The Sophtware Slump

The album was written and recorded by frontman Jason Lytle alone in a remote farmhouse. He has been quoted as saying: "I just remember everything out there was dusty. Humidity and dust",^[4] and described having made the recordings "in my boxer shorts, bent over keyboards with sweat dripping off my forehead, frustrated, hungover and trying to call my coke dealer".^[4]

The Sophtware Slump was released on May 29, 2000. It reached No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release, re-entering the chart in 2001, peaking at number 63.^[9] By February 2001 the album had sold 20,000 copies in the US and almost 80,000 worldwide.^[10] By 2006 it had sold 107,000 copies.^[11] Three singles were released from the album: "The Crystal Lake", released the same day, which charted at number 38 on the UK Singles Chart; "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot."; and "Hewlett's Daughter", which charted at number 71 on the UK Singles Chart.^[12]

The album was reissued in 2011 with a second disc of bonus material containing B-sides, EP tracks, outtakes and demos.^[13]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	81/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[16]
Los Angeles Times	[17]
Melody Maker	[18]
NME	9/10[19]
Pitchfork	8.5/10[20]
Q	[21]
Rolling Stone	[22]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[23]
The Village Voice	A−[24]

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The Sophtware Slump was released to widespread critical acclaim.

The CMJ New Music Monthly noted Jason Lytle's "new infatuation with technology, expertly juxtaposed with his almost spiritual connection to the West's wide-open spaces and bird-filled skies", and stated that "Lytle expresses sympathy for the lost souls and machines of the high-tech dot-com landscape throughout the album".^[10] The New York Times called the album "a heart-achingly beautiful requiem for a culture in which progress and technology have led to alienation and disposability".^[25] AllMusic called it "Grandaddy's most impressive work yet".^[15] The Daily Telegraph said the album was one of the highlights of 2000, describing it as "a work of rare and precious qualities. A collection of emotional, richly melodic songs that deal with modern man's uneasy relationship with technology".^[26] Steve Taylor, in his book The A to X of Alternative Music, viewed The Sophtware Slump as "clean, lush and less understated" than the band's previous work, describing "The Crystal Lake" as "a perfectly executed pop song".^[27]

The indie music magazine Under the Radar ranked The Sophtware Slump fifteenth in its list of the best albums of the 2000s.^[28]

Regarding the album's acclaim and legacy, Jason Lytle noted: "I would record The Sophtware Slump over again. The fact that this album has gotten this sort of acclaim only reconfirms to me what a load of shit this business is. An album about trees and computers that came out right after OK Computer? I don't get it... but I do."^[29] In a 2011 review of the album's deluxe edition, Mike Powell of Pitchfork wrote: "If Radiohead captured a feeling of pre-millenial tension, The Sophtware Slump captured the feeling of disappointment that came afterward — the feeling that life was going to be more or less the same as it had been, only now we'd have to live with the fact that we once thought it'd be so different: the feeling of January 2, 2000."^[30]

Grandaddy

• Jason Lytle – vocals, all instruments, producer, mixing
• Jim Fairchild – "on/off switch assistance", performer
• Aaron Burtch – performer
• Kevin Garcia – performer
• Tim Dryden – performer

Additional personnel

• Greg Calbi – mastering
• Tim Dryden's wife – female operator voice (10) [uncredited]