Tragic Treasury, The
General
| Feb 2007
Reviews
Red West
Reviewed 2007-04-04
Reviewed 2007-04-04
Simple droll songs about bad guys, villainous situations, and unpleasant places. Played with a variety of well-synthesized accordions, glockenspiels, etc, and sometimes pure electric. Sung in his depressed baritone. Stephan Merritt is friends with Lemony Snicket, the author of The Series of Unfortunate Events children’s books. Lemony wrote the long liner notes for 69 Love Songs and Merritt returned the favor, so to speak, by producing music (with the author himself) for his audiobooks. Many of those tracks appear here.
1. Oh, with unveiled contempt, it’s the bad Count Olaf.
++2.catchy like old Magnetic Fields
++3.Good buzzy synths here
+4.Dramatic, minor key, a little like the beatles
5.produced to sound like an old recording (except for end) sparse
6.Happy-sounding ballad
7.flanged guitar, almost “unplugged”. Cliché
+8. Gentle but on edge. I keep expecting it to change: it doesn’t
++9.I’m a sucker for banjo, even fake banjo. Boppy, bouncy
+10.interesting sounds, good impression of hoplelessness
11.nearly a-capella (distant toy piano) weird yet lullabye-like
12.slow cabaret
++13.ditzy waltz of hate
+14.Full sound, faster than most of this CD
15.funny paen to commercialism,(has Cthulu reference at end)
1. Oh, with unveiled contempt, it’s the bad Count Olaf.
++2.catchy like old Magnetic Fields
++3.Good buzzy synths here
+4.Dramatic, minor key, a little like the beatles
5.produced to sound like an old recording (except for end) sparse
6.Happy-sounding ballad
7.flanged guitar, almost “unplugged”. Cliché
+8. Gentle but on edge. I keep expecting it to change: it doesn’t
++9.I’m a sucker for banjo, even fake banjo. Boppy, bouncy
+10.interesting sounds, good impression of hoplelessness
11.nearly a-capella (distant toy piano) weird yet lullabye-like
12.slow cabaret
++13.ditzy waltz of hate
+14.Full sound, faster than most of this CD
15.funny paen to commercialism,(has Cthulu reference at end)
Recent airplay
In The Reptile Room (From The Reptile Room)
Power Hour — Jan 13, 2009
How Do You Slow This Thing Down? (From The Slippery Slope)
Fiction Romance — Aug 02, 2007
Freakshow (From The Carnivorous Carnival)
At Your Local Dive — Jun 28, 2007
Things Are Not What They Appear (From The Penultimate Peril)
Fiction Romance — May 17, 2007
In The Reptile Room (From The Reptile Room)
Finneman's Market — May 17, 2007
In The Reptile Room (From The Reptile Room)
Finneman's Market — Apr 26, 2007
Charting
2007-04-08 — 2007-06-10
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| May 20 | 2 |
| Apr 29 | 1 |
| Apr 22 | 4 |
| Apr 15 | 2 |
Track listing
| 1. | Scream And Run Away (From The Bad Beginning) | ||
| 2. | In The Reptile Room (From The Reptile Room) | ||
| 3. | The World Is A Very Scary Place (From The Wide Window) | ||
| 4. | Dreary, Dreary (From The Miserable Mill) | ||
| 5. | When You Play The Violin (From The Austere Academy) | ||
| 6. | This Abyss (From The Ersatz Elevator) | ||
| 7. | Crows (From The Vile Village) | ||
| 8. | Smile! No One Cares How You Feel (From The Hostile Hospital) | ||
| 9. | Freakshow (From The Carnivorous Carnival) | ||
| 10. | How Do You Slow This Thing Down? (From The Slippery Slope) | ||
| 11. | A Million Mushrooms (From The Grim Grotto) | ||
| 12. | Things Are Not What They Appear (From The Penultimate Peril) | ||
| 13. | Shipwrecked (From The End) | ||
| 14. | Walking My Gargoyle (Original Song From The Carnivorous Carnival) | ||
| 15. | We Are The Gothic Archies |