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Dumptruck - D is for Dumptruck (1983)

Track listing:
  1. How Come? 4:03
  2. Watch Her Fall 3:09
  3. Carcass 3:52
  4. Something's Burning 3:47
  5. Repetition 3:53
  6. Swirls Around 3:06
  7. Make a Move 3:48
  8. The Haunt 3:00
  9. Night 4:12
  10. Alive 3:15
  11. Things Go Wrong 3:56
  12. Perspective 3:34

Notes

D Is for Dumptruck is Dumptruck's debut album, released in 1983 on Incas Records and then reissued (on vinyl only) by Bigtime when the group signed with that label for their follow-up, Positively Dumptruck. Essentially a duo of Kirk Swan and Seth Tiven with tag-team drummers, Dumptruck created much more artsy and intense music at this early stage, like R.E.M.'s Chronic Town filtered through early Cure. The music isn't totally removed from their later efforts — the stylistic building blocks are present, particularly on "Repetition" and "Alive," where the familiar jangle and harmony vocals anticipate the band's later recordings, but a few tracks are unusually abrasive and cold. D Is for Dumptruck is what critics call a promising debut — the band was on the right track but hadn't yet arrived at its destination.