Wreck Your Life

Editors’ Notes An Old 97's fan favorite but largely overlooked outside that circle, Wreck Your Life put Bloodshot Records on the map in 1996 and remains an essential document of that era's alt-country resurgence. The Dallas dynamos are firing on all cylinders throughout, Rhett Miller's crackerjack turns of phrase ("She started out on Percodan and ended up with me," "You made a big impression for a girl of your size") spiked with sharp, twangy lead guitar and the old Johnny Cash chucka-boom train beat revved so hard it nearly runs off the rails. There are precedents for this sort of thing, of course - including country outlaws and the Bakersfield buckaroos - but punkified country doesn't come hotter, or more fun, than "Victoria," "Doreen," and "Big Brown Eyes."