Album: Stereo
Year: 2002
One of the ironies of Stereo — which was, as per the cover, “Recorded in Realistic Stereo” — as compared to its companion piece, Mono, was that it was a relatively sparse record which probably would have sounded just fine recorded in mono, since many of the songs were just Paul Westerberg’s guitar and vocals. Yes, there were overdubs, and even drums on a couple tracks. That said, the songs on Stereo were fully dependent on his melodies, lyrics and vocals, because Stereo didn’t bring the rock hardly at all.
Which is why it was such a triumph: while Paul had written some of the greatest ballads I’ve ever heard, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear a whole record’s worth, but Stereo proved my fears wrong, as a song like “The Only Lie Worth Telling” stood up with his greatest tearjerkers.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1468: Paul Westerberg – “The Only Lie Worth Telling”