THE SHUNNED COUNTRY

Bob Drake

•

RIO/Avant-Prog

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Bob Drake The Shunned Country album cover

4.73 | 7 ratings | 1 reviews | 43% 5 stars

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Studio Album, released in 2005

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. The Shunned Country: An Introduction (1:23)
2. Something Was Wrong Down There at the Graveyard (0:25)
3. Just Ask Mr. Smith (0:18)
4. Toolshed (0:15)
5. Bad Reputation (0:18)
6. Hand of Saint Anne (0:29)
7. The Megalith of Forgotten Purpose (0:24)
8. Rot of the Stars (0:23)
9. The Tunnels (0:28)
10. Nobody Knows What to Do (0:27)
11. House by the Swamp (0:32)
12. By Then It Was Much Too Late (0:52)
13. Ash Tree - First Movment (0:27)
14. Ash Tree - Second Movment (0:23)
15. A Certain Slab (0:22)
16. Profound Musings (0:19)
17. The Flopper (0:25)
18. Puppy (0:28)
19. They All Told Him Not to Plow That Certain Field (0:52)
20. Another Abandoned Farmhouse (0:57)
21. The Crumbling of the Monuments (0:48)
22. House in the Dreary Hills (0:19)
23. Yeah (0:57)
24. Song Made Whilst Awaiting a Summer Thunderstorm Which Never Arrived (0:45)
25. Ask Anybody Around There (0:37)
26. The Sun Slants Strangely (0:48)
27. The Cloud (intro) (1:18)
28. The Cloud (3:01)
29. The Dynamistograph (0:24)
30. Miracle (0:17)
31. The Text on the Cover of Nandor Fodor's Encyclopedia of Psychic Science (0:22)
32. They Don't Make 'em Like They Used To (0:31)
33. Bear (0:24)
34. Modest Listing of Some Haunted Places (0:44)
35. The Hounds (0:37)
36. It Has No Name (0:35)
37. October 22 1910, Paris (0:35)
38. Another Unusual Cloud (0:34)
39. Yet Another Unusual Cloud (0:23)
40. Treatise on the Natural History of the Animal Life of the Mississippi Valley (0:13)
41. The Cruncher in Semi-Darkness (1:25)
42. Notebook Found in Deserted Hotel (1:36)
43. Splishing (1:04)
44. The Persecuting Engine (1:08)
45. Lo, the Colour (1:06)
46. Limerick Composed in a Dream (0:56)
47. The Thing on the Roof (1:13)
48. November 18 1911, Paris (1:25)
49. Kaziah's Pet (2:00)
50. The Shunned Country Theme (0:49)
51. Your Visit to the Shunned Country (2:17)
52. Shunned Country Coda - or - a Bit of Last Minute Advice (0:35)

Total Time 40:13

Line-up / Musicians

- Bob Drake / vocals, performer

With:
- Mike Johnson / acoustic guitar (27)

Releases information

Artwork: Ray O'Bannon

CD Crumbling Tomes Archive ‎- CTA SC01 (2005, UK)

Digital album

Thanks to SolariS for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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BOB DRAKE The Shunned Country ratings distribution

4.73
(7 ratings)

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(43%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(29%)
Good, but non-essential (14%)
Collectors/fans only (14%)
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)

BOB DRAKE The Shunned Country reviews

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Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by penguindf12
PROG REVIEWER

Here it is, folks. Bob Drake's magnum opus. This is the big one - one of the greatest albums ever recorded. It belongs on everyone's shelf, and in everyone's mind.

52 vignettes - songs of Lovecraftian horror - bizzaro instrumental shorts - all held together by a "conceptual thread." The album is a journey through "The Shunned Country" itself - essentially the European version of Lovecraft country. You know the place - abandoned farmhouses, eldritch evils, suggestions of supernatural occurrences, the works. Come on down!

The music, for the most part, is very original avant-garde psuedo-hillbilly rock with masterful experimental production. There is lots of banjo; there is lots of wheezy pump-organ. The percussion is often literal junk. There are copious amounts of dissonance and constantly shifting meters, but the overall impression is that of twisted folk music. Anyone can enjoy this album - it's not just for avant-rock fans; anyone that loves Halloween or Lovecraft could easily get into this; it's all quite catchy.

Some highlights:

"Puppy" could be a beautiful folk song. Until the beat turns backwards, the vocals are sucked into an unmentionable abyss, and the little puppy of the title becomes rather demonic.

"They All Told Him Not to Plow that Certain Field" begins with a catchy riff in 11/8, and finishes with a lengthy spoken-word monologue in which an unfathomable evil visits a farmer's home, resulting in abandonment.

"The Sun Slants Strangely" begins like a Simon & Garfield played at double-speed, recorded in a dead garden on a fall evening. Suddenly, the production value shifts immensely to bring us Yes-like harmonies in one final chorus. It is 30 seconds long.

"The Cruncher in Semi-Darkness" scares the crap out of me. Don't listen to it at night - you won't sleep.

"Splishing" is an incredible instrumental that moves through 7 distinct moods in 50 seconds.

"Kaziah's Pet" is the greatest. It's a pop song for the new century. There is nothing better than pump organ played with fists.

But really, every single track is extraordinary. Buy this now, for all that is holy.

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