		Vs the Greatest of All Time
(1994)

Icky Mettle is the debut studio album recorded by the indie rock band Archers of Loaf. It was produced and engineered by Caleb Southern at Kraptone Studios in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and released by Alias Records in 1993. A deluxe reissue of the album was released by Merge Records in 2011.[1]

The album was recorded and mixed in seven days. According to Eric Bachmann, "We spent like $5,000 to make it."[2]

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
The A.V. ClubA−[4]
Christgau's Consumer GuideA[5]
Entertainment WeeklyA[6]
The Guardian[7]
NME7/10[8]
Pitchfork9.0/10[1]
Record Collector[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Spin8/10[11]

Icky Mettle received generally positive reviews. Interview declared it the "Best Indie Rock Album of the Year".[1] The Gazette listed it among the top 10 albums of 1993.[12]

Legacy

[edit]

Icky Mettle ranked number 32 in Pitchfork's original Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list,[13] and Blender ranked it at number 56 in their 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever list.[14] In a retrospective review, Spin's Mike Powell describes it as "an album of boyish fits and noisy guitar flurries. It's indie rock as hearty and art-free as oatmeal, before the line separating it from the mainstream dissolved, before it became so... eclectic."[11]

In a 2005 interview with The Triangle, Eric Bachmann reflected on the album: "When we first came out we had that energy. It's a weird thing that you can't put your finger on... I listened to Icky Mettle, and I almost cringe when I hear it. But what the people probably liked when they heard that record was the energy we were putting out."[15]

In 2011, Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional covered "Web in Front" on his album Covered in the Flood.[16]

Track listing

[edit]

All songs written by Eric Bachmann, Eric Johnson, Matt Gentling and Mark Price.

  1. "Web in Front" – 2:09
  2. "Last Word" – 3:35
  3. "Wrong" – 3:40
  4. "You and Me" – 3:10
  5. "Might" – 2:04
  6. "Hate Paste" – 2:46
  7. "Fat" – 1:19
  8. "Plumb Line" – 2:09
  9. "Learo, You're a Hole" – 3:51
  10. "Sick File" – 1:42
  11. "Toast" – 4:38
  12. "Backwash" – 3:27
  13. "Slow Worm" – 3:32
  14. "Audiowhore" — Japanese bonus track
  15. "Lowest Part is Free" — Japanese bonus track

Personnel

[edit]
  • Eric Bachmann – vocals, guitar
  • Matt Gentling – bass
  • Eric Johnson – guitar
  • Mark Price – drums

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Brown, Liz. "ROCK REVIEW: Archers Revolution". WWeek.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2005. Retrieved June 7, 2006.
  2. ^ Hawthorne, Mark. "ARCHERS OF LOAF VS. TINNITUS: A three week vacation in Paradise". The Online Daily of the University of Washington. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved September 3, 2006.
  3. ^ Carrelli, Jon. "Bachmann spills beans to Triangle". The Triangle. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved September 3, 2006.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b LeMay, Matt (August 1, 2011). "Archers of Loaf: Icky Mettle". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  2. ^ Marc Hawthorne (March 28, 1996). "ARCHERS OF LOAF VS. TINNITUS". The Daily of the University of Washington. Archived from the original on 2007-02-02.
  3. ^ Heaney, Gregory. "Icky Mettle – Archers of Loaf". AllMusic. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  4. ^ Murray, Noel (August 2, 2011). "Archers Of Loaf: Icky Mettle". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert (2000). "Archers of Loaf: Icky Mettle". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-312-24560-2. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  6. ^ Anderson, Kyle; Maerz, Melissa; Wood, Mikael; Wete, Brad (July 29, 2011). "Albums: Aug. 5, 2011". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  7. ^ Hughes, Tom (December 15, 2011). "Archers of Loaf: Icky Mettle – review". The Guardian. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  8. ^ "Archers of Loaf: Icky Mettle". NME: 28. October 30, 1993.
  9. ^ Pearlman, Mischa (December 2011). "Archers Of Loaf – Icky Mettle". Record Collector (395). Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  10. ^ Dolan, Jon (August 2, 2011). "Archers of Loaf: Icky Mettle (Reissue)". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  11. ^ a b Powell, Mike (August 2, 2011). "Archers of Loaf, 'Icky Mettle' (Merge)". Spin. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  12. ^ Lepage, Mark (Dec 29, 1993). "Year's high and low notes". The Gazette. p. E3.
  13. ^ "pitchforkmedia.com | album 90's top lists". Tclub.obninsk.ru. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  14. ^ "The 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever". www.stereogum.com. Blender Magazine. December 2007. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04.
  15. ^ Jon Carrelli (April 8, 2005). "Bachmann spills beans to Triangle". www.thetriangle.org. Archived from the original on 2010-08-06.
  16. ^ Ableson, Jon. "Chris Carrabba To Release "Covered In The Flood" Solo Album". Alter The Press!. Retrieved 17 June 2013.


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