Hope Chest

Product Description:

The first two 10,000 Maniacs records, 1982's HUMAN CONFLICT NUMBER FIVE EP and 1983's SECRETS OF THE I CHING album, were independently released by the band in fairly small editions. HOPE CHEST is a remixed and re-sequenced compilation of all but one of the songs from those two records. The most noticeable result of the remastering is a fuller drum sound.

These songs find the band playing its own version of electric folk music, an interpretation layered with elements of everything from reggae and dub ("Poor De Chirico," "National Education Week") to punk rock ("Death Of Manolete"). "My Mother The War," which appeared along with three other songs in a re-recorded version on THE WISHING CHAIR, is a nearly perfect distillation of the Maniacs' early sound. Robert Buck's sharp-as-crystal guitar rings, Jerome Augustyniak's drumming is thunderous but spare, and Natalie Merchant delivers her strangely distant lyrics with a distinctive, odd enunciation.