The Beginning

The Beginning is an album by Jandek (1999). Corwood Industries release #0766.

Track Listing:

1. It's February
2. You Standing There
3. I Never Left You Anyway
4. Moving Slow
5. Falling Down Deep
6. Lonesome Bridge
7. A Dozen Drops
8. The Beginning

Album Cover Description Muted, blue overtones, similar to On the Way. The only thing you can make out are the drawn curtains, the doorjamb, and something between the two (a chair, perhaps?)

Reviews Yet another start for Jandek... ‘Hello,’ he sings, ‘it’s February.’ For the title tune, Jandek spends fifteen and a half minutes alone on piano! No vocals either. His hammering chords at the high end of the keyboard sometimes sound close to his hard-strum guitar, but the more melodic moments, especially the lower notes, are new sounds for this artist. By virtue of the instrument, Jandek sounds more ‘in tune’ than usual, but listen for those passages where he combines chords to somehow create bell-like sounds, or the high-end ‘crazy’ freak-out stuff that he uses very sparingly. The overall mood of the piece is somber, ‘classical’ in a broad stylistic sense, with free-style flourishes that are maybe unconscious. Pretty great. -- Piero Scaruffi The History of Rock Music Vol. 4

Outside Links

• Seth Tisue's The Beginning review (http://tisue.net/jandek/discog#0766)