The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads

with an album cover like that I was expecting this to be some kinda trashy country with some Kid Rock-like rap metal type shit turns out this is one of the greatest psychedelic/shoegaze rock albums I’ve ever heard in my life what a contrast with a cover that bad, and an album that good! - 10/10

Having a weird déjà vu moment where I could've sworn I'd already listened to this one as part of the list. In any case, I'm glad to have the chance to give it another listen because if I already did, I sure didn't appreciate it at the time. While I'm definitely giving subconscious brownie points as a native Texan, the sheer expanse of this LP is flooring and worthy in its own right – each track is anthemic in its own right, and every nook and cranny of these lengthy songs has clearly been thought out and executed to the fullest. Even with pioneering bands like Wednesday and Greet Death (who this reminded me a lot of) bringing countrygaze to the masses, it's still a niche genre with few practitioners, so it was cool to add another qualified band to the list. My main qualm with this LP was the lack of breathing room – not every track can be massive, and dynamic contrast exists for a reason. There's almost too much of a good thing here as well, the chunky runtime drowning out some of the more impressive moments on the album. Cut this down to an hour or so and it's a lean, mean 5-star gut punch of guitar in concept album form. Finally, hidden tracks that are cloaked behind 15+ minutes of silence are a personal pet peeve (but hidden tracks in general are cool!). Despite these nitpicks, I really enjoyed this LP for being so radically different and committing fully to its conceptual bit. Shame these guys haven't put out anything further, would've been interested to hear their artistic development on a second full-length. There is some badassery to dropping an album of this length/caliber as your debut and promptly disappearing though, and it was a great addition to the list all-in-all.

Like a bizarre cross between At The Drive-In and Drive By Truckers, but more religious overtones than either. A cracker I would otherwise never have heard; thanks for the pointer!

I didn't know this and it was certainly not what I expected after seeing the album art and reading the wiki page. It's a nice mess of post-rock, shoe gaze and indie rock. I like the concept of the album. Too bad not all the tracks are of the same high quality and the album is too long and a bit incohesive.

Just dragged a bit for me. Good in points a mess in others

This was spangly and interesting and kind of amazing. Not sure how they passed me by at the time, but I have a vague recollection of them. At times it feels like a double-album isn't enough to contain them.

I love when the user generator forces me to stop procrastinating and listen to albums I've always wanted to listen to. It pretty much always works out for the best, and this album is no exception. Perhaps one of the most powerful pieces of music I've heard in a while.

Indie rock, shoegaze, post-rock. No conocía el grupo. Escucharé más de ellos y del vocalista.

This is a case of don't judge a book by its cover. Not at all what I expected. Shoegaze at times with some excellent guitar and ambient work

This suprised me a bit. Reading the description, I thought it wasn't going to be something for me. But the guitarwork is excellent, and there were a couple of very good songs

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Waiting to hit, The ground so soft

This is really interesting. Quite ambitious for a first (and only) album. I wonder why they never recorded anything else. 4 stars.

The boys are back in town

The most legendary example of inverse correlation between cover art and music quality. Glad to revisit!

This definitely had some epic moments and it is clear the artists were definitely reaching - impressive first album. I didn’t love all of it on the first listen and it was long enough to preclude further listens, but I definitely appreciated the effort.

Not at all what I expected. Not a bad album at all. Decent indie rock with something original, like "These Are The Days". Occasionally he sounded like Bono, which I didn't much like. I could hear a variety of different sounds from other bands that I likened them to. There were a few songs I didn't particularly like (particularly "Down Came The Angels" and "With Crippled Wings"), but it doesn't deserve a 1 or a 2, shame to see those reviews.

This was a great surprise. When it popped up I will admit I judged the book by the cover and recoiled a little. Next I read the Wikipedia article but all I really took in was that this was over an hour. Almost every time I see that I have to steel myself for a record that just feels too long. Well, my reactions were wrong. Great use of different sounds and dynamics throughout. Kept me interested and excited all the way to the end. I’m giving it a four, but it has potential for a 5 given additional listens.

I've listened this previously on another 'Music to listen to' chart and I liked it then. I liked it but then it's right up my street- shoegazing, with swirly guitars and odd unstructured patterns of start/stop music.

Such a weird mix of shoegaze, post-rock, noise rock, folk and alt-rock, with a US Southern hillbilly spin. As if Slint, Jeff Buckley, Godspeed You!, Grant Lee Buffalo, My Bloody Valentine, Drive-By-Truckers, The Smiths, Explosions In The Sky, and Cocteau Twins (whose members released this one-of-a-kind record through their label Bella Union) were all gathered in a Texas church to sing the praise of the Good Lord and announce that the end times are coming in elegiac and poignant chants sung over distorted and echo-drenched instrumentation. What a bizarrely awful piece of artwork, also. A portion of the users in this generator didn't automatically dismiss the music because of it, fortunately... As yet other reviewers also pointed out, it's hard to decide whether the religious imagery found in the song lyrics is tongue-in-cheek -- as a spoof of the obsessions routinely found in the band's native state -- or in earnest. It could possibly be a little bit of both. The many "meta' winks, just as when the trio of musicians themselves are compared to the three Wise Men in the early songs, indeed seem to point out those lyrics are at least partly-ironic. See also "Waiting To Hit", where Josh T. Pearson describes himself as "Just a stupid ranch hand, in a Texas rock band / trying to understand God's plan" in a hilariously self-deprecating line -- before bargaining with said God to help him pen a hit in exchange to him building a shiny city upon the hill, dedicated to the same Lord Almighty (that hit was never written, or most of you would already know this band -- therefore I guess that the shiny city upon the hill wasn't built either, unless it is represented by the LP itself). In this current day and age where fundamentalism is turning half the world crazy, toying with that sort of religious madness would probably raise a few eyebrows, right? Were the early noughts less "heavy" and worrying, allowing extravagant artists to have a little bit of fun writing half- sarcastic religious "concept albums"? Maybe... That said, I didn't grow up in Texas. So what do I know? All of this is very interesting, but it won't be very useful to describe the music. And there are also many things to point out here. The album takes its sweet time on the first disc to really get going. Maybe a little too much -- even though I did like some of those more ambient tones on this first half. But when it *does* start to roll up on all cylinders in the second disc, with "These Are The Days", that thing does wonders. A little one-note harmonically speaking, maybe, but some dynamics within the songs are really insane. The closer is also very memorable. And I love the guitar tones used throughout the record -- often amped through a Leslie Box, I heard, which creates this very pure and very hypnotic sound. If anything, the more disjointed first half is like a build-up leading to greater things, like the first half of a film using many scenes to introduce the stakes and the characters before the action begins properly. And those are often my favorite flicks, I got to say. But even if they're not yours, please give a chance to the second half of this double album. Even though I would tend to agree that The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads should have used a bit of self-editing, there really are some great things in the album, especially in its second half. I usually write overlong reviews, and I'm gonna stop here, because there's a lot to digest, and the one-album-a-day thing is not ideal to properly assess this sort of suggestion (as the global score here seems to prove, lol). I need to listen to this again to fully find my way into it. But let's just say that on paper, I think I can understand the "cult status" this (originally quite confidential) record has gained over the years. I would even venture to say it kind of foretells zany stuff happening in the field of rock music these days, like Wednesday or Geese. But all of this might be a little premature to state... As of now, I can only state I have a pretty good feeling about this one -- that it can indeed become a "keeper" for me in the years to come. Only the Good Lord knows if this particular prophecy will come true, sure. Let's just say that, as agnostic as I am, I place my faith in said Good Lord that this record becomes a post-rock / alt-rock classic for me one day. Amen. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 77 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 96 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 189 ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham

When Texas gets weird, they get fucking *weird*, man. (See also: Butthole Surfers, 13th Floor Elevators, Tripping Daisy/Polyphonic Spree) This was an ethereal and noisy post-rock record. It dragged on a bit, as post-rock records often do, and at 90 minutes, it was a lot to take in, but was interesting enough. The concept of the record - that Texas is the Promised Land following the second coming of Christ - kind of makes this record feel like it could have been found audio that survived the raid of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco…if, you know…David Koresh was really in to My Bloody Valentine.

Didn't really do it for me. The pseudo religious lyrics didn't convey any narrative arc I could discern, and if it was meant to be satirical, then of what? Southern religiosity? No objections to it musically but I didn't need tow albums of it.

What you're about to hear is the kind of cutting-edge musical critique that only I can provide: This album which has a length that is long... It feels long. Hold thine applause. >:0 Maybe I'll love it one day, as there seems to be some genes shared with Spiritualized and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. As of now, I haven't learned much beyond what I gathered from snippets off of RateYourMusic and Wikipedia, that they're some Texans who play their guitars really loud and ramble for about 1-2 hours concerning Texas and religion. Generally when those two things are combined, it makes something incredibly problematic, but in the case of the Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, it comes together pretty nicely all things considered. I typed all of this in the 14-minute space before the hidden track 'untitled'. It's a good length of time to pause and reflect. If the house band at my local evangelical church were introduced to drugs, do you think they would sound this good? 3.5 October 29, 2025 (rated user album #200 today. The second second of eternity has passed)

This played while I listened. Occasionally it sounded like the Strokes but less good

A lot of this album flew right by me.

OMG I AM SAVED jk I *will* agree with everyone who has said to not judge this by the cover (I had the same obvious initial reactions) - almost complete opposite of what I'd thought it would sound like. And honestly, the music is an impressive effort - no sarcasm. Having said that I would rather listen to an ill-conceived tale of a deaf dumb and blind pinball cult figure any day. OK - trying to be serious for a moment (not my default) I don't think it makes a difference to me whether this is entirely serious or a bit tongue-in-cheek (although I highly doubt an entire complex record would be written/recorded on something unserious...?) but I'll simply state that if/when I occasionally am dialed back into the lyrics my mind drifts, I couldn't have less interest ...but have been thinking all along that an instrumental full post-rock rendering of maybe 2/3 of this album might have been a 4 star... hmm. 6/10 3 stars IMO: like it or not: should this have been in the original book [which should be called: 1001 Albums That Helped to Shape Music History]? goddammit [pun] maybe.

Nice

The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads lasts far longer than necessary but it's a decent mix of dream-like yet loud, massive sounds with a pained vocal that makes me want to pay attention. It's messy in places and the fact it's so long really underlines that but it's got something to it, scrapes a 3/5.

They say don’t judge a book by its cover but what about an album? I’d say that’s exactly what you have here with this album. Between the name and the gaudy cover I wouldn’t have imagined it to be a strong alt rock introspective album about religion and life around 2001. A pretty solid overall album that takes more than one listen to feel especially given its length. 6.6/10

A properly interesting piece of work in a sea of user selected dross. I wouldn't choose to listen to it much, but it was at least trying to do something.

Opened pretty strong, but then kind of settled into regular post-rock

Unexpected, but too self-serious and pretentious such that it seems to drain the fun out of the music itself.

Never has an album had me thinking “wtf is this?” as much as this one has. Is it serious? Is it a parody? Or is it a concept album? You decide, because I can’t.

Indie rock, shoegaze, post-rock. Rollo. Un 2.

A christian hillbilly album? What the hell is this. Ok not what I expected 2

Not a bad jam bad and really easy to listen, but also where are they now??

Overly long and garbage

This fucking album. Now on my fourth attempt to try and have this click for me. On paper, shoegazey post-rock with insane over-the-top theatrics is right up my alley, but I just keep getting bored of it halfway through. No idea why. Probably the vocals and the instrumental sameyness.

Weird pseudo-religious pseudo-country.

Good instruments. Too much religion.

Indie rock, shoegaze, post-rock. Rollo. Un 2.

no

It's crazy how, when I started using this website nearly 5 years ago I didn't know what "Shoegaze" was, and now I am half a decade older and I have a new least-favorite genre that I've listened to collectively dozens of hours of albums :)

It took almost 13 minutes for anything resembling music to be played. This sounds like a theater arts majors attempt at a final project in which he is trying to be deep and intelligent. Shoegaze has to be the shittiest genre of music I've ever been forced to listen to. Also, is there any need for this to be an hour and a half long? 5 minutes is too much... In order to properly create a concept album, you need a few things. 1) musical talent, 2) vision. These morons have neither. The last 2 minutes of the song The Ground So Soft is just a feedback loop. Why?!? In the song Waiting to Hit, the singer talks about making a deal with God in which he will spread the "word of the Texas-Jerusalem Connection" in return for God giving him a hit song so he can have a big house on a hill. Still waiting for that deal to come through? This is the closest I've ever come to not being able to finish an album....and that includes the infamous Einsturzende Neubauten album.....this isn't music, it's shit. Favorite songs: These Are the Days Least favorite songs: this entire dumpster fire of an album.... 1/5 The song Into the Storm has 14 minutes of silence in the middle of it......omg I'm so done with this stupid fucking album.....

And again NO. i’m sorry this was just bad. No because The vocals are intolerable and I don’t like.