Lapsed (album)
Lapsed was the third album by Bardo Pond. It was released on October 21, 1997 on Matador Records. Reception. Like its predecessors, "Lapsed" received positive reviews from critics upon its release. "The achievement of Lapsed" wrote Jason Ankeny for AllMusic, "is that for the first time, it's possible not merely to get lost in Bardo Pond's music, but to let it actually lead you somewhere as well -- certainly a trip well worth taking." Pearson Greer, reviewing the album for "Opus", called it a "dirty album, and wonderfully so at that. Guitars are so thoroughly caked in  distortion that Sabbath and the Valentines seem like they’ve been playing cotton gins all these years in comparison. Bardo Pond doesn’t just evoke heavy rock or shoegaze sensations though, they do something in between and much better." "Chicago Reader"'s Bill Meyer was similarly positive, hailing the album as a "blazing return to earth. The group still works up open-ended, exploratory jams whose contours gradually coalesce out of a haze of thick, distorted tones generated by bassist Clint Takeda and brother guitarists John and Michael Gibbons. [...] But now these ethereal elements are tethered by riffs that recall  the sludgy downer rock of early Dinosaur Jr and "Iron Man"-era Black Sabbath; and where drummer Joe Culver used to sound like he was lost in the morass, his pummeling, cymbal-heavy attack now pushes the rest of the band through it." A mixed review came from Angela Lewis of the British newspaper "The Independent", who wrote: "Bardo Pond are not exactly the artistes to spin when granny visits, being wilder than a herd of Nirvana wannabes on the rampage, but a strong sense of purpose underlies the broody noise-scapes of this 5-piece from Philadelphia." Similarly mixed, Christopher  Hess - reviewing the album for "The Austin Chronicle" in the lead up to the band's performance at SXSW - noted that "Bardo Pond's brand of drug-rock, thick as a hot kettle full of snot, is more explorative than experimental. There aren't any shocking changes or mechanical innovations here, just a mesmerizingly lolling sea of dissonant sounds, trudging along around mid-tempo to a final exhausted end, [...] This is not rock of violent addiction or somber coming-down, it evokes more a constant state of mind: a perpetual buzz that makes everything just a bit fuzzy around the  edges." The readers of "Brainwashed" voted it one of the best albums of the year in its annual poll. British musician Alexander Tucker would later name the album as one of his favorites & an influence, noting that "[t]here is a strong emotional aspect to this band that a lot of other experimental rock acts lack."