Black Gold: The Best Of Soul Asylum

Performer: Soul Asylum
Artist: Ivan Neville; Booker T. Jones; Henry Butler
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Soul Asylum: Dave Pirner (vocals, guitar, horns, keyboards); Daniel Murphy (guitar, background vocals); Karl Mueller (bass); Sterling Campbell, Grant Young (drums). Additional personnel: Joey Huffman, Ed Stasium, Ivan Neville, Jon Carin, Tim Ray, Booker T. Jones, Karen Grotberg, Henry Butler (keyboards). Producers: Soul Asylum, Butch Vig, Lenny Kaye, Steve Jordan, Michael Blair. Compilation producers: Lenny Kaye, Bruce Dickinson, Soul Asylum. Recorded between 1988 and 1998. Includes liner notes by Lenny Kaye. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Personnel: Dave Pirner (vocals, guitar, horns, keyboards); Karen Grotberg, Ed Stasium, Ivan Neville, Joey Huffman, Tim Ray (keyboards); Grant Young (drums). Photographers: Dave Pirner; Mark Seliger; Jason Stang; Daniel Corrigan; Valerie Phillips; Danny Clinch. The 2000 compilation BLACK GOLD: THE BEST OF SOUL ASYLUM is tilted in favor of the band's later work, with only four songs predating their 1992 commercial breakthrough. Therefore, this 19-track compilation is perhaps the best value for those fans of the band's early, scrappy, indie-label days (showcased on the brilliant "Cartoon" and "Just Like Anyone") who were so turned off by the mainstream omnipresence of GRAVE DANCERS UNION in the early '90s that they missed out on the pure pop joys of songs like "Somebody To Shove" and "Black Gold." The album also serves the useful dual function of condensing Soul Asylum's post-stardom albums, which are most politely described as "spotty," into their high points, and gathering some of the band's more obscure gems, like a terrific version of Victoria Williams' "Summer of Drugs" (from the SWEET RELIEF tribute) and the title track from their final album CANDY FROM A STRANGER, which perversely wasn't included on the album itself. This is a solid overview of an increasingly marginalized and underappreciated band.

Entertainment Weekly (12/1/00, p.103) - "...These rough-hewn, Replacements-style rockers have always seemed most comfortable slugging it out on the periphery of rock stardom..." - Rating: B- Q (12/00, p.151) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...These songs are full of pathos and are often memorably melodic..."

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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