''Let Your Dim Light Shine'' is the seventh studio album by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

rock band

Soul Asylum Soul Asylum is an American alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their 1993 hit "Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song), Runaway Train" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The band was originally called Loud Fast Rule ...

, released June 6, 1995 on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. Critically, it suffered in comparison to its predecessor, ''

Grave Dancers Union ''Grave Dancers Union'' is the sixth studio album by American alternative rock band Soul Asylum and was released in 1992. The album spent 76 weeks on the US ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' music charts and was certified triple-platinum certi ...

'', the band's breakout release. It includes the hit " Misery," which was parodied by

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

as "Syndicated Inc." on his album '' Bad Hair Day''. This was the first Soul Asylum album with drummer

Sterling Campbell Sterling Campbell (born May 3, 1964) is an American drummer and songwriter who has worked with numerous high-profile acts, including The B-52s, Duran Duran, Soul Asylum, Cyndi Lauper, Nena, Grayson Hugh, Spandau Ballet, Gustavo Cerati and Dav ...

, who had previously provided half of the drums on ''

''. The album's title comes from a lyric of the song "Promises Broken."

Reception

AllMusic gave a mostly critical summary of ''Let Your Dim Light Shine'', with

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

commenting that the music "isn't quite as impressive" compared to previous efforts, and moreover that this element is easily overlooked because of the "self-importance" of the lyrics.

Track listing

All songs written by David Pirner unless noted otherwise. #" Misery" – 4:24 #"Shut Down" – 2:51 #"To My Own Devices" – 2:59 #"Hopes Up" – 3:45 #"Promises Broken" ( Dan Murphy,

Marc Perlman The Jayhawks are an American alternative country and country rock band that emerged from the Twin Cities music scene in the mid-1980s. Led by vocalists/guitarists/songwriters Gary Louris and Mark Olson, their country rock sound was influential ...

) – 3:14 #"Bittersweetheart" – 3:34 #"String of Pearls" – 4:56 #"Crawl" (Stephen Jordan, Pirner) – 4:00 #"Caged Rat" – 3:03 #"Eyes of a Child" – 3:35 #" Just Like Anyone" – 2:47 #"Tell Me When" (Pirner, David Samuels) – 3:42 #"Nothing to Write Home About" – 3:14 #"I Did My Best" – 3:46 For the Japanese release of ''Let Your Dim Light Shine'', an additional track was added to the album. It was a cover of the Descendents song "Hope". Note that "Bittersweetheart" fades out at 3:17, but the guitar feedback remains, therefore "Bittersweetheart" quickly segues into "String of Pearls". The running time of both songs equals about 8 minutes and 30 seconds long.

Personnel

Soul Asylum * Dave Pirner – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, trumpet, producer * Dan Murphy – lead guitar, backing vocals, producer *

Karl Mueller Karl Mueller may refer to: *Karl Mueller - famous artist and father of Merrill Mueller *Karl Mueller (rock musician) Karl Mueller (July 27, 1963 – June 17, 2005)

– bass guitar, producer *

– drums, percussion, vocals, producer Additional musicians * Trini Alvarado – backing vocals *John Devries – backing vocals * Joey Huffman – organ, piano,

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

*Eric Pierson – guitar *

Jane Scarpantoni Jane Scarpantoni (born 1960)https://www.myheritage.com/names/jane_scarpantoni is a classically trained American cello player who has played on a number of alternative rock albums. She was a member of Hoboken, New Jersey's Tiny Lights in the mid-1 ...

– cello *Dave Schramm –

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

*Tim Ray – piano, electric piano Production * John Siket – engineer * Michael Stern -engineer (non credited) *

Butch Vig Bryan David "Butch" Vig (born August 2, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the drummer and co-producer of the alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of the diamond-selling Nirvana album ''Neve ...

– producer * Andy Wallace – mixer * Howie Weinberg – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

Certifications

References

Soul Asylum albums 1995 albums Albums produced by Butch Vig {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub