The Natural Bridge

The Natural Bridge
Studio album by Silver Jews
Released	October 1, 1996
Recorded	July 1996
Genre	Indie rock
Length	35:43
Label	Drag City
Producer	Rian Murphy, Shadwell Cougars and Silver Jews
Silver Jews chronology
Starlite Walker (1994) The Natural Bridge (1996) American Water (1998)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The Natural Bridge is the second full-length studio album by indie-rock group the Silver Jews. Released in 1996 as an LP and CD on Drag City (DC101) in America and Domino (WIG28) in Europe, The Natural Bridge was engineered and mixed by Michael Deming and Thom Monahan and features cover art by Mike Flood. Featured musicians include: David Berman; Matt Hunter; Rian Murphy; Peyton Pinkerton; and Michael Deming.

Some tracks on the album were originally recorded using members of the Scud Mountain Boys as Berman's backing band, but scrapped. None of these recordings have ever been released, and were rumored to have been destroyed. According to the Scuds' Joe Pernice, the songs sounded "exactly like the Scud Mountain Boys with David Berman singing" and not like previous Silver Jews recordings. An unreleased cover of Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" was also recorded with the Scuds.^[2]

Another 1995 session, with Pavement members Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, and Steve West, was aborted when Berman stormed out of the recording studio. The remaining musicians used the paid studio time to record Pavement's Pacific Trim EP.^[3]

Track listing

All tracks composed by David Berman

1. "How to Rent a Room"
2. "Pet Politics"
3. "Black and Brown Blues"
4. "Ballad of Reverend War Character"
5. "The Right to Remain Silent"
6. "Dallas"
7. "Inside the Golden Days of Missing You"
8. "Albemarle Station"
9. "The Frontier Index"
10. "Pretty Eyes"

References

1. Allmusic review
2. Bryant, Will. "A Few Words With Joe Pernice". Pitchfork.com. Archived from the original on August 1, 2003. Retrieved 12 January 2016.