Made to Be Broken

This is my favorite Soul Asylum album. It has the hard rocking, duel vocal songs that made them famous in the underground rock world(1986). Their shows at this point in their career were just uplifting, blistering, passionate spectacles. Dave's scruffy hair and ripped jeans were iconic. So why is the album so great? For me it is all about the full throttle zeal of almost all the songs on here. If you don't want to commit to the whole record, download Ship Of Fools. That says it all to me. A number of years after the release of this record and just after the success of Runaway Train I had a chance to talk to Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum. I now regret that I told him I used to be a big fan of his band. But I guess I was being truthful. They could do no wrong until after Hang Time. Then they kind of lost the beauty and fury. But they were so awesome until that point that I can't say anything bad about them. Legends. Buy this record!!!!

When I was a kid I used to listen to cassette tapes while I played video games. I had purchased this cassette on a whim after hearing some newer Soul Asylum and thinking it was "okay" ... As each track rolled on, I fell more and more in love with this album. While I feel that every track on this album is wonderful, a few that stand out to me are Long Way Home, Can't Go Back, Tied to The Tracks, and my favorite song on the album, Ship of Fools. If you like the newest Soul Asylum albums, this might not be for you, but if you have heard and enjoy any of Soul Asylum's earlier stuff, purchase this album immediately!

Long before the Soul Asylum days of MTV and lost children (don't go there, I am sympathetic to children) these guys ROCKED, and if you were so lucky to have caught them live, the energy was incredible! Remember the days of Dave's dreads whipping in a circle while he and Danny harmonized was amazing…

I remenber wearing out this cassette repeatedly in my old Chevy Nova during the 80's. Good memories.

This passionate & fury filled Soul Asylum album, produced by Bob Mould of Husker Du , features some of my favorite songs by the band. These college radio ready songs, some less than 2 minutes, served the band well early on, and these tunes are still turning up as crowd pleasing faves in their set list over 20 years later. While most people only know the band from their 90's era MTV hits, live performances of thesetracks that gained them recognition from Spin & Rolling Stone as one of America's best live acts in the mid 1980's. Highlights include the title track Made To Be Broken, as well as the acoustic Never Really Been, and guitar rockers Can't Go Back, and Whoa! If you are a fan of the band's major label material released via Sony, you should check out what they were doing earlier. This is some seminal stuff from Soul Asylum and has made me a lifelong fan ever since I first caught the band that day in February 1985, and bought this LP shortly after.

I'm giving this album 5 stars for the one song on here that I've listened to: "Never Really Been" I can't speak for the rest of the album, because like I said, I haven't heared it. But please check it out, it's a short acoustic diddy that is just perfect, and it's a shame no one has commented on this cd before. If you're a fan of alt rock you're in for a surprise because this song is so out of context for this band's genre. Just give it a try.