Pandelirium Explained

Pandelirium
Type:Album
Artist:Legendary Shack Shakers
Cover:Pandelirium.jpg
Released:2006
Recorded:2005
Studio:Roswell East Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Length:32:50
Label:Yep Roc
Producer:Mark Robertson
J. D. Wilkes
Prev Title:Believe
Prev Year:2004
Next Title:Lower Broad Lo-Fi
Next Year:2007

Pandelirium is the fifth studio album by American rock band Legendary Shack Shakers. It is the second album in the band's "Tentshow Trilogy", which began with Believe (2004) and concluded with Swampblood (2007).

Musical style

J.D. Wilkes described Pandelirium as "carnival music played by a stripped-down blues band."[1] The album was described by AllMusic as a further departure from the band's established style than their previous album, displaying a "more European, even Gypsy approach" that mixes "American and European goth sensibilities with the musty roots of country and blues along with the live-fast, die-young energy of early rock."[2] J.D. Wilkes described Pandelirium as the second in a trilogy of albums which started with Believe (2004) that form an "unfolding trilogy of new American Gothic"[3] called the "Tentshow Trilogy" by the band, which concluded with Swampblood (2007).[4]

Exclaim! wrote that Pandelirium evokes "an atmosphere of Screamin' Jay Hawkins with more of a sense of humour and a touch more psychobilly goth than overt voodoo creepiness."[5] The A.V. Club wrote that "The Shack*Shakers underline and punctuate almost every song on Pandelirium to emphasize their dissociation from the Bloodshot/No Depression scene—it's far more Gogol Bordello than Uncle Tupelo."

Reception

Kyle Ryan's review for The A.V. Club rated the album "B−" and commented that the band "fire on all cylinders on Pandelirium's first half, particularly in the nihilistic "No Such Thing," but the carnival theme occasionally gets tiresome thereafter".[6] Sepiachord summed up its review of the record with one word: "DAMN".[7]

Track listing

  1. "Ichabod!" – 3:15
  2. "South Electric Eyes" – 2:46
  3. "No Such Thing" – 3:34
  4. "Iron Lung Oompah" – 3:10
  5. "Bottom Road" – 2:07
  6. "Somethin' in the Water" – 2:49
  7. "Jipsy Valentine" – 3:29
  8. "Thin the Herd" – 1:37
  9. "Monkey on the Doghouse" – 2:01
  10. "The Ballad of Speedy Atkins" – 2:19
  11. "Bible, Candle and Skull" – 3:01
  12. "Nellie Bell" – 2:42

Personnel

Additional personnel:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Shack*Shakers get back to the roots of Goth . Oksenhorn . Stewart . February 21, 2006 . The Aspen Times . 2022-11-22.
  2. Web site: Hal . Horowitz . [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r816574|pure_url=yes}} Review: ''Pandelirium'' ]. . April 14, 2010.
  3. Web site: TH’ LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS : PANDELIRIUM . Simpson . Ernest . November 20, 2006 . Treble Zine . 2022-04-16 .
  4. Web site: Legendary Shack Shakers - Swampblood . PopMatters. June 20, 2021 .
  5. Web site: Th' Legendary Shack Shakers: Pandelirium . Carmen . Keith . March 1, 2006 . Exclaim . 2022-04-17.
  6. Web site: Pandemonium . Ryan . Kyle . The AV Club. May 16, 2021.
  7. Web site: Review. Sepiachord. May 16, 2021. March 3, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173842/http://www.sepiachord.com/lss.htm. dead.