Hang Time

Hang Time was the fourth full-length from Soul Asylum and the first for a major label. Lenny Kaye and Ed Stasium produced it. Murphy said Stasium was hired because he had produced the Ramones, and that Kaye, of the Patti Smith Group, loved the band and Pirner's lyrics. He also recalled drum tracks that needed a lot of piecing together on two-inch tape. Pirner has said the album holds a special place for him because it was so wild.

Marionette, Little Too Clean and Cartoon were the singles. Murphy wrote Cartoon and Pirner wrote the rest, except the CD-only bonus track Put the Bone In, a Terry Jacks song. AllMusic, Rolling Stone and Q each gave it four out of five, while Robert Christgau gave it a B-. The 2007 box set Welcome to the Minority collected the A&M years, with Hang Time on its first disc.

The record was made at Skyline and Sound On Sound Studios in New York and mixed at Right Track. Paul Hamingson engineered it, and Greg Calbi mastered it. Grant Young played drums and Karl Mueller bass, while Pirner added piano and saxophone to his vocals.