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No Depression, which was released in June 1990, is the first studio album of the American alternative country band Uncle Tupelo. After its formation in the late 1980s, Uncle Tupelo recorded a demo tape titled Not Forever, Just for Now, which received a positive review by the College Media Journal in 1989. The review led to the band signing with what became Rockville Records later that year. The album was recorded with producers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie at Fort Apache Studios on a budget of US$3,500. No Depression was critically acclaimed and sold well for an independent release. It sold over 15,000 copies within a year of its release, and its success inspired the roots music magazine No Depression. The record is considered one of the most-important alternative country albums, and its title is often used as a synonym for the alternative country genre after being popularized by No Depression magazine. After regaining the rights to the album through a lawsuit, in 2003, Uncle Tupelo released a remastered version through Legacy Records, expanding it to include six bonus tracks.
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Reviews
No Depression the debut album of Uncle Tupelo. I remember at the time this alt country album was highly rate in alternative magazines and I was impressed too. Listening to it nowadays I'm less convinced. It's a nice record, but the vocals, performance and musical skills and arrangements are a bit mediocre. The songs are ok, some even good, but not great. I think that from the 2000s up the alt country scene has boomed and far better albums have been made by artists like The Jayhawks, Jason Isbell and Ryan Adams. The standard have been raised to the level of the 1970 s in this genre and this example of the 1990s is not that special anymore in hindsight.
I'm a bit surprised there was no Uncle Tupelo on the original list, given how influential they are. This is a really good album. Interesting to me how grungy it sounds, before grunge was really mainstream. 4 stars.
Loved it
Alternative country, country rock, alternative rock. Está bien. Un 4.
Not bad and I get it being here. Didn’t quite hit the sweet spot with me but still pretty good.
A progenitor of a lotnof modern country- and roots-leaning alternative rock, which I became properly aware of latenin the game, resulting in a less deserved sense of been there, done that (though even if they got there earlier, it is all pretty derivative). Overall I like it, more so on the more rock side, less so on the faux old times stuff. Yer old commie work anthem is not convincing to me, comrade.
I’ve listened to a few Tupelo LPs, and they all seem to share a key structural weakness in feeling like one giant run-on song. The gritty, genuine instrumentals are right up my alley, the alternative take on country capturing the genre’s warmth and none of its trapping. Even with Farrar’s well-suited vocals, though, too much of a good thing is still a problem. There’s not enough melodic/rhythmic distinction between tracks to make them distinct from one another, all blending together in a way that’s exhausting to listen to. The fundamentals are there in spades, just feels like this album is in desperate need of some variation.