The second episode of The Divisive Albums Podcast, where I discuss an album by a band a lot of people forgot about: Stabbing Westward, and their 2001 self-titled album!
In the episode, I discuss the following. SHOW NOTES!
0:00: Intro and Theme Song
0:22: About me, and introducing our band: Stabbing Westward!
0:51: Announcing we’re trying something new this episode. Kind of.
1:18: Stabbing Westward’s beginning, and a clip from “Ungod”, the title track from their first album.
1:49: On the similarity between “Ungod” and Filter’s “Hey Man Nice Shot”.
2:39: Stabbing Westward’s breakthrough: “What Do I Have To Do?” from 1996’s Wither, Blister Burn & Peel.
3:30: Shoutouts to my Connecticon Karaoke friends, and DJ Stephanie Stardust!
3:57: Discussion of the band’s 1998’s Darkest Days album, and its biggest hit, “Save Yourself”
4:54: A brief digression that I use The RIAA Website
5:11: Disaster strikes Stabbing Westward, and they downgrade to an independent record label.
5:30: Noting this is my first “personal” Divisive Albums Podcast, since I actually remember the album coming out.
6:05: Finally introducing the album: Stabbing Westward’s self-titled fourth album!
6:22: An excerpt from and discussion of the song “So Far Away”, the album’s lead (And only) single.
7:06: An excerpt from and discussion of the song “Perfect”, which is…rather acoustic.
7:49: Comparing this album to another, more famous self-titled album: Metallica’s 1991 “Black Album”.
8:10: Delving into “Perfect”‘s lyrical similarities to “Desperate Now”, a Darkest Days track
8:38: The utter tease that is the start of “I Remember”.
9:19: Another excerpt from “I Remember”, and discussing how I actually remember this song from my only listen of this album many years ago.
10:07: Discussion of and an excerpt from “Wasted”, a song that’s a bit more traditionally Stabbing Westward.
10:53: Discussion of Stabbing Westward’s lyrical variety…or lack thereof.
11:44: An excerpt from and discussion of the album’s last track, “Television”, which I like.
12:44: An excerpt from “High”, another more “traditional” Stabbing Westward track.
13:16: Discussing “High”‘s lyrics and how they subtly differ from most of the band’s catalog.
13:44: On Stabbing Westward’s inability to come up with original song titles for this album.
14:22: An excerpt from the song “Happy”.
14:53: My thoughts on the song “Happy”.
15:19: What I think of the album as a whole (Well, it’s half good…).
15:55: And how the album did in the marketplace (It tanked basically everywhere).
16:07: On Stabbing Westward’s brief tour for the album, and eventual breakup.
16:36: But hey, the album did okay in Australia!
16:57: Discussion how one person at Koch Records wanted this to be Stabbing Westward’s Black Album, and what happened when that didn’t happen.
17:54: A digression into what SoundScan is, inspired by the bajillions of copies Metallica’s Black Album has sold.
18:48: Discussion of what Christopher Hall did post-Stabbing Westward.
18:56: Noting Stabbing Westward reunited and are back on tour!
19:08: Final thoughts on the album.
19:31: Outro and social media: Twitter, Website, Discord
Other links:
A 2008 interview with singer Christopher Hall
Another interview with Hall from October 2018
Stabbing Westward’s performance on The Jon Stewart Show from September 1994
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