Fuzzy

“Fuzzy” by Grant Lee Buffalo (1993) Never heard of this album or this group. Some innovative instrumentation, but the drums and bass lack the creativity that is evident in guitar and keyboards. Virtually no lead guitar, nearly all acoustic strumming, done competently enough, but it’s monotonous by the end of the album. Melodies are uninspired, necessitated by Lee’s limited vocal range. The lyrics on this album are needlessly opaque. The only interesting cut is the 17-verse “Dixie Drug Store” which tells a coherent story with a not entirely unpredictable twist. But it lacks soul. This entire album barely skims the surface of emotion. We could all pass on this one. 1/5

No wonder he hears America snoring, this shit is soporific

Nice enough music, don't really get what makes it a "1001" album though. 5/10

Didn’t make a big impression. Nothing in the lyrics really grabbed me, most of the singing wasn’t very strong, and the music was fine, but not as interesting as the reviews would have led me to believe.

The album name, cover and everything made me think this was going to be another boring country album, and then that first song hit me with Puzzle Plank Galaxy from hell and I'm like "wait, this might actually be good". And good it was. I had no idea "gay melodramatic alt-country music" was a genre, but turns out I'm a fan. Makes me want to put on black mascara and watch my fuckin' carrots grow, pardner.

Fuzzy is a perfectly serviceable album, very much of its time with its distinctive early 90s alt.rock vibe and sound. I found it enjoyable enough, but it didn't blow me away.

Meh. This album was alright, but nothing special for me. I would probably listen to it again, but wouldn't recognize the artist as distinctive. I'm not sure if that makes it 2 or 3 stars, but I'll default to 3.

Tepid boiled chicken.

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I like this album, it reminds me of a folk version of Pixies.

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I really liked this. Interesting sound, sort of alt-country meets Radiohead. Excellent songwriting. 4 stars.

Of its time 90’s alt-rock. Probably one that you had to be there to really love - it’s not bad by any stretch, but doesn’t really offer anything extraordinary or gripping, outside of the occasional overt Bowie or Velvet Underground influence. To be honest, I kept mistaking this for Buffalo Tom, another “you had to be there” 90’s alt-rock group, but the truth is, some of this kind of sounds like early Radiohead… [Ducks to avoid projectiles thrown by angry Radiohead fans] …but that’s probably their due to the shared REM influence.

I was hoping this would be more than just your standard 90s alt/indie rock. There are occasional glimmers with the ragtime piano on the first and 8th track and some interesting 12-string guitar sounds, but that's about it. Not saying it's bad, but just a bit too safe to stand out.

I didn’t expect it but the album has everything I enjoy and will easily become one of my all time favourites. Grungy 90s vocals, folky tunes, Americana and just a right amount of politics make this a perfect combination of 90s alternative. I love it! Also I feel like there’s not a single filler on it - each song has something that draws me further into them. Hard to pick a favourite track!

Actually quite liked this, good voice, loved the guitar

This was not what I expected. The name made me think it'd be way more country than it was.... In the end it was really solid alternative rock with warm, driving, bounding bass and drums, unreal guitar tones, great piano interludes and an engaging vocal performance. The opener is a belter of an opening track for an album, and leads into a soft spoken tune with chorusey acoustic guitar at the opposite end of the spectrum... It was really good

Ended up enjoying this album far more than I expected. Had never heard of Grant Lee Buffalo, but may start listening to his music regularly.

Fuzzy is a perfectly serviceable album, very much of its time with its distinctive early 90s alt.rock vibe and sound. I found it enjoyable enough, but it didn't blow me away.

Alt-country, Americana, Alternative rock. Kinda mixed on this album. Like it was mostly good but I didn't really connect with it at all save for like, one song. It was ok, not much I wanna say about it really. 3/5

Mir fällt nichts originelles dazu ein. Vielleicht, weil das ganze Album nicht besonders originell ist.

Unfair, maybe, but I lump GLB into a big pail of grunge-Americana slop that were never far over the nineties, a bunch that sang as if they were passing a heavy load, some distortion but not many tunes: Afghan Wigs, Buffalo Tom, Giant Sand, Screaming Trees, you know the lot, their commercial apex probably the execrable Ryan Adams, or Pearl Jam at not much of a stretch. There were some interesting off-shoots - I keep meaning to spend more time with Thin White Rope's howling guitars, for example - but not many tunes I can remember. The rockier stuff at the end of "Fuzzy" has definite pulse, but I doubt another five run throughs will reveal any tunes, and having your face on the album cover is rarely a good look.

Wow, this takes me back. The "Grace" of 1993 (Jeff B, not the song on here), in the sense everyone was raving about it and I didn't understand why. Still don't - surely it's just Counting Crows without the skills for a hit song? Listen to The Jayhawks instead if you want some tuneful alt-country-ish background music from this period. Or don't, I won't mind.

Ooof. Self important. Insufferable. Dogshit. F

Not outstanding in anyway. Definitely an album that makes me not want to listen to the list for a few days

Get this off the list immediately

It's not my usual style of music, but I have loved Jupiter and Teardrop since Trigger Happy TV. The rest of the album isn't as good, but it's still bloody good.

only vaguely had heard of the band. loved the album, right up my alley

YIL about emo-country. Loved it!

- distinctive strong sound. kinda sad this is the first time I've come across it. - Like a mature Killers - So glad to have this suggested.

There have been several pleasant discoveries (to me) while participating in this project, but this has to be the biggest hidden gem so far. I’d never heard of Grant Lee Buffalo, and in reading about them it seems not many people knew about them in the 90’s either. I love everything about this album. Phillip’s vocals are fantastic: I had to double take a few times because he sounds very Bono-esque at times. His falsetto is especially effective when he uses it. The stories are fantastic, especially on Jupiter and Teardrop and Dixie Drug Store, which are also my favorite tracks on the album. The title track is also great, and I think the political tracks of Stars n’ Stripes and America Snoring are effective. Musically it is constantly interesting, and never sounds “samey” despite the limited personal on the album. Every track sounds great and the mix is perfect for this kind of record. No wonder this was Michael Stipe’s favorite record of 1993: it’s a stunning album that would fit nicely beside Automatic for the People in a record collection.

Me ha encantado. No lo concía. Un 5. Es como indie rock.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Another uxexpected surprise. You should not believe the average rating, this is quite a pleasure to listen. Second album is good, too! I would give it a 4, but I give it a 5 just to raise the average rating :)

Good music. Kind of folk rock.

Good enough to buy after one listen.

It took me a bit to warm up, but warm up I did! This was new music and a new band to me (although I realized I'd seen Grant-Lee Phillips as the troubadour on "Gilmore Girls"). I really liked the acoustic alternative sound. I'd be happy to listen to more!

I loved this album when it came out, but hadn't listened to it in a while. That's been a mistake - this is a great album. There's an interesting quote on the main Wikipedia page for Grant Lee Buffalo: "The label's constant nagging about "Call-out Response" was both a new term and a bewildering concept to our ears. The basic strategy: a radio station arranges to call up a listener who is asked to consume about 30 songs over the phone, perhaps 20 seconds of each. From this remote encounter, the listener will then proceed to judge the material. Insufficient call-out response was a big reason that Jubilee hardly got a shot at Warners. Grant Lee Buffalo tunes are often like an old car or an old amp that needs a few seconds to get warmed up, but when it does... look out!" I look at some of the reviews for this album here, and see a similar approach. I'm listening to albums I'm not familiar with at least 3 times, putting this website on pause to do so.

I’ve never heard of this person or album, but Michael Stipes was right- it’s a great album.

What a gem. So glad I now know about this guy

Me ha encantado. No lo concía. Un 5. Es como indie rock.

Glory glory 90's alt rock

Enjoy

No THIS is how you make contemporary country. Melancholic, snarling and downright beautiful.

Magnifico

Gas pack

Awesome probably best album so far

Grande Trovador! Album maravilhoso! Amei demais! Melhores músicas: Jupiter and Teardrop, Fuzzy e The Hook

Michael Stipe called Fuzzy the greatest album of 1993. Since its release falls just in between two years of stellar R.E.M. releases, he might actually be right.

Woooahhhh!!Where the fuck did this come from!! Country meets the Pixies and somehow Fuzzy mighy better than both. Phillips vocals are fantastic, as are his songwriting styles. Fuzzy is tight, yet expansive. The overdriven acoustic guitar gives it a very unique amazing sound. This is a spectacular album 9.2/10

What you get when you order Bruce Springsteen from a 1910 Sears Catalog.

Very good 90s alt-rock, a pleasant surprise.

10/10 I don’t know, I feel like I shouldn’t love this as much as I do, but there’s just something about it it’s so good and I don’t know why

I really liked this. Note to self: listen again!

Jupiter and Teardrop is one of the best songs ever. This is such a gem of an album.

No nyt kyllä oli kova levy taas. Akustisvetoista, mutta tymäkkää rockia. Tulee vähän Jeff Buckley ja ajoittain Radioheadikin mieleen. Paehaat: Jupiter and Teardrop, The Hook, Grace

Haunting. Warm. Cerebral bass coating the cries of the lead guitar and vocal. Huge energy at the end. Frisson inducing. 10/10 title track.

One of the greatest albums ever recorded. Sublime.

4.7 - I loved this album. I have listened to them a fair bit but not sat down to the whole album. Maybe I just love melancholic music, dunno

Best find yet. Folky/Americana with a heavy grunge influence. So tight

Going in to this one blind. The Shining Hour is a good start, this feels in my wheelhouse. I enjoyed Jupiter and Teardrop also. Fuzzy is the starred track on the album, but the slower tempo is doing less for me. The thing this reminds me most of is the inimitable Jeff Buckley (and of course this album predates Grace). Wish You Well chorus is nice. Ha - I just noticed there is a song called Grace on this album too. Soft Wolf Tread probably the least interesting track so far, but I like Stars N' Stripes for sure. MURICA. You Just Have To Be Crazy is fine, but does not really feel to me like the album going out with a bang. I'm leaning towards a 5 here. Whilst the highs are perhaps not as high as I might want in a 5 star album the floor is extremely high. This feels like a very consistent album that I could come back to fully, and I expect get even more out of, so I am going to be optimistic. Fave Tracks: The Shining Hour, Wish You Well, The Hook, Stars N Stripes 4.5/5

Deserves more listening. Not sure what mood I need to be in though.

Otroligt bra. Starten på albumet, dom första tre är sinnessjukt bra. Det är väl egentligen bara Dixie drug store som inte håller måttet.

Fantastic album, don't have much to add besides that. I loved it. Fuzzy and Wish You Well are real standouts.

Had me hooked from the first song, the vibes of "The Shining Hour" were exactly what I needed today. Mr. Buffalo knew what he was doing with these. I absolutely loved this album. Some songs are so danceable, some are just fantastic to sit and listen to. My favourite was "Dixie Drug Store" (love an aul storyline).

A underrated gem of an album, that isn't praised enough to this day. The incredibly moody, yet enticing and hypnotic, title-track is the obvious draw here. But the whole album shines from start to finish. Grant Lee Buffalo borrow folk-rock aesthetics going from the Gun Club, REM (Michael Stipe was a fan, and praised the band back), *Joshua Tree*-era U2, Bruce Springsteen or Kristin Hersh, and effortlessly make all those different influences gel into their own identity. Band leader And songwriter Grant Lee Phillips' suave, expressive voice is a pivotal element of the latter, and transcends any passing "derivative" moment found throughout this charming LP. And the elegant production, here managed by bass player Paul Kimble, hasn't aged a day. The sound is clean, clear, yet also filled with all sorts of rich and warm flourishes. I won't bother singling out any stand-out cuts here, just know that there's not a single dud in the album. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of "essential" albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums left to review: 80 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 396 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 230 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 295

are Grant Lee Buffalo glam rock? like, maybe i'm overthinking it, but this album borrows all of Bowie's or Bolan's anthemic, post-psych traits (dramatic lyrics, theatrical performances, blazing guitar solos, acoustic guitar on a lot of the songs) and puts it in the context of a Uncle Tupelo era Americana scene, leading people to tag it as the latter without connecting to the dots to the former. i dunno if songs like "Moonage Daydream" and "Jupiter and Teardrop" or "Life's A Gas" and "You Just Have to Be Crazy" share DNA, but dammit, they sound related. Phillips is literally making the same face Bowie is making on "Aladdin Sane". still, maybe it's less a matter of genre and more talent. maybe i hear so many of these influences because the band is just so talented at writing driving, engaging songs. i've known the title track all my life, but somehow, i feel like the rest of the songs -- which i've just heard -- have been there the whole time too. the music has the quality of good, fresh leather, or warm rain on a sunny day. Fuzzy is the album every pick 'n stomp band wants to make; Grant Lee Buffalo are the only band that made it.

cool

Me ha encantado. No lo concía. Un 5. Es como indie rock.

Really good alt rock, every song was good

Great!

I love this album. I still think I generally prefer Mighty Joe Moon, but they're both 5/5 for me.

I liked this album! I'd never heard of Grant Lee Buffalo before. They sound like a mix of older Neil Young with a little Robbie Robertson in there.

I very much enjoyed this album which was a new discovery for me. 4.5/5

Fantastic album

Love almost the entire album! Really clear sound, all of the elements of the music fit perfectly, original topics for the lyrics (at least in many of the songs).

Comment donner un avis TOTALEMENT objectif quand je vais parler de l'un de mes albums préférés des années 90, de l'un des albums que j'ai pu écouter des dizaines et des dizaines de fois ? Fuzzi est un disque admirable qui est marqué par des influences folk, americana, noise et classic rock. Mais surtout par la voix de Grant Lee Philips, une voix sombre, parfaite, d'une justesse implacable dans les aigus comme dans les graves. Fuzzi est un disque qui ne vieillit pas ou qui vieillit bien comme le bon vin. Mais à la différence du bon vin, on peut y retourner avec plaisir pour s'y enivrer sans aucune modération. Un disque magnifique, triste et décalé à écouter impérativement au moins une fois dans sa vie. Pour finir, ce sera un beau 5/5 qui est, je l'avoue une note sans aucune objectivité.

Fucking great!!! Will listen to again

I had forgotten how much I adore this album

Brilliant and really interesting to hear what was going on in the US at a time I was getting into music from the UK. An influence on loads of bands I love you, without actually sounding like any of them. A new favourite for me, and exactly the reason I started this project!

A masterpiece - almost every song is haunting but the title track alone is a juggernaut. I had forgotten this album, and it seems to me even the rest of the world but it is probably objectively one of the best of the 90s decade.

I liked it. Early alt country. A sign of what would take over ten years later with Wilco and Ryan Adams making their way into the mainstream. A little one note, but there are some stand out tracks - Dixie Drug Store in particular.

Why is this marked as Country and that's all? There's a lot more going on here than that. This was pretty good otherwise. The starting songs were easily the best of the album, with some more good songs peppered throughout, but still pretty solid, was expecting to dislike this more than I did, though. It has this feeling of "meh" resonating from it.

This got a lot of buzz when it was first released, and I do believe it was high up on my list of best of 1993. Looking back, it deserved its slot on that list. Very good songs, lots of Americana influences and great vocals by Grant Lee Phillips helped carve out a niche at a time of grunge dominance. A lot of highlights, but Soft Wolf Tread and Dixie Drug Store stand out.

Whoa, really liked this one! It's rock, feels like it's got a tinge of Americana to it, but the melodies and vocal performances are just so full of life and excitement, it's such a nice departure from what we've had lately. It's weird, I can't really point to any one thing that's fantastic on here, but it's all just done really well. Very crisp and engaging instrumentals, great vocals, just really good stuff. I'm always leery of artists I've never even heard of appearing on a list like this, but damn, this was worth the inclusion for sure. Favorite tracks: The Shining Hour, Wish You Well, The Hook, Dixie Drug Store, America Snoring. Album art: Just a guy, low-res guy even. Not at all suggestive of how good the music is, extremely unassuming. I can't say I like this cover, but I like what it's hiding. 4.5/5

This is the kind of stuff I came here for... bands I really should know, but don't. I liked this quite a bit. Sounds very 90's when listening to it for the first time now, but there were some really beautiful melodies and just all around good songs here.

Liked it

I feel like I may have heard Grant Lee Buffalo a handful of times as a teenager and blown it off. I was mightily impressed to hear it with a more mature outlook. The vocals were slightly reminiscent of Bowie and I think it is a very rich and unapologetic album that stands pretty tall. I gave it two listens, because I am always intrigued with artists that I truly hear for the first time and genuinely like! This sounds authentic and technically pleasing.

Folk rock. Bastante bueno.

You know what, quite enjoyable. Almost bland on first listen but had some high points on the second. Something I'll listen to again just to be sure. Soft rock rhythm, upbeat. It sounds as if the album was very influential on noughties US indie and UK musicians such as badly drawn boy, iamkloot and the like. Perfectly nice.

Too expressive for a convenient background listening. But still good energetic performance. A discovery to me…29 years later finally.

This is gorgeous. Lush, wild, romantic, gothic. More than a whiff of the Buckley's about it.

Pretty good, but not perfect

It took a few iterations through the album before it took a hold, but i like the overall style and tone. Certainly very 80's/90's alternative... a good balance of interesting lyrics and instrumentation. Songs like Fuzzy and The Hook are really strong, but there's lots of treats along the way.

7,6 Nice sounding instrumentals Bit slow in the middle, but makes up for it at the end

I liked this! As someone else on this site noted, some of it is a bit like an acoustic Pixies, some more folky. I think it might need a few listens to get the hang of it, but there’s lots here to like.

90s nostalgia trip, loved it then, still got it now. Fuzzy is a great groove.

Nice! Enjoyable rock and Americana. Better than The Band? Not sure. Favorite was Dixie Drug Store.

Kein Begriff von diesem Grant Lee Buffalo gehabt; kommt schmissig und locker aus der Umkleide, spielt ein geradlinigen Ball, mit viel Druck und wenig Spirenzchen. Ein schönes Spiel, robust aber immer sauber. Class of 93 wusste noch, worauf es ankam. Das Album wirkt auf mich zudem wie die Blaupause zum Stilgepräge, wonach Jonathan Franzen die Figur des Richard Katz („Freedom“) zusammenbaute. Irgendwie altbacken, grobschrötig und doch mit der psychologischen Sensibilität eines Kindes jener Zeit beschlagen. Handwerklich sehr gut, teils virtuos, ironiefreie Haltung, persönlich, und ja sorry fürs Wort: glaubwürdig. Crafty 3.8

I had never heard of this band before and I am really digging this record. I'm surprised I'm connecting with it so much as I usually don't with this kind of rock but it's a great indie/alt album.