''The Past Was Faster'' is a 1999 album by

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

musician and songwriter

Kelley Stoltz Kelley Stoltz (born 1971) is an American singing, singer, songwriter and musician. He currently resides in San Francisco, California. His music has been compared to that of Brian Wilson, Velvet Underground, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. Musica ...

. It was his first official release and was released on December 14, 2001. The songs on the album were written over a period of five years and were recorded by Stoltz on his 4-track tape recorder at home.

Track listing

# "X-Ray Eyes" (3:35) # "Popular Diseases" (3:53) # "Fog Has Lifted" (3:17) # "Emerald Stew" (4:08) # "Permafrost" (4:07) # "Cardinal Body" (4:30) # "Sculptures Floating on the Waves" (4:04) # "Captain" (3:47) # "Vapor Trail" (5:21) # "Peppermint" (3:27) # "Lonely Star State" (19:43)

Reception

Critics have mixed reception on ''The Past Was Faster''. On the one hand, Pitchfork heavily panned the album, calling it "a collection of mediocre, generally bad lo-fi". On the other hand,

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

said the album "deserves an adoring audience who’ll embrace it, flaws and all". Sean Westergaard of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

called the album a "tour de force".

References

External links

Reviews of The Past Was Faster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Past Was Faster, The 1999 debut albums Kelley Stoltz albums