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Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men

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Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men
Studio album by
Harvey Milk
Released1997
RecordedDecember 1995
Genre
Length70:13
LabelReproductive Records[2]
Harvey Milk chronology
My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be
(1995) 		Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men
(1997) 		The Pleaser
(1998)

Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men is the second studio album by the Athens, Georgia-based band Harvey Milk, released in 1997.[3][4] It originally came out in a small production run of double gatefold vinyl.[5] The album was reissued by Relapse Records in 2006.[6]

Andrew Earles, in Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996, wrote that the album "can claim the distinction of being the most beautiful, bizarre, challenging, melancholy, and, above all, heaviest album ever to come out of America's rock and metal undergrounds of the '80s and '90s."[7]

Production

[edit]

It was the band's intention to craft a "classic rock" album.[8] "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" is a cover of the Leonard Cohen song.[9]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
Stylus MagazineA[11]

Trouser Press wrote that "the sparse, nearly minimalist arrangements led by pianos and crashing rhythms on Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men threaten to implode throughout the vinyl-only album’s four sides."[9] The Chicago Tribune thought that "Milk's masterstroke of weirdness vice-twists slow-time signatures, soft-loud contrasts and spatial geometrics into category-defying forms that have yet to be imitated."[12]

AllMusic wrote: "Neither strictly metal nor noise nor indie rock, but incorporating elements of all three, Harvey Milk's music remains an almost unclassifiable, love it or hate it proposition."[10] Stylus Magazine stated the album "ebbs-and-flows between monstrosity and mystery, brevity and endlessness, repetition and experimentation, but its beauty is an unwavering constant."[13] Nashville Scene called the album "thrilling, unpredictable and indescribable," writing that "of all the Melvins-worshiping bands that have followed since, no one but the Melvins have been more Melvinsian."[14] The A.V. Club concluded that the album "portrays some of the harshest aspects of American life while functioning as a profound illustration of what heavy music, in its smartest and most deliberate forms, can do."[15]

Track listing

[edit]
  1. "Pinnochio's Example" – 10:28
  2. "Brown Water" – 8:57
  3. "Plastic Eggs" – 6:28
  4. "My Broken Heart Will Never Mend" – 10:44
  5. "I Feel Miserable" – 3:49
  6. "The Lord's Prayer" – 3:14
  7. "Sunshine (No Sun) into the Sun" – 7:22
  8. "Go Back to France" – 3:04
  9. "A Good Thing Gone" – 3:55
  10. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" – 5:17
  11. "The Boy with Bosoms" – 6:59

Personnel

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  • Vocals, guitar: Creston Spiers
  • Bass: Stephen Tanner
  • Drums: Pauly Trudeau

References

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  1. ^ "Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-02-16. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  2. ^ "Harvey Milk The Kelly Sessions | Exclaim!". exclaim.ca.
  3. ^ "Harvey Milk Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic.
  4. ^ "Music Review: Harvey Milk - Special Wishes". Tiny Mix Tapes.
  5. ^ Gawron, Nolan (June 20, 2008). "Milk that doesn't go bad - You can actually find metal outfit Harvey's music now". Metro Boston. Entertainment.
  6. ^ "Review". www.ox-fanzine.de.
  7. ^ Earles, Andrew (2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. p. 143.
  8. ^ Behe, Rege (March 3, 2010). "Harvey Milk determined to rock until they have to stop". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
  9. ^ a b "Harvey Milk". Trouser Press. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  10. ^ a b "Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men - Harvey Milk | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  11. ^ "Stylus Magazine". stylusmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2007-04-04. Retrieved 2011-06-10.
  12. ^ Gendron, Bob (10 Dec 2006). "These albums worth revisiting". Chicago Tribune. Arts & Entertainment. p. 7.9.
  13. ^ "Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-02-16. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  14. ^ Sullivan, Matt (May 27, 2010). "Harvey Milk are still higher than your assessment (and don't call them hipster metal)". Nashville Scene. Nashville Cream.
  15. ^ "Harvey Milk captured the depressive pulse of blue-collar America". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
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