'' A Brilliant Mistake '' is a full-length
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
Tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
, released in 1997. It was the band's last album.
Production
The album was recorded in Chicago. Members of
The Sea and Cake
The Sea and Cake is an American indie rock band with a jazz influence, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
The group formed in the mid-1990s from members of The Coctails (Archer Prewitt), Shrimp Boat (Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge), an ...
,
the Coctails
The Coctails were a musical group from Chicago, who formed while its members were attending the Kansas City Art Institute.
The band was active from about 1988 to 1995, with reunions in 2000 as the last band to play on stage at Lounge Ax before t ...
, and
the Pulsars
The Pulsars was a new wave/indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois, led by Dave Trumfio and his brother, Harry Trumfio. They signed to Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss's Almo Sounds label and recorded two albums in the mid-1990s, one of which was relea ...
contributed instrumentation to the album.
Critical reception
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' wrote that "Tsunami still doesn't compose outgoing melodies, but the band's control of mood and texture has become formidable."
''
CMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
'' called the album "heady and beautiful," and praised Jenny Toomey's "rich, liquid voice." ''
Nashville Scene
''Nashville Scene'' is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with ...
'' called the album the band's best, writing that "the instrumentation on ''A Brilliant Mistake'' is a remarkable achievement—an absorption of some of the prettier sounds of the 'post-rock' movement while retaining a fundamentally aggro-punk edge." ''
The Courier-Journal
''The Courier-Journal'',
also known as the
''Louisville Courier Journal''
(and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''),
is the highest circulation newspaper in Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett and billed as "Part of the ''USA Today'' Ne ...
'' wrote that "Tsunami hasn't forgotten how to write challenging pop songs, and Toomey's voice remains one of indie rock's most beautiful instruments."
Track listing
# "Old Grey Mare"
# "Great Mimes"
# "Double Shift"
# "Enter Misguided"
# "The Workers Are Punished"
# "Liar's Dice (Flight of the Chickens)"
# "The Match"
# "Poodle"
# "Unbridled"
# "DMFH"
# "David Foster Wallace"
# "Hockey"
# "PBS"
References
Tsunami (band) albums
1997 albums
{{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub