Let Your Dim Light Shine

Let Your Dim Light Shine is the seventh studio album by American rock band Soul Asylum, released June 6, 1995, on Columbia Records. Critically, it suffered in comparison to its predecessor, Grave Dancers Union, the band's breakout release. It includes the hit "Misery", which was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "Syndicated Inc." on his album Bad Hair Day.

This was the first Soul Asylum album with drummer Sterling Campbell, who had previously provided half of the drums on Grave Dancers Union.

The album's title comes from a lyric of the song "Promises Broken".

Reception
AllMusic gave a mostly critical summary of Let Your Dim Light Shine, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine commenting that the music "isn't quite as impressive" compared to previous efforts, and moreover that this element is easily overlooked because of the "self-importance" of the lyrics.

Track listing
All songs written by David Pirner unless noted otherwise.
 * 1) "Misery" – 4:24
 * 2) "Shut Down" – 2:51
 * 3) "To My Own Devices" – 2:59
 * 4) "Hopes Up" – 3:45
 * 5) "Promises Broken" (Dan Murphy, Marc Perlman) – 3:14
 * 6) "Bittersweetheart" – 3:34
 * 7) "String of Pearls" – 4:56
 * 8) "Crawl" (Stephen Jordan, Pirner) – 4:00
 * 9) "Caged Rat" – 3:03
 * 10) "Eyes of a Child" – 3:35
 * 11) "Just Like Anyone" – 2:47
 * 12) "Tell Me When" (Pirner, David Samuels) – 3:42
 * 13) "Nothing to Write Home About" – 3:14
 * 14) "I Did My Best" – 3:46

For the Japanese release of Let Your Dim Light Shine, an additional track was added to the album. It was a cover of the Descendents song "Hope". Note that "Bittersweetheart" fades out at 3:17, but the guitar feedback remains, therefore "Bittersweetheart" quickly segues into "String of Pearls". The running time of both songs equals about 8 minutes and 30 seconds long.

Personnel
Soul Asylum


 * Dave Pirner – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, trumpet, producer
 * Dan Murphy – lead guitar, backing vocals, producer
 * Karl Mueller – bass guitar, producer
 * Sterling Campbell – drums, percussion, vocals, producer

Additional musicians


 * Trini Alvarado – backing vocals
 * John Devries – backing vocals
 * Joey Huffman – organ, piano, mellotron
 * Eric Pierson – guitar (on "Hopes Up", and "Caged Rat")
 * Jane Scarpantoni – cello
 * Dave Schramm – pedal steel guitar (on "I Did My Best")
 * Tim Ray – piano, electric piano

Production


 * John Siket – engineer
 * Michael Stern – engineer (non credited)
 * Butch Vig – producer
 * Andy Wallace – mixer
 * Howie Weinberg – mastering