Rope-a-Dope (Antietam album)

Rope-a-Dope is an album by the American indie rock band Antietam, released in 1994.[2][3]

Rope-a-Dope
Studio album by
Antietam
Released1994
GenreIndie rock
LabelHomestead Records[1]
ProducerLyle Hysen, Antietam
Antietam chronology
Antietam Comes Alive!
(1992)		 Rope-a-Dope
(1994)		 Victory Park
(2004)

Production

The album was produced by Lyle Hysen and Antietam.[4] Ira Kaplan contributed organ to the album's opening track, "Hands Down". Rope-a-Dope includes a cover of Dead Moon's "Graveyard".[5]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Robert Christgau(1-star Honorable Mention)[7]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[8]
Entertainment WeeklyB[9]

Trouser Press thought that "as borne out by songs like the gently psychedelic 'Pine', [Tara] Key has settled into a wafting lower register that accentuates the spooky qualities of her voice; she’s also found a way to channel some of her manic onstage attack."[5] Entertainment Weekly deemed "Hands Down" "a wonderfully propulsive, guitar- and organ-driven bucket of noise."[9] The Washington Post opined that "Key's piercing guitar lines are the group's trademark, yet the gentle, [Tim] Harris-sung 'Hardly Believe' has the album's most memorable tune."[10]

Greil Marcus, in Artforum, noted that Key and Harris "can't sing," but wrote that "every time you’re about to give up on this music, Key summons a passage on her instrument that does sing."[11] Guitar Player praised Key's "spectacularly distorted tone that's exuberantly trashy yet retains razor-edged definition."[12]

AllMusic called the album "an unjustly overlooked piece of mid-'90s indie rock," writing that the "high point, and possibly the best thing Antietam ever did, is the 11-minute closer 'Silver Solace', which builds and ebbs with structural grace and contains some of Key's most remarkable singing and soloing."[6]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Hands Down"3:31
2."What She Will"5:04
3."Pine"4:52
4."Certain Muse"2:59
5."Hardly Believe"4:34
6."Graveyard"3:25
7."Rope-a-Dope"2:58
8."Leave Home"6:08
9."Betwixt"4:27
10."Silver Solace"10:39

Personnel
  • Tim Harris - bass, vocals
  • Tara Key - guitars, vocals
  • Josh Madell - drums, vocals

References
  1. Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. Random House. 1997. p. 433.
  2. "Antietam | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  3. DeLuca, Dan (2 Dec 1994). "ANTIETAM". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Features Weekend. p. 17.
  4. "Album Reviews". Billboard. 107 (2): 44. Jan 14, 1995.
  5. "Antietam". Trouser Press. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  6. "Rope-A-Dope - Antietam | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  7. "Robert Christgau: CG: Antietam". www.robertchristgau.com.
  8. Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 1. MUZE. p. 210.
  9. "Rope-a-Dope". EW.com.
  10. "ANTIETAM'S BATTLE: GUITARS VS. STRUCTURE". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  11. "Greil Marcus Top Ten". www.artforum.com.
  12. Gore, Joe (Feb 1995). "Reviews". Guitar Player. 29 (2): 145.
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