| Strangers from the Universe | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 |
| Cover: | Strangers From The Universe tful282.jpg |
| Released: | 1994 |
| Recorded: | Lowdown Studios, San Francisco, California |
| Genre: | Indie rock, experimental rock, noise rock |
| Length: | 46:38 |
| Label: | Matador |
| Producer: | Greg Freeman, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 |
| Prev Title: | The Funeral Pudding |
| Prev Year: | 1994 |
| Next Title: | I Hope It Lands |
| Next Year: | 1996 |
Strangers from the Universe is an album by the American band Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, released in 1994 through Matador Records.[1] [2] The band supported the album by touring with Live.[3] Strangers from the Universe was a moderate commercial success.[4] Mark Davies used an Optigan keyboard on some of the tracks.[5]
It was reissued in 2022.[6]
Trouser Press wrote: "Berserk rhythms are presented with deadpan simplicity, like the sickly funk riff of 'Socket' that keeps sticking a banana peel in its own path."[7] Spin opined that "for once the Thinking Fellers have made an album that you can comfortably hear straight through, and its dark mood deepens along the way."[8]
The Washington Post determined that the album "can be elusive, but much of it deserves the title the band bestowed on the closing track, 'Noble Experiment'."[9] The Santa Fe New Mexican noted that "sometimes stringed instruments, such as banjo or mandolin, are used as rhythm instruments, or to create a throbbing drone ... It's usually unsettling, but sometimes beautiful."[10]