''Edge of Allegiance'' is the third

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the American band

Timbuk 3 Timbuk 3 was an American rock band which released six original studio albums between 1986 and 1995. They are best known for their Top 20 single "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades". The band's music has been featured on more than 20 com ...

, released in 1989. The album's first single was "National Holiday".

Production

The album was produced by Timbuk 3 and

Denardo Coleman Denardo Ornette Coleman (born April 19, 1956) is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of Ornette Coleman and Jayne Cortez. Biography Born to Jayne Cortez and Ornette Coleman in Los Angeles, California, in 1956,

. It was recorded in Austin and mixed in Houston. The band employed less overdubbing than on past albums, while also singing the harmonies in the moment. The lyrics were in part influenced by Leonard Cohen; the band started listening to him after Cohen mentioned in interviews his admiration for "

The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" is a song by Timbuk 3. It is the opening track from their debut album, '' Greetings from Timbuk3''. Released as the album's first single in 1986, it was the band's only significant mainstream hit. Bac ...

". Timbuk 3 considered the album to be evenly divided between political songs and relationship songs.

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' wrote: "Oozing sardonic desperation, ''Edge of Allegiance'' ... is yet another small triumph of sane, thoughtful songcraft—occasionally labored ('Standard White Jesus') but more often right on the money."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

posited that "their songs will remain winsome and wise for as long as the record company puts them out." The ''

Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media. The offices of the ''Dai ...

'' considered the album to be one of 1989's best, calling Timbuk 3 "one of the decade's most underrated acts." The '' Windsor Star'' opined that the band "have a sardonic sense of the absurd but enough compassion so that their music never sinks to mere parody and loses its punch." The ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'' noted that "lustre and sophistication have turned the flat street-corner style into something with more depth and nuance." The ''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' deemed the album "another cunning collection of sharp-tongued diatribes against political betrayal and social apathy."

Track listing

All songs written by Pat MacDonald, except where noted. # "National Holiday" – 4:02 # "Waves of Grain" – 3:45 # "Dirty Dirty Rice" – 2:53 # "Pass It On" – 2:51 # "Standard White Jesus" – 4:47 # "Grand Old Party" – 3:16 (Pat and Barbara K. MacDonald) # "Count to Ten" – 3:54 # "B-Side of Life" – 3:15 # "Acid Rain" – 3:44 # "Daddy's Down in the Mine" – 3:10 # “Don't Give Up On Me” – 2:46 # “Wheel of Fortune” – 2:30

Personnel

Barbara K. MacDonald Barbara Kooyman (also known as by her stage name Barbara K and formerly Barbara K. MacDonald) (born October 4, 1958 in Wausau, Wisconsin) is an American singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas. In the 1980s, she, her then-husband Pat MacDonal ...

– Vocals, electric guitar, violin, drum programming * Pat MacDonald – Vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, harmonica, guitar synth, sampler *

- Drums, percussion

References

{{authority control Timbuk 3 albums 1989 albums I.R.S. Records albums