posted by albums-update
Tired Pony was an indie folk supergroup consisting of Gary Lightbody, Richard Colburn, Iain Archer, Jacknife Lee, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Troy Stewart. Lightbody formed the group out of his appreciation for country music, and has during the early planning phase described the group’s music once as “country-tinged” but explained later that in the end the album’s development turned out much more to Americana than country during the whole creative process in the studio. The group visited Portland, Oregon in January 2010 to record this debut album, which was produced by member Lee.
The Place We Ran From is the debut album by the alternative rock/alt country supergroup Tired Pony, released on July 5, 2010, through Polydor/Fiction in the United Kingdom and on July 28, 2010, in the United States by Mom and Pop. The album grew from what was initially a solo project for Snow Patrol songwriter Gary Lightbody which rapidly became a collaboration with members of Belle and Sebastian, R.E.M., and producer Jacknife Lee joining as well as contributions from actress and singer Zooey Deschanel, guitarist M. Ward, and Tom Smith of the indie rock group Editors. The tracks were recorded over the course of one week in January 2010, in Portland, Oregon. The album was recorded over the course of one week in January 2010 and charted in over a half dozen countries.
The liner notes to Tired Pony’s first album read like a “who’s who” of indie rock royalty, listing credits from the band’s core lineup — including Snow Patrol‘s Gary Lightbody, R.E.M.‘s Peter Buck, producer/musician Jacknife Lee, and Belle & Sebastian‘s Richard Colburn — and the hip guest list, which features cameos by the likes of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward.
Yet despite the full roster, The Place We Ran From sounds more like a Lightbody solo album than a collaborative project. Buck’s presence is barely felt, his guitar parts robbed of their trademark jangle and confined to anonymous Everyman riffs, and Jacknife Lee keeps the production fairly simple, a move that fails to spice up the album’s watered-down Americana. As the frontman of Snow Patrol, Lightbody usually restricts himself to simple melodies, which take on a greater significance when repeated over and over atop the band’s pounding, straightforward stadium rock.
Tired Pony’s music is much more threadbare, though, and Lightbody doesn’t offer anything new to fill the void, sticking instead to a small handful of cyclical intervals that rarely sound inspired. On tracks like “Point Me At Lost Islands,” where weather metaphors share equal space with acoustic guitars and fiddle solos, the group manages to shake out the doldrums and hit a genuine stride. But the rest of the album doesn’t flow so well, and The Place We Ran From winds up amounting to far less than the sum of its parts.
Track listing
- “Northwestern Skies” – 3:49
- “Get on the Road” – 4:45
- “Point Me at Lost Islands” – 3:11
- “Dead American Writers” – 2:34
- “Held in the Arms of Your Words” – 6:40
- “That Silver Necklace” – 3:49
- “I Am a Landslide” – 5:43
- “The Deepest Ocean There Is” – 4:58
- “The Good Book” – 3:04
- “Pieces” – 6:56
All songs written by Tired Pony
American iTunes Store pre-order bonus track
11. “In the Stockade”
Japanese edition bonus track
12. “I Finally Love This Town” – 4:58
Compact Disc + MP3 download bonus tracks
13. “In the Stockade”
13. “Your Bible”
- Tired Pony
- Iain Archer – banjo, dobro, acoustic and electric guitar, harpsichord, percussion, vibraphone, vocals on “I Am A Landslide”, vocal harmony, backing vocals, composition
- Peter Buck – banjo; feedback; glockenspiel; 12-string, acoustic, baritone, electric, and Nashville guitars; mandolin, noise, percussion, composition
- Richard Colburn – drums, electric guitar, percussion, typewriter, composition
- Jacknife Lee – 12-string acoustic and electric guitars, harpsichord, melodica, organ, pump organ, percussion, piano, vibraphone, composition, engineering, mixing, production
- Gary Lightbody – acoustic and electric guitars, pump organ, percussion, vibraphone, vocals, composition
- Scott McCaughey – banjo, bass guitar, harmonica, fuzz bass, baritone and electric guitars, percussion, piano, vibraphone, vocal harmony, backing vocals, Wurlitzer, composition
- Troy Stewart – bass guitar, dobro, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, piano, harmony vocal, composition
- Additional musicians
- Paul Brainard – pedal steel
- Fred Chalenor – upright bass
- Zooey Deschanel – vocals on “Get on the Road” and “Point Me to Lost Islands”
- Betsy Lee – vocals
- Esme Lee – vocals
- Chris McCormack – electric guitar
- Ellen Osborn – vocals
- Anna Shelton – bowed saw
- Tom Smith – vocals on “The Good Book”
- Annalisa Tornfelt – fiddle, violin
- Alex Valdivieso – backing vocals
- M. Ward – electric guitar and harmony vocal
- Technical personnel
- Sam Bell – engineering, mixing
- Vivian Johnson – photography
- Dan Kaufmann – design
- Jason Powers – assistant
- Adam Selzer – assistant
- Nigel Walton – mastering at the Edit Suite, London, England, United Kingdom
Notes
Released: June 5, 2010
Recorded: January 5–12, 2010, at Type Foundry, Portland, Oregon, United States; with Tom Smith, Betsey Lee, and Esme Lee recorded in the Santa Monica Mountains and Zooey Deschanel recorded at East West, Hollywood, California, United States
Genre: Indie folk, alternative country, alternative rock
Length: 45:29
Label – Mom + Pop Music, Fiction Records/Polydor Records
Record-facts... 