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| Hips and Makers | 
 enlarge | Artist: Kristin Hersh
Label: Reprise / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $13.97 (100%)
New (12) Used (59) Collectible (4) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 87256
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.6 x 0.5
MPN: 45413
UPC: 093624541325
EAN: 0936245413254
ASIN: B000002MMP
Release Date: February 1, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Your Ghost | | • | Beestung | | • | Teeth | | • | Sundrops | | • | Sparky | | • | Houdini Blues | | • | A Loon | | • | Velvet Days | | • | Close Your Eyes | | • | Me and My Charms | | • | Tuesday Night | | • | The Letter | | • | Lurch | | • | The Cuckoo - Kristin Hersh, Traditional | | • | Hips and Makers |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
In 1994, Kristin Hersh took a sabbatical from her beloved and beleaguered Throwing Muses to record her first solo album, Hips and Makers. Mostly acoustic, entirely personal, Hips' songs touch the core of Hersh's daily life, specifically as it involves her husband and family, topics she rarely explored with her band. Produced by ex-Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, Hips and Makers infuses the singer/songwriter tradition with a jolt of complexity and authority. Hersh still favors the taut, stream of consciousness lyrics she whittled down to the bone with the Muses, but she never veers into confessional "dear diary" territory, although she does allow peeks into a world where clotheslines, bee stings, and the occasional ghost aren't unusual. Musically more measured and clearly quieter than any Muses disc, Hips showcases Hersh's fluttery voice atop powerful acoustic guitar with flourishes from cello and piano. "Your Ghost," the album's moody and dazzling opener, features backup vocals by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and sets the tone for the album: like a family, it's happy on the surface, intriguing when explored. --Shawn Stewart
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 IT'S THE BLAZE ACROSS MY NIGHTGOWN... October 7, 2000
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
When listening to Kristin Hersh, particularly this solo effort, I am reminded of much of Iceland's contemporary fiction. It is introspective, but detached, quiet, complex, disturbing, but beautiful. Almost like wandering the halls of an insane asylum and hearing mad rantings of its inhabitants... or hearing ghosts in your head. (You might read Einar Mar Gudmundsson's Angels of the Universe to know what I mean). This is a gorgeous, scorchingly raw (emotionally speaking) album with quiet, acoustic songs of the highest quality. I can safely say that there are few singer/songwriters who equal Kristin Hersh's prolific gift. Highlights include "Your Ghost", "Beestung", "Velvet Days", "The Letter" (which is almost like ripping a page directly from one of the Icelandic books!), and "The Cuckoo". This is a critical, sparkling album.
A Second Coming March 9, 2001
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
After one of the most original and confrontative of debut albums, the Throwing Muses' 1986 album on 4AD, the band settled into a pattern of brilliant, indypop that, had they not made the template, might be said to follow it too closely. Hersh's first solo album broke that template and, though, I recall, it was dismissed by many at the time as being too understated, it should have always been seen as a breakthrough in the confessional mode of songwriting, and one as remarkable as Joni Mitchell's Blue or Leonard Cohen's New Skin for The Old Ceremony. What Hersh alone achieved, though, and with both debut albums, was to meld words and music not simply with conversation, as did Mitchell and Cohen, but with thought. Listening to these albums means listening to Hersh's thoughts : sometimes scary, often tender, all too easily hurt by what it means to be human. We listen to her thoughts; we hear our own.
 Too Much Of The Same - But The Stipe Duet Is Great October 22, 2001
7 out of 13 found this review helpful
It is wise of Kristin Hersh to start this album with 'Your Ghost'. It is the only duet on 'Hips And Makers' - with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe - and his contribution makes it the clearly best song.Among the other good tracks on 'Hips And Makers' are the temperful 'Sundrops' in which the guitar sounds like thunder and rain, and the (naturally, when you listen to the lyrics) angry, nearly hysterical 'A Loon' which makes a surprising turn halfway through. The probably most commercial song is 'Velvet Days' with its crystal clear guitar, propped up by a violin, and straight forward vocals, yet in the always emotionally fragile spirit of Kristin Hersh. In general, the singeress is at her best when she performs more temperful songs. Another example is 'Me And My Charms', the best (solo) song on this album... Or 'Houdini Blues' whose atmosphere is somewhat different from most of the album, and therefore along with 'Your Ghost', the only attempt of true originality. On a song like 'Tuesday Night', it is clear that Kristin Hersh has a lot of emotion to burst out - but somehow, it remains too 'internal', as if it is Hersh's own little (inner) world she is expressing to herself, and not a piece of music released to the (outer) world. It is too intimate to really catch. Which is a pity, 'cause the talent is there, obviously. All in all, this album is either for the very patient or the very melancholic. It contains a lot - a LOT - of soul and emotion, but seen from a musical point of view, it is simply too much of the same: acoustic guitars and vocals, acoustic guitars and vocals, ... The lyrics are the main factor of 'Hips And Makers', and yet they are not enough to qualify the album's overall impression for more than a couple of stars. It is good that there is still artists like Kristin Hersh around though.
 This is the audio equivalent of poking sticks into your eyes October 26, 2001
6 out of 38 found this review helpful
I wanted to like this album a lot. Really. After listening to it (atonal shrieking, rhythmic fandango, assorted bad, bad sounds) -- um. . . I'm kind of flabbergasted. It was really quite, quite bad.
One of my favorites October 19, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I found this album used at a shop around town when I was 16. I had heard the song "Your Ghost" and liked it quite a bit. So, I got it, listened to "Your Ghost" and never got much further than that. I just thought "Eh." That was that. Then, I was weeding out some of my CDs a few months later to find some to sell so I could make some cash. I was going through, listening to everything I hadn't listened to in months. I put this in and this time it just CLICKED. Every song just seemed so full of emotion, even without paying attention to the lyrics. I put the disc on repeat for the rest of the day. I still listen to it regularly.
Hersh's voice is like a hoarse whisper at times, at others, it's a pain-filled wail. It's hard to describe it. Everything is so simple and it's got some of the best lyrics I've ever seen. Personal favorites include "A Loon" and "Houdini Blues." I highly recommend this album to everyone. Just don't wait a few months to listen to it like I did. Listen to it on repeat and let it sink in.
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