Made To Be Broken

Performer: Soul Asylum
Engineer: Steve Fjelstad
Producer: Bob Mould
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Soul Asylum: Dave Pirner (vocals, guitar, saxophone, piano); Dan Murphy (guitar, background vocals); Karl Mueller (bass); Grant Young (drums). The first of three Soul Asylum records released in 1986 (WHILE YOU WERE OUT and TIME'S INCINERATOR were the other two). MADE TO BE BROKEN was also the band's first real LP. Produced by Husker Du's Bob Mould, the record focuses on some of the band's wilder excesses and reveals some experimental tendencies. In 1986, while other Minneapolis bands were moving away from punk rock (Husker Du's CANDY APPLE GREY and The Replacements' PLEASED TO MEET ME, for example), Soul Asylum raced on, full speed ahead. The band's version of punk had always been a little more tempered than that of its contemporaries. Even at this early stage, the band was experimenting with folk-influenced country, but not in the campy manner that The Replacements had done on HOOTENANNY a couple of years earlier. Standouts include "Never Really Been," an acoustic guitar toe-tapper with oddly prophetic lyrics; "Whoa!", a straight-ahead punk rocker with some falsetto vocals, and "Lone Rider," an early example of Soul Asylum's take on 1970s classic rock. This is a fine debut album by a band in the middle of developing its own sound.

Q (4/93, p.103) - 3 Stars - Good - "...[on MADE TO BE BROKEN] Soul Asylum exhibited that curious blend of country, trash and thrash that could make them sound like Husker Du one moment and god-forsaken cowpunk the next..."

The members of Minneapolis-based Soul Asylum started playing together in the early 1980s, their first album seeing the light of day in '84. Their punk-inspired sound was hard-edged, but full of inventive melodic ideas and unusual song structures. Led by in-your-face frontman Dave Pirner, the hard-working band eventually broke through to the mainstream with their 1993 hit "Runaway Train." The band went on hiatus after 1998's CANDY FROM A STRANGER, with Pirner releasing a solo album, but they began performing together again in 2002.

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