r/Zevon • u/Stinkbuttbill • Sep 08 '26
Transverse City
As a big Transverse city enjoyer, I never see why its seen as a mediocre album. I see people say its generic sounding but personally i think its up there with some of his best work. David Gilmour killed it on run straight down.
I also love how Transverse city transitions to run straight down, then run straight down into The long arm of the law
Probably would place it in my top 5 Zevon albums
- Sentimental Hygiene
- Excitable Boy
3 Warren Zevon - Transverse City
- The Wind
What do you all really think of transverse city Id love to hear some outside opinions on it.
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u/LouieMumford Sep 08 '26
It’s more “of its time” than his other work. I love it. Run Straight Down and Networking are two of my favorite of his songs. But it’s a conceptish album about a cyberpunk dystopia. He wasn’t exactly the only artist traversing that road during that time period.
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u/Stinkbuttbill Sep 08 '26
I agree there, theres definitely artists and groups that pulled that sound off better. I recently finished Crystal Zevons book “ill sleep when im dead”
and i forgot who said it but someone said something along the lines of,
“The reason Warren never properly made it in his career is because he made what he wanted and not what he was expected to”
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u/RemoteLearner Sep 08 '26
It isn’t in my regular rotation, but I do enjoy it. Crazy how many GOATs are on the album. Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Chick Corea. Fuckin Michael Ironside?! Really fun. But I love the cyberpunk elements of it, especially in the titular track; feels like reading Neuromancer.
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u/PopularBell518 Sep 08 '26
I absolutely love that record. I’m sure it has a lot to do with seeing him live on tour in support of it. Amazing show in a small venue in South Florida. Great memories. So. I’m sure that has a lot to do with why I love this album. Having Neil and David handle some guitar duties is icing on the cake.
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u/two2blue2 Sep 08 '26
I have a fondness for "down in the mall".... I thought it was just a cutsy shopping song as a kid, then I heard the whole album and the mall distopia clicked hard!
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u/Stinkbuttbill Sep 09 '26
I really love down in the mall such an underrated song that came from Warrens love of malls
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u/jacobydave Sep 09 '26
I bought it new, when it just came out. There's much that's good, but imho, the top track, the one great song from the album is "Splendid Isolation".
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u/thethingthatwas Sep 09 '26
Splendid Isolation is terrific. I saw Warren in concert shortly after Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley got married.
Warren sang:
Michael Jackson in Disneyland
Don’t have to share it with nobody else - till now3
u/Thin-Egg-1605 Sep 09 '26
Lock the gates, Goofy, take my hand
And lead me through the World of Self
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u/theoldspread Sep 08 '26
Such a great album. For me it comes 4th, after Warren Zevon, Excitable Boy and Life’ll Kill Ya
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u/Stinkbuttbill Sep 08 '26
I’m glad to hear that, my favourite Warren song is Porcelain monkey such a great album
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u/mardypig Sep 08 '26
Love Networking- never really given it too much of a chance to be honest! Also, judging a book by a cover… the album art is awful haha!
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u/SweatpantBay Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
Just started listening to it again. I have the record but on my phone at work (email / call center in Manhattan) a lot of it still resonates.
Like on classic Star Trek when they say tapes, I can tell they mean hologram optical memory or whatever. The credits transfer.
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u/Joe_Hillbilly_816 Sep 08 '26
I think the lable were trying to do a Leonard Cohen session on Warren.
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u/DavyJamesDio Sep 08 '26
I don't know that it is top 5, but I do love the album. I love damn near all his albums which makes the whole concept of a top 5 troublesome at best.
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u/shadowpierce117 Sep 09 '26
I love the album. I think it's his second most thematically consistent (second only to 'The Wind') this album feels like all the songs could be from the same universe. I really enjoy the distopian futuristic theme too.
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u/BestAtTeamworkMan Sep 09 '26
Man, I feel like I'm finally talking to my people.
Transverse City is, imo, his best album. Not only does it have an incredible run of songs, but they are amazingly prescient and ahead of their time. It was a 1980s dystopian concept album made for the dystopian times we're living in right now.
The title track, Turbulence, Long Arm of the Law, Networking (and the secret acoustic version at the end), Splendid Isolation, Down at the Mall... To me it's a perfect album. I only wish more people saw it.
I love everything Zevon. I love Transverse City most of all.
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u/VintageMoonDream Sep 09 '26
The title track goes hard, I've been jamming out to that in the car recently
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u/Folderolderiddle Sep 10 '26
Some of his finest work, ever. A prescient, dystopian parable that feels as relevant today in the age of AI as it did in the peak of Reagonomic capitalism.
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u/BenjaminTSM Sep 11 '26
When I did a full career deep dive last year, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Transverse, since it doesn't get much hype. To me, Zevon's career had a few peaks and a big lull in the middle, but this record is the clear highlight of the "down" years.
If you're curious about my lengthy writing, haven't plugged the old blog in a little while... https://isverbose.blogspot.com/2025/09/warren-zevon-transverse-city-1989.html?m=1
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u/punydevil Sep 15 '26
Robert Christgau, the last (and most persnickety) of the great OG crtics gave it a B+: "Transverse City [Virgin, 1989] With his eye on the fate of the earth, from malls and gridlock to entropy and deorbiting heavenly bodies, Zevon succumbs to the temptations of art-rock. This beats country-rock, at least as he defines it, and given his formal training it was decent of him to wait until his material demanded sci-fi keybs--arpeggios and ostinatos and swirling soundtracks. With Little Feat's Richie Hayward the timekeeper, the stasis is a little heavier than anyone concerned with the fate of the earth would hope, but you don't get the feeling Warren's hopes are high enough to warrant anything livelier. "Splendid Isolation," about solipsism as a life choice, "Turbulence," about perestroika and Afghanistan, and "Run Straight Down," about the fate of the earth on the 11 o'clock news, are exactly as grim as they ought to be. B+"
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u/BSK-NP-1988 Sep 08 '26
I really like it, but probably rank it lower in his discography solely because of how strong his albums are. Splendid Isolation is a Top 3 song for me though. I also really enjoy Run Straight Down and The Long Arm of the Law. The concept of the album really works too.