| Post Minstrel Syndrome | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | the Negro Problem |
| Cover: | Post Minstrel Syndrome.jpg |
| Released: | 1997 |
| Genre: | Alternative rock |
| Label: | Aerial Flipout[1] |
| Producer: | Andrew Williams, The Negro Problem |
| Next Title: | Joys & Concerns |
| Next Year: | 1999 |
Post Minstrel Syndrome is the debut album by the American alternative rock band the Negro Problem, released in 1997.[2] [3]
The album was produced by Andrew Williams and the band, and recorded on an 8-track.[4] [5] It contains a cover of "MacArthur Park", with changed lyrics, as well as five unlisted songs.[6] It was the frontman Stew's intention to make an album that sounded like his memory of the less-segregated AM radio of the late 1960s.[7] The original lineup of the band broke up toward the end of the recording sessions.[8] "Birdcage" criticizes the Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn.[9]
Entertainment Weekly called the album "a wryly eccentric brand of white-bread pop laced with atmospheric keyboards, vibrant brass, and startling melodies." Phoenix New Times deemed it "a kinky mix of art-rock gambol and earthy balladry."[10] Rolling Stone praised the "tart wit, sunshinedaydream melodicism and open-heart surge."[11]
Trouser Press labeled the album "a joyous album of off-kilter pure pop."[12] The Dayton Daily News stated: "Quirky yet infectious, this art-pop fits with Pere Ubu's relatively accessible albums circa 1990."[13] The San Diego Union-Tribune considered Post Minstrel Syndrome to be the best debut album of 1997.
AllMusic wrote that the album "is like a breath of fresh air, a no-man's land where the politics and social vision of C.L.R. James meet Spike Lee in the home of Big Joe Turner's R&B, and primal, snaky rock & roll."