Got schooled on a 90s ska album by a record store guy in Portland

Rose Hart · 2026-04-02T13:35:08.595219+00:00

I was telling him how much I loved the upbeat horns on 'The Hippos' 1997 album 'Heads Are Gonna Roll'. He just nodded and said, 'Yeah, but you're missing the whole point if you don't hear the bass lines. They're carrying the melody, the horns are just punctuation.' I went home and listened again, focusing on the bass, and the entire album clicked in a new way. Now I always listen for the rhythm section first on any ska or punk record from that era. Anyone else have an album where hearing one instrument changed the whole thing for you?

william665mo ago

I get what you mean about the bass on that Hippos record, but for me the horns are still the main event. On "Far Behind" the trumpet line is what gets stuck in my head for days. The bass is great, but it just lays down the groove for the horns to really shine over.

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the_blair5mo ago

Guess horns are just fancy punctuation, bass is the actual sentence.

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nelson.finley5mo ago

Maybe it's just me but that bass line on "Far Behind" feels like the actual song.

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