This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.
Pony Express Record is the fifth studio album by American post-hardcore band Shudder to Think, released in 1994 by Epic Records. It was the first album of the band to feature guitarist Nathan Larson and drummer Adam Wade, after the departure of founding members Chris Matthews and Mike Russell. The album saw the band attempting to craft a unique sound. According to Wade, "high up on our agenda it was like, 'No matter what, we cannot sound like anybody else.' We didn’t want to be Fugazi or Soundgarden—though those influences were there." Larson recalls of the album: "We definitely made our strangest record to date. We really did want to have a pop hit, but we made a really weird record. Get Your Goat is brighter and poppier. Pony Express is velvety and dark". Pony Express Record has received considerable critical acclaim. Greg Prato of AllMusic retrospectively regarded it as "one of the most underrated rock records of the '90s". In 2003, Stylus Magazine writer Deen Freelon wrote that the album was "a jaw-dropping, head-scratching masterpiece back in '94 and remains so today". Pitchfork placed the album at number 29 on its original 1999 list of the top 100 albums of the 1990s.
Shuddering to think about a world where the 1001 album list was made by some late GenX American dude obsessed with early 90s alt and grunge instead of our British author obsessed with late 70s / early 80s post punk
I started out hating this and it grew on me somewhat. There are some catchy melodies, and on a certain kind of day I can understand how the hard driving instrumentation would hit the spot. But the vocals never stopped being annoying, and I don't think it justifies its length (not enough variation here despite the high track number count). Also look up the dude who sings he has A WEIRD FUCKING HEAD.
This looks like it might be industrial? metal? hard EDM? odd mix of bleak imagery with fun ponies around the edge. Ok, it turned out to be alt-rock/post-hardcore. A few interesting moments but they were always brief... and it went for an hour. Post-hardcore albums have no business going for an hour, truly. Lot of odd dissonance, out-of-place wailing, forced extreme dynamics etc. Nothing out of the ordinary for this genre, but I can't say I'm a fan. My overall trajectory with this album was weird: at first I hated it, then I started to get into it, then it went for so long I started to re-dislike it. I think it's an overall 2/5.
A very interesting album with almost Tool-esque prog-metal grooves and angular post-hardcore guitars, alongside some of the wildest vocal melodies I’ve ever heard but also some huge grungy choruses - like Alice In Chains meets self-titled-era Deftones but also nothing really like either of those bands. The opening song was so aggressively discordant in a truly unique way - the vocals never sounded ‘out of tune’, they were clearly meticulously planned to create as much tension against the instrumental as possible. It was like an alien had listened to a handful of 90s alt-rock albums and confidently spat out vocal lines with no concept of how they ‘should’ progress or resolve - but it worked and added to the dark and isolating tone of the album
Never heard of this band or LP before, and from the get-go I appreciated the heavier guitar and grungy hard rock feel. There were a few progressions that evoked some Kyuss/QotSA vibes, which is a big plus in my book as the original list was definitely lacking in heavier rock albums. The main weaknesses here are the vocals (which were passable at best, annoying at worst) and the runtime – cut 10-15 minutes off this thing and it would feel like an effective gut punch, not tje mildly repetitive love tap it currently is.
Pretty cool on this originally, as it settled into a kind of vocal/music patter I thought was pretty monotonous. It grew on me though and I'll give it points for blatant wierdness and smarter than average (for musical on the hardcore spectrum) lyrics. The Atlanta Rhythm Section cover was kind of my favorite part though.
Great post-hardcore album showing the "poppy" side of Shudder To Think. Performance of band, vocalist and production are excellent.
Never heard of. Fucking awesome. I'm gonna place it somewhere between Soundgarden and Slint. Many thanks nominator. I'm loving this list more than the original list.!
In the vast, overwhelming majority of cases where the artist says "I want this to sound like nothing and nobody else", the resultant mess ends sounding like everybody else's effort at sounding unique. Music has rules - or at least guidelines - to follow, because if one doesn't, you get something that isn't really music. Fortunately, Shudder to Think paw at the boundaries rather than flat out ignoring them, so this album is at least listenable. It is quite nice to hear what people suggest.
Musically this was pretty great, but I actively dislike the vocals. I also have a limited tolerance for the nonsensical lyrics. Fave Songs: So Into You, Hit Liquor, Own Me
Rating: 6/10 Best songs: X-French tee shirt
These are long songs. At least they sound like long songs. Didn't really get any vibes that this had anything special. Didn't really do much for me.
Fine I guess
Pretty good
Surprisingly, not too bad
Never heard these guys before, but I quite like it. I’ll listen to it again.
Pretty nice.
Not sure what to make of this, enjoyed parts, found the vocals a bit irritating. If it came out in 00’s would be a straight 2 stars, but feels this is a bit more impactful being 90’s. So 3 stars interesting enough to merit giving it a chance. Who knows might grow on me.
An amalgamation of the most annoying elements of 90s alternative rock and grunge. Rating: 1.5 Playlist track: X-French Tee Shirt Date listened: 07/01/25
Nah
Just not my thing. 2 stars.
It is a very interesting mix of music and interpretation, with ups and downs in rhythm, contrasting the melancholic atmosphere of the song with a progression that rises with the drums and bass, however in its summary it did not convince me enough.
Post-hardcore, math rock, alternative rock, noise rock, glam rock, art rock. Rollo. Un 2.
Interesting alternative album, kind of felt like some others we have heard but I had it on in the background and only skipped a few.
This was shambolic in a way that made it difficult to connect to. Not for me.
For the most part this was pretty average. A hardcore rock album with some flair but a little dated in itself overall. For the 90s there was significantly stronger hard rock albums to come out. Not faulting this being anyone’s favorite but there is better options in its own genre. 5.1/10
Not particularly interesting or special. Alt rock with a decent edge to it, but the vocal delivery is mostly annoying, and nothing with enough of a hook to warrant coming back to.
They distilled my least favorite aspects of 90s rock into one album.
This album restored balance in the world because after liking an avant garde post rock jazz album I get this post hardcore bullshit that I don’t like at all.
Nothing on this was bad... But equally, I cannot remember a single thing that stuck in my head 12 hours later.
Sounds like a cross between The Dismemberment Plan and Deftones. Drags on like a motherfucker by the end and kind of ruins the well knit-together first half of the album by falling into pretty generic alt rock territory (basically everything after "X-French Tee Shirt"). No issue with Post-Hardcore, in fact please inject that shit directly into my bloodstream, just kinda thought this was pretty unremarkable all things considered. Strong 2/5.
Did not like this. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't a pleasant listen. From the start just wasn't my vibe. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 2.5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.
Gross.
Weird? Sure. Interesting? No. Really grated from the start. Enjoyed it most when it went the most bass forward. But mostly I found it tedious and offputting.
👎🏻
I found this so annoying.
Waste of time, sorry. Not into this one. Keeping one song for posterity but this was mostly skips.
Naw man 1
If a low lying headache was an album. This was painful and in no way enjoyable.
One of those moments where, halfway through the first song, you shake your head in disappointment and mutter, "Fuck you."
I guess grunge lasted long enough that someone tried to get proggy with it. It's not a good match, this was a chore.
It’s honking weird; that’s what it is. I can appreciate the novel musical structures and the unique lyricism and singing but I just can’t get my head around its iconoclastic take on rock. I’m not likely to want a re-visit.