Moonhead
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Moonhead
| type = Album
| artist = Thin White Rope
| cover = Moonhead.jpg
| alt =
| released = February 1987
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = Alternative rock
Neo-psychedelia
| length = 53:45
| label = Frontier{{Cite web|url=https://frontierrecords-thinwhiterope.bandcamp.com/album/moonhead-2018-remastered-edition|title=Moonhead - 2018 Remastered Edition, by Thin White Rope|website=Thin White Rope}}
| producer = TWR & Paul McKenna
| prev_title = Exploring the Axis
| prev_year = 1985
| next_title = In the Spanish Cave
| next_year = 1988
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r20012|first=Stewart|last=Mason}}
| rev2 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev2Score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2006 |publisher=MUZE |volume=8 |pages=123–124}}
| rev3 = The Great Alternative & Indie Discography
|rev4 = MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide
|rev4score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite book |title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |date=1999 |publisher=Visible Ink Press |page=1140}}
|rev5 = OndaRock
|rev5score = 7/10{{Cite web|url=https://www.ondarock.it/rockedintorni/thinwhiterope.htm|title=Thin White Rope - biografia, recensioni, streaming, discografia, foto}}
|rev6 = Select
|rev6score = {{rating|5|5|full=U+25A0.svg|empty=U+25A1.svg|rating=medal}}Select magazine, August 1990 issue, page 121
}}
Moonhead is the second full-length album by Thin White Rope, released in 1987.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/thin-white-rope-mn0000496207/biography|title=Thin White Rope | Biography & History|website=AllMusic}}
Critical reception
Trouser Press wrote that the album "alters the modus operandi a bit, stretching song lengths and forging a provocative, embryonic bond between wiry, Television-styled guitar interplay and groove-conscious kraut-rock rhythms (held in place by Jozef Becker’s incredibly focused drumming)."{{cite web |title=Thin White Rope |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/thin-white-rope/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=6 February 2021}} The Los Angeles Times called the album "excellent," writing that the band's "fuzzy, often dissonant twin-guitar solos recall such diverse groups as Television and Spirit, as its material takes traditional forms and bends them into something unexpected, going from Western gallops to psychedelic dirges."{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-23-ca-8915-story.html|title=A PROMISING ROPE|date=March 23, 1987|website=Los Angeles Times}}
The Guardian deemed "Crawl Piss Freeze" "not so much a song as an apocalyptic death march," while AllMusic described it as a postcard "from the edge."{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/24/cult-heroes-thin-white-rope-were-scorched-alien-hostile|title=Cult heroes: Thin White Rope were scorched, alien, hostile|date=March 24, 2015|website=the Guardian}} Spin wrote that the track creates "an unforgiving atmosphere of sparked vocals supplanted by an eardrum-piercing fretboard roar."{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sc9ijqDIbEgC&q=Moonhead+thin+white+rope+1987&pg=PA31|title=Underground|work=SPIN|date=July 6, 1987|publisher=SPIN Media LLC|via=Google Books}}
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing = Guy Kyser (except where noted)
| title1 = Not Your Fault
| note1 = Becker/Kyser
| length1 = 3:45
| title2 = Wire Animals
| length2 = 4:00
| title3 = Take It Home
| length3 = 4:36
| title4 = Thing
| length4 = 2:54
| title5 = Moonhead
| note5 = Kyser/Becker/Kunkel/Tesluk
| length5 = 4:45
| title6 = Wet Heart
| length6 = 4:34
| title7 = Mother
| note7 = Kunkel/Kyser
| length7 = 4:27
| title8 = Come Around
| length8 = 2:19
| title9 = If Those Tears
| length9 = 3:16
| title10 = Crawl Piss Freeze
| note10 = Kyser/Kunkel/Tesluk
| length10 = 5:34
| title11 = Waking Up
| length11 = 2:43
| title12 = Valley Of The Bones
| length12 = 2:54
| title13 = Atomic Imagery
| note13 = Kyser/Tesluk
| length13 = 3:36
| title14 = Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
| note14 = Jimmy Reed
| length14 = 3:54
| title15 = Take It Home (Long Version)
| length15 = 6:17
}}
Credits
- Guy Kyser – guitar, vocals
- Roger Kunkel – guitar, vocals
- Stephen Tesluk – bass, vocals
- John Von Feldt – bass
- Jozef Becker – drums
;with
- Paul McKenna – engineer, producer
- John Golden – Mastering
- Ross Garfield – Drum Technician
;and
- Greg Gavin – Cover Painting, Paintings
- Merril Greene – Photography
- Robin K. – Photography
- Wendy Sherman – design