The Wishing Chair

by

10,000 Maniacs

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They never topped this one. It remains one of the greatest rock albums of all time and certainly one of the most criminally underrated. The six-piece Maniacs on this album showed many different sides and colors - leading some to the conclusion that the album is disjointed; well, what's wrong with that? Who wants to listen to a bunch of clones of the same song? The shifts in style are fascinating - it's sometimes hard to believe it's the same band you were listening to moments before. This album's production is also top-notch - they were lucky enough to have the legendary Joe Boyd, a man known for letting bands sound like themselves. (Nothing he's produced EVER sounds dated...check it out.) It's worth comparing this to the clinical and overly-glossy production jobs that followed on their following albums. Lyrically this is how I prefer to hear Natalie Merchant, too - with words that suggest and evoke. She's drawing pictures rather than preaching and moralizing which would be an irritant on later albums. They tip their hat to traditional folk on "Just as the Tide Was A-Flowing", and their love of the material is very evident here; they also deliver some stormy rockers like "Scorpio Rising" and "My Mother the War", but sadly this marked the end of their edge; they'd never do anything this raucous ever again. The absolute best thing about this album is that they sound like a group without any obvious front man (or woman); it sounds like the ideas came from several personalities. A brilliant, timeless masterpiece from start to finish.

A few years ago I saw the 10,000 Maniacs 'Wishing Chair' on sale in a second hand CD shop. I picked it up on a whim and found myself gifted with a poppy, yet textured treat that I still regularily listen to today. Opening with the lightly bouncy 'Can't Ignore the Train', lyricist/singer Natalie Merchant delivers band-mate John Lombardo's warmly yet bouncy melody with a richness that leaves the listener with a feeling not unlike that of sipping really good scotch in a really great dance bar. That's the paraodox that is 'The Wishing Chair'; richly woven melodies peaking at times into poppy-go-lucky sounding hooks that lift one out of the sometimes too serious lyrics into an arms spread out twirl through a meadow of the Maniac's fanciful artistry. Tracks like 'Scorpio Rising', 'Madox Table, 'My Mother the War' and 'Grey Victory' reflect this style with integrity and ingenuity. Guitarists John Lombardo and Robert Buck compliment Merchant's sometimes brooding, so! metimes soothing vocals with swoops and swells of melodic hooks driven by the lumbering rythyms of percusionist Jerry Augustiniak and bassist Steven Gustafson. 'The Wishing Chair' is a serious album with serious themes trapped in a pop-folk body. Sometimes this contrast is too much, but most of the time it's an emminantly pleasent listen. Buy it to complete a set, or to satisfy your curiousity of the early days of this ground-breaking group. But take it for what it's worth....a promising start that anticipates the style the 'Maniacs perfected on later albums like 'Our Time in Eden' and 'Blind Man's Zoo'.