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Formats and Editions
1. You Were A Dick
2. Weight It Down
3. Reminder
4. Impaler
5. Structure
6. The Serpent & The Shadow
7. The Happiest Girl
8. The Space Between
9. Someone To Relate To
10. Up The Hill
11. A Million Reasons
12. The Setting Sun
13. Flames
14. What Was That?
More Info:
The Big Takeover - Greg Bartalos's - Top 10 Albums of 2011, Idaho - You Were a Dick clocks in at number 2. 2. Idaho - You Were a Dick (Idaho Music) This actually is a close second, however this record and my number one selection could hardly be more different. If the Joy Formidable is brash and exuberant, Idaho is pensive and introspective. If the Joy Formidable wakes up the neighbors, Idaho resonates after the neighbors have gone to sleep. Best compared to a multi-layered sonic blanket that one can curl up in and hear new things in with repeated plays, the magic and mystery to be found here can take significant time to fully appreciate, like flowers slowly blossoming. Jeff Martin's piano playing, efforts on the four-string guitar and his talky vocals require some patience but the rewards are massive. My admiration for Idaho has come late but it's whole catalogue has recently been in heavy heavy rotation ************** PITCHFORK Review - Brian Howe; August 8, 2011 - * 7.8 * 'I hope you don't take it personally,' Jeff Martin sings at the beginning of You Were a Dick, 'that I disappear like that.' He turns out to be addressing a photo of an old acquaintance on a computer screen, but those words also serve to extend an olive branch to his fans. It's been six years since The Lone Gunman, a somewhat out-of-character record heavy on cinematic instrumentals. A whole decade has passed since Levitate, the last Idaho album to feature the kind of slowcore they helped to define alongside bands like Low and Red House Painters. Between Martin's journeyman status and his quiet recent years, you wouldn't be surprised to find him in an aimless experimental phase by now. But instead, this charming comeback sounds like the work of a guy who knows exactly what he's good at doing. Jeff Martin and John Berry were in high school when they formed Idaho in 1992, and they soon issued their Caroline Records debut, the dark and baleful Year After Year. Over the ensuing decades, Idaho began to release their own records, and the lineup shifted around the stable center of Martin, who now goes it alone. While the laidback cadence and emotively minimalist instrumentation of You Were a Dick are vintage Idaho, Martin's angst has mellowed into a pensive melancholy with a wry twist. His vocals radiate a welcoming warmth, with just enough coarseness not to float away. No longer straining against high notes, he sings right into the grain of his natural voice, which fits the gentle recriminations and consolations of his lyrics perfectly. The music comes over as tiny and detailed. Most songs are structured around supple webs of cleanly chiming and pedal-sculpted guitars, or simple piano phrases, lightly dressed in electronic keyboards. But Martin draws many different aspects out of these common elements, from the ramshackle elegance of 'Reminder' to the soft pastoral glow of 'Structure'. On the title track, what sounds like an EBow misplaced on a fret sends a shimmering buzz coursing through one of the guitar parts, imbuing it's clockwork regularity with something a little nervous and wild. Martin is known for using custom tenor guitars, and in this spare context, those four strings resound like a miniature orchestra. He really let's us hear how his fingers move, with impulsive shifts in phrasing and inflection. The unique, unreplicable emotional character of each note and the snowflake-like differences between similar chords shine out in high definition. These little loose threads keep the soothing vibe from getting monotonous, as do periodic wake-up calls like the quick-and-dirty instrumental 'Impaler' and the booming pop-punk of 'The Space Between'. Thanks to the internal consistency of Martin's time-honed tone, the mystical Neil Young-ish folk of 'Someone to Relate To' can sit comfortably next to a shaggy anthem like 'Up the Hill'. Again, he knows what he's good at. But even more importantly-- judging from this familiar yet fresh return to form-- he still believes in it, too. ************** The Inarguable Review, August 2011 Jeff Martin can do no wrong. From his band Idaho's inception in the early 90s, Martin's prolific output throughout the decade brought the world some of the most plaintive, heart-felt, beautiful songs that still go unmatched. Martin's unique take on a niche subgenre of indie rock, the somnambulant 'slowcore,' features expansive compositions, experimenting with a vast array of instruments and genre fusion, giving Idaho an almost cinematic feel. After years of musical evolution and having his own songs used in films (I distinctly remember HBO using the intro of 'To Be The One' as part of a promotional campaign), Idaho's The Lone Gunman, an Eno-esque masterpiece, proved to be the band's last album. Martin put the project into hibernation and spent the rest of the decade scoring films and documentaries. Earlier this year I heard whispers of Martin's plans to resurrect Idaho and release a new album sometime during the summer, but without any substantiated evidence I ended up forgetting the wondrous news until sometime last week when I stumbled upon Idaho's brand new BandCamp page, on which Martin had the entire new album, You Were A Dick, streaming. With a title like You Were A Dick, I was, to say the least, a little off-put and concerned, wondering if Idaho was going for shock value, only to remember that Martin had always had a bit of a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, imbuing titles such as We Were Young And Needed The Money or U Got That Gunman Thaang. Ultimately I found out the title is a line in the album's title track, where the narrator reminds a specific person that they 'were a dick to [him] in high school.' Yeah, he could have used the word 'jerk' or said that the antagonist was 'mean,' but, in the end, if someone is a dick...that's what they are. Nothing is more powerful than lyrics to which I can relate, and if someone's 'being a dick' to me I will probably tell them just that. You Were A Dick, while still displaying the maturity in composition found in more previous Idaho albums, shows Jeff Martin holding back more, opting for a more minimalist approach throughout the album. All the textural nuances are still there, but the album has a more spacious, open feel that leads to a more disparate, nostalgic feel that is synonymous with other '90s' indie rock bands. Throughout the album you will hear nods to other, not really associated styles of music, be it the IDM-influenced electronic drums or the contemporary classical-meets-pop approach Martin takes to the piano. It's beautiful, really. You Were A Dick almost acts as the missing link between Idaho's more stark, brooding music found throughout the 90s and the lush, densely composed albums of the 2000s. I welcome Jeff Martin back into the non-film music world with open arms. To think it had been six long years since his last release, yet he was able to pick up right where he left off. The genuine emotion felt throughout this album, coupled with Martin's relatable lyrics, makes You Were A Dick one of the more 'believable' albums of 2011. No, I'm not saying that other albums aren't believable, but many artists couple the artistic ability with concentrating too hard on intelligence, thereby chipping away at the music's intended 'genuine' emotion. Quiet, contemplative, beautiful and all-too-real, Jeff Martin's Idaho has made it's triumphant return. We missed you. Order this wonderful album directly from Jeff at his Bandcamp, linked above, where it is available digitally, on CD, or a limited-to-300 LP run. ************** MVRemix Review, Charles Sullivan Los Angeles based singer songwriter Jeff Martin, who records under the name Idaho, has just released a new record, You Were A Dick. On this record, Martin puts a very personal spin on heartfelt, simplistic songs. At times the album sounds like you are looking through a kaleidoscope with all the different song parts moving and morphing into something unconventional a
