Line #41 Music/TheWallflowers


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheWallflowers_1_3112.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The band Rebel, Sweetheart Era]]
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4	->''"Come on try a little\
5	Nothing is forever\
6	Got to be something better than in the middle\
7	Me and Literature/{{Cinderella}}\
8	We put it all together\
9	We can drive it home\
10	With [[TitleDrop one headlight]]"''
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12
13	A BluesRock/ AlternativeRock band formed in 1989. It consists of Jakob Dylan (lead vocals, lead guitar), Fred Eltringham (drums), Greg Richling (Bass guitar), Stuart Mathis (Lead guitar), Rami Jaffee (keyboards). There also used to be a slew of musicians that used to be part of the band.
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15	Jakob Dylan, being the son of Music/BobDylan, started the band in 1989. Looking to write classic BluesRock with a modern edge to it, the band worked hard on songwriting for their first 3 years. Their self titled album was released in 1992, and went largely ignored at the time of its release due to the rise of {{grunge}}. The album was also met with lukewarm reviews, most critics saying that Jakob was trying to be too much like his father.
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17	They spent the next year trying to support the album, but Jakob's refusal to advertise himself as Bob Dylan's son and Creator/VirginRecords' failure to properly promote the album caused the band to have a fallout. They left Virgin and dropped most of the original lineup and signed to Interscope Records for their second album ''Bringing Down the Horse''. This time, the band focused on a more edgy sound, straying away from the casual roots-rock formulas on their first album. This time, it was a commercial success. It went 4x platinum, and the songs "One Headlight" and "6th Avenue Heartache" were both chart toppers. The critical response was also MUCH more welcoming, with most publications giving the album a near-perfect rating.
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19	They took a short break and then started recording again. They contributed a Music/DavidBowie cover with the song "Heroes" to [[Film/{{Godzilla 1998}} the 1998 American Godzilla movie,]] that earned them a Grammy. They released ''(Breach)'' in 2000 to even more critical acclaim. This is often considered to be their best work, but it was mostly a commercial flop. Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine theorises that this may have been due to the release of ''Music/OKComputer'' in 1997 and the influence of TripHop outfits like Music/MassiveAttack and Music/{{Portishead}}; the straight-ahead rock music the Wallflowers performed was now considered distinctly unhip. Many of the band's influences, including Music/{{REM}} and Music/{{U2}}, and contemporaries, including Music/{{Oasis}}, felt it was necessary to experiment with ElectronicMusic during this time period, regardless of how ill-suited it was for their sound, but the Wallflowers stuck to their guns and kept performing rock and roll.
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21	Desperate for another hit, the band didn't take long to record their third album, ''Red Letter Days''. Released in 2002, the album became an indie hit, but failed to chart high. The critical reception was also diminished, once again receiving lukewarm reviews (the album's glossier production tended to be a point of criticism).
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23	Then in 2005, they released ''Rebel, Sweetheart'' to more positive reviews, but even poorer sales. Exhausted, the band went on hiatus for six years. During this time, Jakob Dylan pursued a mostly successful solo career, releasing the folk-influenced ''Seeing Things'' and the [[CountryMusic alternative country]] album ''Women + Country'' to critical acclaim. They reunited in November 2011, and released their sixth studio album, ''Glad All Over'', in September 2012, once again to critical acclaim. They have toured extensively since then.
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25	Releases:
26	* ''The Wallflowers'' (1992)
27	* ''Bringing Down the Horse'' (1996)
28	* ''(Breach)'' (2000)
29	* ''Red Letter Days'' (2002)
30	* ''Rebel, Sweetheart'' (2005)
31	* ''Collected: 1996–2005'' (2009)
32	* ''Glad All Over'' (2012)
33	* ''Exit Wounds'' (2021)
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35	Jakob Dylan solo albums:
36	* ''Seeing Things'' (2008)
37	* ''Women + Country'' (2010)
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39	The band has its own webpage, which can be found [[http://www.thewallflowers.com here]].
40	----
41	!! "Bringing Down the Tropes":
42	* ArtifactTitle: Originally it was going to be on the album of the same name but due to meddling it was dropped.
43	* AutoErotica: Implied in "First One in the Car".
44	* CountryMusic: An influence on "I Wish I Felt Nothing", and Dylan's solo album ''Women + Country'' is a full-fledged alternative country album.
45	* CoverVersion: "I Started a Joke" by Music/TheBeeGees, which appeared on the ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'' soundtrack; "Heroes" by Music/DavidBowie, for ''Film/Godzilla1998''; Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", for ''Film/AmericanWedding''; "I'm Looking Through You" by Music/TheBeatles for ''Film/IAmSam''; "Lawyers, Guns and Money" for the Music/WarrenZevon tribute album ''Enjoy Every Sandwich''.
46	* DeathByDespair: "One Headlight" in which the singer's friend dies of a "broken heart disease."
47	* EpicRocking: Mostly on the self-titled album where several songs qualify ("Honeybee" is 9:14, "After the Black Bird Sings" is 8:26, "Hollywood" is 7:02, "Another One in the Dark" is 6:31). After that, apart from bonus tracks or songs including hidden tracks, they only have one song that tops the six-minute mark, "From the Bottom of My Heart" on ''Rebel, Sweetheart''. (A live version of "Invisible City" on some versions of ''(Breach)'' reaches 6:29, and "Birdcage" and "Babybird" are indexed as a single track which reaches 7:42, but they are two separate songs.)
48	* GreatestHitsAlbum: ''Collected: 1996–2005'', a greatest hits album that [[CanonDiscontinuity completely ignored their first self titled album on Virgin Records]]
49	* HiddenTrack: "Babybird" follows "Birdcage" on ''(Breach)'', and "Empire in My Mind" is indexed as a separate, unlisted track on ''Red Letter Days''.
50	* LoudnessWar: As far as this trope is concerned, their discography is fairly illustrative of general trends in the record industry. The self-titled (1992) gets [=DR12=]; ''Bringing Down the Horse'' (1996), [=DR9=]; ''(Breach)'' (2000), [=DR8=]; ''Red Letter Days'' (2002), [=DR6=]; ''Rebel, Sweetheart'' (2005), [=DR7=]; ''Glad All Over'' (2012), [=DR6=]. All of their albums after the first one are also noticeably clipped. Dylan's solo career also hasn't been immune, with ''Seeing Things'' (2008) getting [=DR9=] and ''Women + Country'' (2010) [=DR6=]. Both are also clipped, although it's not too noticeable on ''Seeing Things'', and [=DR9=] is pretty good by contemporary standards (particularly given that Music/RickRubin, a notorious loudness war criminal, produced it).
51	* {{Nepotism}}: Averted. As mentioned above, Jakob refused to be marketed at the son of Music/BobDylan, even though it was common knowledge at that point, and wanted the band to be successful on its own merits. It cost them a great deal of advertising at first.
52	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Bringing Down the Horse'' had a harder-edged AlternativeRock sound than the self-titled debut and toned down some of the roots rock influence (though it's still present on about half of the songs). They haven't changed their style too much since then; the main thing to change from album to album has been the production style. ''(Breach)'' was given a fairly straight-ahead production with few frills, while ''Red Letter Days'' was given a glossier, more modern sheen. ''Rebel, Sweetheart'' was given a harder-edged, more textured production by Music/BruceSpringsteen and Music/PearlJam producer Brendan O'Brien. ''Glad All Over'' sees the band experiment somewhat more with its sound, delving probably as close into GenreRoulette territory as one can get while still playing rock and roll.
53	* RecordProducer: They've had several, the most famous of whom are probably T Bone Burnett for ''Bringing Down the Horse'' (as well as Dylan's solo album ''Women + Country'') and Brendan O'Brien for ''Rebel, Sweetheart''. Music/RickRubin produced Dylan's solo album ''Seeing Things''.
54	* RepurposedPopSong: As of 2014, "One Headlight" is being used for Geico motorcycle insurance.
55	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their debut.
56	* ShoutOut:
57	** "Sleepwalker" refers to Music/SamCooke by name, as well as his song "Cupid". "Reboot the Mission" mentions Joe Strummer by name and alludes to the fact that Mick Jones, who provides guest vocals and guitar on the track, used to play with him.
58	** "One Headlight" mentions Literature/{{Cinderella}}.
59	* SopranoAndGravel: ''Women + Country'' has backing female vocals, contrasting with Dylan's more rough-edged voice.
60	* SpecialGuest: Among others, Adam Duritz of Music/CountingCrows on "Sixth Avenue Heartache", Frank Black of Music/{{Pixies}} on "Letters from the Wasteland", Music/ElvisCostello on "Murder 101", and Mick Jones of Music/TheClash on two tracks from ''Glad All Over''. Music/NekoCase, meanwhile, provides backing vocals on Dylan's solo album ''Women + Country''.
61	* TitledAfterTheSong: They're named for an obscure Music/BobDylan B-side. ''Glad All Over'' shares its name with a song by the Dave Clark Five.
62	* {{Tsundere}}: defined perfectly in "See You When I Get There" from ''Red Letter Days'' as "sometimes you're an angel but you're usually a pain in the ass".
63	* UncommonTime: "Love Is a Country", the second single from ''Glad All Over'', drops a beat in the first measure of each verse, giving us an example of 3+4+4+4/4 (or 15/4).

Context Music / TheWallflowers