The Silver Lining

Performer: Soul Asylum
Engineer: John Fields; Steve Hodge
Producer: John Fields; Steve Hodge; John Fields
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Soul Asylum: John Fields (bass guitar); Dan Murphy, Dave Pirner, Jeff Victor, Michael Bland , Ken Chastain. Personnel: John Fields (vocals, guitar, piano, Farfisa, keyboards, percussion); Dave Pirner (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion); Dan Murphy (vocals, guitar); Michael Bland (vocals, drums); Tommy Stinson (vocals); John Woodland, Kraig Johnson (guitar); Andy Dee (lap steel guitar); Jeff Victor (organ, Wurlitzer organ, keyboards); Joey Huffman (organ, keyboards); Ken Chastain (percussion); Kari Shaw, Brad Meier, Andra Suchy, Melissa Gorman (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Chuck Zwicky. Recording information: Flyte Tyme, Minneapolis, MN; Master Mix, Minneapolis, MN; Steve Hodge Productions, Minneapolis, MN; Ther Terrarium, Minneapolis, MN. Photographers: Dave Pirner; Tim Schuck. After struggling to sustain the mainstream stardom they achieved in the early 1990s, and recuperating from the loss of original member and bass player Karl Mueller to cancer, Soul Asylum returned in 2006 with the appropriately named THE SILVER LINING. Longtime fans hoping for a sound more in line with the group's scrappy early work may be disappointed: This is still post-GRAVE DANCER'S UNION Soul Asylum, complete with well-polished production and bittersweet, radio-ready ballads. But Dave Pirner's songwriting is still sharp and heavy with memorable melodies (as on the album's lead-off single "Stand Up and Be Strong"), and the band can still pack a rock punch, proving there is some gas left in the tank.

Rolling Stone (p.99) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'Bus Named Desire' is a bright, well-wrought shout-along, and on the soul-smeared 'Good for You,' singer-guitarist Dave Pirner tugs heartstrings without getting too weak-kneed about it." Spin (p.85) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'All Is Well' and 'Bus Named Desire' sound like a band that's discovered how to enjoy itself again." Q (p.110) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The sound of a band growing old comfortably, it tempers the garage punk of their youth with a more measured approach..."

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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