Remastered edition of Bedhead’s 1994 debut. One of the greatest bands ever to be slapped with the “slowcore” tag, this Dallas five-piece created a stark, introverted sound that featured three chiming guitars and half-spoken lyrics about death and the unknown beyond. Unusually meditative—even compared to contemporaries like Low and Red House Painters—Bedhead wrote songs that shuddered with melodic beauty and sometimes rocked out like no other. Thanks to Numero Group’s reissue of Bedhead’s catalog, this album (not to mention Bedhead’s other two) is getting its due as one of the quiet masterpieces of the 90s. Favorites: 2, 3, 5, 7, 10. 8 is FCC questionable.

1. (4:40)—Slow. Dirgelike intro, builds to an intense, windswept middle. “The bed at night is a liferaft/In the ocean of the dark.”
2. *(4:12)—Faster, loud and noisy. One of two straight-up rock songs on this album. Explosive finish.
3. *(4:44)—A classic. First half is quiet and icy, second half is a full-on headbanger. One of my favorite songs of all time. (Pro tip: find the 7” version of this song in KZSU’s library and play it on 33 RPM. It’s brutal.)
4. (4:20)—Mid-tempo. Satirical and kind of jaunty.
5. *(3:52)— Builds slowly, never gets loud. Fantastic lyrics about loneliness.
6. (4:33)—Quiet, calm. About creating a world from wax.
7. *(7:04)—Bedhead’s “Stairway to Heaven.” A devastating extended reflection on loss. “And I had no idea/I had any ideas.”
8. (4:15)—Borderline FCC, with some explicit anatomical descriptions. Slow, kind of playful, minimal until the end.
9. (2:59)—Mid-tempo, surprisingly twangy and swinging.
10. *(4:25)—Mid-tempo, loud and heavy, similar to track 2.
11. (3:33)—Very minimal beginning, slowly builds to a big, major-key finale.