No Depression is cited as one of the most important albums in the alternative country genre. Due to the impact of the album on alternative country, the term 'No Depression' is sometimes used as a synonym for the genre. The album helped kick start a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground. In 1999, Spin Magazine listed the album as one of the Top 90 Albums of the 90s. The album's punk attitude, featuring heavy guitars combined with mandolins, fiddles, and banjos, was the brainchild of singers/songwriters Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. Their lyrical depictions of rural, blue-collar life paint grim portraits of Midwestern existence as life in the twilight zone, split between days working in the factory ("Factory Belt") and nights spent blurry-eyed and wasted ("Whiskey Bottle," "Before I Break"). 180 gram audiophile vinyl