Rope-a-Dope (Antietam album)
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| Rope-a-Dope | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1994 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Label | Homestead[1] | |||
| Producer | Lyle Hysen, Antietam | |||
| Antietam chronology | ||||
| ||||
Rope-a-Dope is an album by the American indie rock band Antietam, released in 1994.[2] It is named for the boxing technique.[3] The band supported the album with a North American tour.[4]
The album was produced by Lyle Hysen and Antietam.[5] Ira Kaplan contributed to the album's opening track, "Hands Down".[4] Rope-a-Dope includes a cover of Dead Moon's "Graveyard".[6]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [7] |
| Robert Christgau |  [8] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [9] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B[10] |
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."[6] Entertainment Weekly deemed "Hands Down" "a wonderfully propulsive, guitar- and organ-driven bucket of noise."[10] 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."[11]
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."[12] Guitar Player praised Key's "spectacularly distorted tone that's exuberantly trashy yet retains razor-edged definition."[13]
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."[7]