The album’s opening track, “Watching Candles Burn”, sums up the band’s approach: dueling guitars that wildly alternate between a countryish strum and noisy, half-improvised solos; Rick Rizzo’s amelodic, almost aggressive singing; a general sense of freewheeling, youthful energy. ...

... the album’s closer, “Go.” A tumultuous, far-ranging guitar workout, the song handles dense nests of sound delicately and subtly, hinting at the gracefully complex playing that would characterize their later work. Powerful as many of the songs are on Prairie School Freakout are, there is a mastery of dynamics and tone on this song that goes far beyond the rest of the album. The vocals, traded urgently between Bean and Rizzo, reach a frenetic, unsteady wail above warbling feedback and stabbing guitar riffs. At times quiet and retreating, at others aggressive and chaotic, the song never loses its focus or its sense of immediacy, managing to sound beautiful and slightly scary at the same time.