Pony Express Record
Shudder to Think
Epic, 1994
Reviewed by
Troy Carpenter
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once compared his craft to musical composition
in terms of artistic approach. Would that the great man had stuck around long enough to
hear Shudder To Think, whose many-sided musical compositions possess something akin to the
obtuse beauty of Wright's creations.
On Shudder's major-label debut, Pony Express Record, the band takes its unique
songwriting and instrumental capabilities to a new level. The songs on Pony Express
are made of sharp angles and turns, curious time signatures, hard rock guitar riffs, and
singer Craig Wedren's insatiable falsetto.
Shudder To Think is actually a different band on this album, which is the studio debut of
guitarist Nathan Larson and drummer Adam Wade. The pair fit in well with Shudder's quirky
art-rock leanings and Larson actually becomes an integral part of the band, helping write
five of Pony Express' songs. Though the strange song arrangements and
constructions were present on much of Shudder's past work, the new lineup takes this
unique aesthetic a step further as Larson's guitar steps out in the mix, giving the music
a harder edge.
As if to catch up, Wedren somehow becomes even more flamboyant than before, thus
stretching the music in many directions. He breaks into a full operatic croon two measures
into the album, and begins dropping such evocative imagery as "the case of her bones
are softer than loose meat" or "my mouth is a cold sore display case."
Wedren's vocal style is as much Freddie Mercury as it is J. Robbins, yet it's securely out
of the reach of either.
A strange band, for sure, and an even stranger album. It makes one wonder what Sony was
supposed to do with Shudder To Think from a marketing perspective. As a major-label debut,
it probably alienated some of Shudder's more indie-cred-obsessed fans, but there's no way
in hell any of these songs were going to climb up the Billboard charts.
Still, something about Pony Express Record's unwillingness to be just another
major-label cash cow gives it a glow of originality. The music itself is even more
original than the idea, resulting in a highly underappreciated, forward-thinking record.
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