Grandaddy: The Crystal Lake

Tinnitist liked The Crystal Lake:

It’s rather upbeat, with a catchy refrain even though it tells the story of someone who desperately wanted to get away from the country into the city. Once there he winds up in a small apartment and discovers the urban existence to be pretentious, unfriendly, ugly and even more isolated:

“Should never have left the crystal lake.
For parties full of folks who flake.”

So did Pitchfork, though it had doubts about the Grandaddy album The Sophtware Slump (2000) as a whole:

The rest of the album wallows in a depression so deep, it'd make your grandparents stock up on canned foods and dress in rags. The Radiohead influence really becomes apparent on the last four tracks.

 The bear later went solo, issuing a couple of highly regarded albums as a singer-songwriter.