In an Expression of the Inexpressible explained

In an Expression of the Inexpressible
Type:studio
Artist:Blonde Redhead
Cover:Inanexpressionoftheinexpressible.jpg
Recorded:February 1998
Studio:Jolly Roger (Hoboken, New Jersey)
Genre:
Length:42:48
Label:Touch and Go
Producer:
Prev Title:Fake Can Be Just as Good
Prev Year:1997
Next Title:Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Next Year:2000

In an Expression of the Inexpressible is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Blonde Redhead. It was released on September 8, 1998, by Touch and Go Records.[2] [3]

Critical reception

Reviewing In an Expression of the Inexpressible for NME in 1998, Kitty Empire praised Blonde Redhead's music as "a noble enterprise, fraught with detuned Sonic Youth guitars and scything hardcore fury." In Melody Maker, Neil Kulkarni called the album "funkless" yet "helluva lot more moving, thrilling and intriguing than anything the whole avant-rock/cod-funk axis has ever produced." AllMusic critic Matthew Hilburn attributed its "fuller and more polished" sound to Guy Picciotto and John Goodmanson's production and commented that Blonde Redhead has "never sounded quite as good", despite expressing mild reservations about the band's vocal and guitar performances. Nick Mirov of Pitchfork was less enthusiastic, writing that the band strives for "laid-back tension and moody sexiness" but instead sounds "lethargic and unengaging."

In 2018, In an Expression of the Inexpressible was listed as the 46th-best album of 1998 by Pitchfork.[4] In an accompanying essay, Pitchfork writer Claire Lobenfeld noted the album's shift away from the grittier sound of earlier Blonde Redhead recordings, and toward "a more romantic and uncharacteristically lustrous version of the Sonic Youth mimesis of their first three albums."[4]

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]

Blonde Redhead

Additional personnel

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Blonde Redhead Albums From Worst To Best. Stereogum. July 12, 2013. January 8, 2022. Lobenfeld. Claire.
  2. Web site: In an Expression of the Inexpressible. Touch and Go Records. March 9, 2021.
  3. Just Out. CMJ New Music Monthly. 61. September 1998. March 9, 2021. 86.
  4. Web site: The 50 Best Albums of 1998. Pitchfork. February 12, 2018. March 9, 2021.
  5. In an Expression of the Inexpressible. Blonde Redhead. Touch and Go Records. 1998. TG196CD. liner notes.