''Old LP'' is the fourth studio album by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

That Dog That Dog (styled as that dog.) is a Los Angeles-based rock band that formed in 1992 and dissolved in 1997, reuniting in 2011. The band originally consisted of Anna Waronker on lead vocals and guitar, Rachel Haden on bass guitar and vocals, her s ...

, released on October 4, 2019, by

UME ''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long ...

. The album is the band's first since their 2011 reformation and received positive reviews from critics.

Recording and release

Songwriting for ''Old LP'' began in 2012 and recording, funded in part via Kickstarter, began in 2016 after That Dog's 2011–2012 tours. Former band member

Petra Haden Petra Haden (born October 11, 1971) is an American musician and singer. She is the daughter of the jazz bassist Charlie Haden, and is the triplet sister of bassist Rachel Haden (her bandmate in That Dog) and cellist Tanya Haden (married to ...

declined to participate in the recording of the album. The album was preceded by the 2015 single "Mean What I Say", recorded with

Andrew Dost Andrew Paul Dost (born April 10, 1983) is an American musician, singer and is member of the indie rock band Fun., in which he plays several instruments, mainly the piano. He was formerly a member of the indie rock band Anathallo from 2003 to 200 ...

. ''Old LP'' was released by

on October 4, 2019, marking the band's first album in 22 years. The lead single from ''Old LP'', "If You Just Didn't Do It", was released in August 2019, and the music video for "Just the Way" debuted two days before the album's release. A tape edition of the album was released for

Cassette Store Day Cassette Store Day is an international, annual observance intended to recognise the value of Compact Cassettes as a music format. Cassette Store Day was first held in 2013. The celebration was inspired by Record Store Day, which acknowledges the im ...

in 2019.

Reception

At Album of the Year, critical consensus is summed up as an 85 out of 100, with six reviews. Reviewing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.

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 ...

reviewer Heather Phares highlighted the stylistic diversity of ''Old LP'' and said, "All of the time invested in the album pays off richly: ''Old LP'' shows how that dog. has grown into their legacy".

Maura Johnston Maura K. Johnston (born May 28, 1975) is a writer, editor and music critic. A member of Boston College's journalism faculty, she has written for ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''Pitchfork'', ''The Awl'', ''The New York Times'', ''Spin' ...

of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' praised the band's mix of pop sensibilities and rock performance: "''Old LP'' works because its growth doesn't pander to modern notions of 'cool.' But the way the band re-balances the grime-vs.-grandiosity equation with each song demonstrates that when it comes to musical math, the proof matters as much as the outcome." Nina Corcoran of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' wrote that the band "commit to graceful

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

and poppy

alt-rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

, but sound happiest when revisiting the jubilant

pop-punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti- suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other p ...

hooks of its heyday". For ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'', Alex Wisgard praised ''Old LP'' for expanding the band's sound and found that it "is so assured and confident, it's easy to imagine another two decades of additional back catalogue we simply never heard". Scott D. Elingburg of '' Under the Radar'' called the album "a steady, hard-won set of songs that unfold after many, compounded listens". In his

Substack Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack ...

-published "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau found that the melodies range from "catchy to exquisite" and, "though the hyperconscious lyrics often seem constricted, resentful, unresolved, the music lifts them up, and then the title finale lifts the whole album up." In '' Paste'', Ben Salmon concluded that That Dog "were—and are—a band that offers a unique voice within their field, and it's wonderful to have them back".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Anna Waronker. #"Your Machine" – 2:58 #"Just the Way" – 3:41 #"Bird on a Wire" – 4:28 #"Drip Drops" – 2:27 #"If You Just Didn’t Do It" – 3:40 #"When We Were Young" – 4:18 #"Alone Again" – 3:01 #"Down Without a Fight" – 2:54 #"Never Want to See Your Face Again" – 3:47 #"Least I Could Do" – 4:27 #"Old LP" – 4:22

Personnel

Credits for ''Old LP'' adapted from album liner notes. That Dog *

Rachel Haden Rachel Haden (born October 11, 1971 in New York City) is an American musician and one of the triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden. In the early 1990s, Haden played bass guitar for That Dog, a band that also included her sister Petra. ...

– bass guitar, vocals, production *

Tony Maxwell Anthony D. Maxwell (born June 3, 1968) is an American musician. From 1991 to 1997, he was the drummer for the band That Dog, for which he also played for a 2019 reunion album, ''Old LP''. After the breakup of the band, he worked as composer on th ...

– drums, guitar, percussion, piano, production * Anna Waronker – guitar, vocals, orchestration, production, recording Additional musicians *Lauren Baba – viola on "Old LP" *Melia Badalian –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

on "Old LP" *Erin Barnes –

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

on "Old LP" *Gordon Bash – double bass on "Drip Drops" and "Old LP" * Charlotte Caffey – harpsichord on "Your Machine", handclaps on "When We Were Young" *Paul Cartwright – violin on "Old LP" *Elizabeth Ellen Chorley – violin on "Old LP" *Rob Covacevich – flute on "Old LP" *

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...

– guitar on "Never Want to See Your Face Again" *

Kevin Devine Kevin Devine (born December 19, 1979) is an American songwriter and musician from Staten Island, New York City, who is known for his introspective and political themes. He is a contemporary member of the underground indie rock and indie folk m ...

– handclaps on "When We Were Young" *

– horns on "When We Were Young" *Brandon Encinas – viola on "Old LP" *Sean Franz – clarinet on "Old LP" *Steve Gregoropoulos – conductor on "Old LP" *

Tanya Haden Tanya Haden Black (born October 11, 1971) is an American artist, musician, and singer. She is one of the triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden. She is married to actor, comedian and musician Jack Black. Career Born in New York City, s ...

– cello on "Your Machine", "Just the Way", "Drip Drops", "Alone Again" and "Least I Could Do" *Leah "Daddy" Harmon – accordion on "Old LP" *Erik Hughes – trombone on "Old LP" *

Josh Klinghoffer Josh Adam Klinghoffer (born October 3, 1979) is an American musician best known for being the guitarist for the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers from 2009 to 2019, with whom he recorded two studio albums, '' I'm with You'' (2011) and '' The Geta ...

– bass drum on "Alone Again" and "Old LP",

Casio SK-1 The Casio SK-1 is a small sampling keyboard made by Casio in 1985. It has 32 small sized piano keys, four-note polyphony, with a sampling bit depth of 8 bit PCM and a sample rate of 9.38 kHz for 1.4 seconds, a built-in microphone and line level ...

synthesizer, piano and

vibraharp The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

on "Never Want to See Your Face Again" *Petri Korpela –

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

on "Old LP" *Nate Laguzza – cymbals on "Old LP" *Danny Levin – flugelhorn on "Old LP" *Luis Mascaro – violin on "Old LP" *Bianca McClure – violin on "Old LP" *Astrid McDonald – handclaps on "When We Were Young" *

Jeff McDonald Jeff McDonald (born 1963 in Hawthorne, California) is an American singer and guitarist best known for being a co-founder of alternative rock band Redd Kross with his younger brother, Steven Shane McDonald. In the early 2000s, he played in Ze ...

– handclaps on "When We Were Young" * Fuzzbee Morse – flute on "Old LP" *

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

– orchestration *Kathryn Nicole Nockels – bassoon on "Old LP" *Ken Oak – cello on "Old LP" *Corrine Olsen – viola on "Old LP" *Neil Rosengarden – French horn on "Old LP" * Maya Rudolph – vocals on "When We Were Young" and "Old LP" *Todd Simon – horns on "Alone Again" *Jacob Szekely – cello on "Old LP" *Andres Trujillo – tuba on "Old LP" *

Joey Waronker Jon Joseph Waronker (born May 20, 1969) is an American drummer and music producer. He is best known as a regular drummer of both Beck and R.E.M., and as member of the experimental rock bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta. Background Waronke ...

– snare drum on "Old LP" *Kaitlin Wolfberg – violin on "Your Machine", "Just the Way", "Drip Drops", "If You Just Didn't Do It", "When We Were Young", "Alone Again", "Least I Could Do" and "Old LP", violin contractor on "Old LP" *Chick Wolverton – guitar on "Bird on a Wire" Technical personnel *Annette Cisneros – recording on "Old LP" *David Juros – recording on "Old LP" *Ethan Mates – recording on "Your Machine" and "Never Want to See Your Face Again" *

Steven McDonald Steven D. McDonald (March 1, 1957 January 10, 2017) was a New York City Police Department patrolman who was shot and paralyzed on July 12, 1986. The shooting left him quadriplegic. Shooting A former U.S. Navy hospital corpsman and third gene ...

– mixing, recording *Pierre de Reeder – recording on "Just the Way", "When We Were Young", "Down Without a Fight" and "Least I Could Do" *

Jack Shirley Jack Shirley is a Grammy Award nominated American record producer, audio engineer and musician. He is known for his analog driven aesthetic, and work with eclectic artists, including Deafheaven, whose 2013 sophomore album ''Sunbather'' received wi ...

– mastering *James Slater – recording on "Old LP"

References

External links