"Web in Front"
Single by Archers of Loaf
from the album Icky Mettle
RecordedFebruary 1993
Genre
LabelAlias
Songwriter(s)
Icky Mettle track listing
  1. Web in Front
  2. Last Word
  3. Wrong
  4. You and Me
  5. Might
  6. Hate Paste
  7. Fat
  8. Plumb Line
  9. Learo, You're a Hole
  10. Sick File
  11. Toast
  12. Backwash
  13. Slow Worm

Web in Front is a song by American indie rock band Archers of Loaf, originally released as a 7" single on Alias Records in 1993. It was their first release on the Alias label, and their first single from their debut album Icky Mettle.[2][3] The original single also included the tracks "Bathroom" and "Tatayana".[4]

Impact

"Web in Front" launched Icky Mettle to high-ranking positions on the college charts, including #18 on the CMJ New Music Report Top 150.[5] The single was played regularly on both college radio and MTV,[2] and its music video was featured in an episode of Beavis & Butthead.[5]

Critical reception

When "Web in Front" was originally released, music critics often compared it to Pavement and Superchunk.[3] For example, Charles Aaron wrote in Spin that the song was "...a less fettered and more frolicsome rewrite of Pavement's "From Now On" (from Perfect Sound Forever).[4] The New York Times' Neil Strauss described the song as frontman Eric Bachmann's "...own tongue-in-cheek version of a love song, and a perfect combination of weirdness with pop intuition."[6]

Retrospective

In a review of Seconds Before the Accident, a 2000 Archers of Loaf live album, Pete Nicholson described "Web in Front" as a "pop classic".[7] In 2012, Pitchfork Media's Matt LeMay wrote that "..."Web in Front" is quite simply among the finest indie rock songs ever written. That a song whose lyrics are all but impossible to parse literally comes off as so immediate and relatable speaks both to Bachmann's skill with words-as-sounds, and to his bandmates' ability to put force and nuance behind his voice."[8] Also in 2012, Pitchfork's Paul Thompson wrote that the song "...isn't just their finest song, it's their defining moment, their rocket-shot into the canon."[9]

Pitchfork ranked the song as the 77th best track of the 1990s in a 2010 list.[10]

Track listing

  1. Web in Front
  2. Bathroom
  3. Tatayana

References

  1. ↑ Kurland, Jordan. "The Mix: 100 Essential Noise Pop Songs". NPR.
  2. 1 2 Archers of Loaf. 2004. Retrieved 2018-01-17. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |website= ignored (help)
  3. 1 2 Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 38. ISBN 9781843531050.
  4. 1 2 Aaron, Charles (August 1993). "Singles". Spin. SPIN Media LLC. p. 90.
  5. 1 2 Grady, Ross (April 1995). "Archers of Loaf". CMJ New Music Monthly. CMJ Network, Inc. p. 17.
  6. ↑ Strauss, Neil (1994-04-26). "Pop and Jazz in Review". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  7. ↑ Nicholson, Pete (2000-06-30). "Archers of Loaf: Seconds Before the Accident Album Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  8. ↑ LeMay, Matt (2011-08-01). "Archers of Loaf: Icky Mettle Album Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  9. ↑ Thompson, Paul (2012-08-14). "Archers of Loaf: Reissues Album Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  10. ↑ "The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 100-51". Pitchfork Media. 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
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