February 10, 2004
Albums We Can't Live Without: Cracker Kerosene Hat
I just received my fourth copy of this album in the mail (fifth, if you count the dub of it I had my junior year of high school) and I'm happy again. Cracker's Kerosene Hat is one of my go-to albums, but because I play it so often, I tend to lose it and have to replace it.
What's so great about this particular record? Isn't it just generic early-90s radio dross? Well, yeah, it has a couple of minor hits ("Low" and "Get Off This"), both of which also happen to be entirely fantastic songs. The album also includes a Grateful Dead cover (always a risky prospect), a "sound collage" of irritating noises, and more hidden tracks than, umm, JD's got Salinger. Despite all of these potentially negative factors, Kerosene Hat works on two different listening levels: it's great when you just hear one song at a time (making it ideal mix fodder), and the entire album is cohesive to the point of ridiculousness.
The album as a whole is almost painfully melancholy, but it's the kind of melancholy that's also painfully funny. It's kind of like Lost in Translation or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius--there's alienation and tragedy and broken dreams in this record, but there's also clever wordplay and simply transcendent moments that make you glad to be alive and human, because if you weren't you couldn't play Kerosene Hat a little too loudly in your car while negotiating some weirdly-lit back road in the middle of the night.
The best way for you to figure out if you should own this album is to ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I think the word "fecund" should be used more often in pop music?
2. Do I enjoy Camper Van Beethoven, R.E.M., Pavement, or late-period Dylan?
3. Does the idea of an epic country lope about a post-college backpacking jaunt in Europe tickle my fancy?
4. Am I awesome?
If you were able to answer "yes" to any of these questions, I can't recommend Kerosene Hat enough. The nice thing about it is that a lot of dumb people bought the record after hearing "Low" on the radio in 1993 and weren't awesome enough to like the rest of the album. There's a glut of these discs in used bins around the nation, just waiting for you to lay out your $5.98 and take them home.