Initially lumped in with the roots-rock movement, the Wisconsin-bred BoDeans reaped mounds of critical praise for their bareboned, T-Bone Burnett-produced 1986 debut, only to have most of those same critics desert them after the release of their more stylistically diverse sophomore effort, Outside Looking In (1987), produced by Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison. Following the release of their third album, Home (1989), BoDeans tried to court a larger commercial audience, enlisting the production help of The Artist (f/k/a Prince) co-hort David Z. for their fourth opus, Black And White (1991). "We did chase our tail around for a while," offers Llanas, "because we hadn't had a hit, and when that happens, you start to question yourself. Are we doing something wrong? Should we try this or that? And after Black And White, we thought, well, we didn't really make any progress that way either, so let's go back and ask ourselves, what do we really want to be doing here? And that's how Go Slow Down came about. We just wanted to make some music that we felt good about. So we got back to what we do best, which is pretty much keeping it simple and straight forward and concentrating on a good song."
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