Bringing Down the Horse by The Wallflowers

Bringing Down the Horse, the Wallflowers' second album, came out on Interscope on May 21, 1996, with T Bone Burnett producing, and it plays like a late-night drive through the heartland with the windows down. The lineup had Jakob Dylan alongside Rami Jaffee on keyboards, Greg Richling on bass, Michael Ward on guitar and Mario Calire on drums.

The sound is rootsy and unhurried, country rock with a bruised soul. Jaffee's keyboards glow under Ward's ringing guitar, and the vocals sound weathered and lived-in, turning even the big choruses into confessions. "One Headlight" rolls along on a sleepy, irresistible groove, "6th Avenue Heartache" aches and shimmers, "The Difference" has a bright, jangly lift, and "Three Marlenas" sways like a slow dance at closing time.

Four singles came off the album, and it reached number four on the Billboard 200 on its way to quadruple platinum, still the Wallflowers' best-selling record. The Grammys came calling twice: two nominations for "6th Avenue Heartache" in 1997, then three more in 1998, two for "One Headlight" and one for "The Difference". "One Headlight" won both of its categories and went to number one on the Mainstream Rock, Modern Rock and Adult Top 40 charts. For its 20th anniversary it finally appeared on vinyl, as a double LP released on May 13, 2016.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.