Julian Cope Album by Album by Single by EP by Pseudonym Thread

I always thought I'm not Losing Sleep was one of the best things on the album. the way things repetitively twist in the outro is genius and killer IMHO. Once again a great set of b-sides

 

I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that this album was in heavy rotation for me & my college buddies during our most "altered" years, but I really love this album. Twisted pop genius, I say.

 

I was not looking forward to this part of the discography, and I gave St Julian a pretty low score for being too samey and boring. This album is actually more of an adventure, and although there's nothing anywhere near as good as A Crack In The Clouds on it, I'm going to give it the edge over St Julian , so 3 out of 10.

1. 5 O'Clock World - not a good start. Bringing back Teardrops style brass was a sign of desperation in my view. There's nothing wrong with the song, but it's just not Julian Cope - it's him trying to be someone else. "I Know a Place..." - very 1960s sounding.

2. Vegetation - Very 1980s production - a bit like Wax (Gouldman/Gold) - but not as well done. A big '80s mess. By 2.30 mins you are desperate for it to stop.

3. Charlotte Anne - The key track. Originally called Charlatan. Why? Oh yes! I do understand - Cope has been betraying himself since he left Mercury for Island.

"My splendid art, oh my sad profession
Now stick with me and I'll betray you
For should I lose my bad depression
My splendid art I will betray you

Haul me out of the water, haul me onto the land"

It's a fantastic track. Way before I was really Cope-aware I remember seeing the video for this on The Chart Show or something like that, and I was transfixed. What a great song - so unlike everything else. So I kept a bit of an eye on Julian Cope after that and finally got totally hooked in forever by his appearance on TV doing Pristeen and Hanging Out at (I think) Bristol.

4. My Nation Underground - Oh no - why? A sort of messy preview of the Peggy suicide funk ambience, but sounds like a cross between Teardrops/Dexy's brass and Village People backing vocals. Don't like it.
Until...what saves this is the breakdown at 4 minutes where it starts to really sound like Jehovahkill or Peggy. The second half of this song is actually very good.

5. China Doll A lovely song - a deeper vocal than ever before on a Cope record (unless I'm mistaken) - a bit in the style of Scott Walker. A jazzy double bass - I like the way he sings "See my alabaster child roll on" - it must be addressed to Dorian. "Cause I'm an earthbound boy/And so I worship you china doll" or do we have the first appearance of the Earth-Mother Goddess in a JC song?

6. Someone Like Me Back to the 5 O'Clock World style. Boo. There's a lot of brass on this. Another throwback to the Teardrops. Not a good sign.

7. Easter Everywhere 13th Floor Elevators cover, he came back to this in 2004/5 on Concert Climax. But why?

8. I'm Not Losing Sleep Nothing there really. For someone who had a gift for writing melody it sounds like he really had to force this one out. Boring.

9. Great White Hoax Another 60s influenced track with synth-brass. I don't like it. Even the catchy hook "It's coming down" can't save it. By the time the middle eight starts you are hoping it's going to be put out of its misery soon. A very insipid guitar solo, but a really good feedback ending which sounds like sheep-shearing in Outer Space. That's the best bit.

B sides
A Question Of Temperature Better than a lot of stuff on the LP. A good rocker with a bit of attitude from Julian and very strange cartoon style guitar playing.
Christmas Mourning I really like this, but probably because it sounds like Fried. The strangest ever Christmas song. Great lyrics.
SPQR Nothing much there. Definitely a b side. A very Teardrops vocal.
Books 1988 Not as good as the original(s) but a lot heavier and no brass! A nice change.
Reynard In Tokyo A great version, full of energy, but a year too late - it's from the St Julian Tour.
Crazy Farm Animal Studio version - could have been an outtake from WSYM or Fried. Good, but I think the radio session is better.
Rail On Quite different. It sounds like Black Sheep from 20 years later. Don't mind it.
Desi fantastic! Like an outtake from Skellington, and the way forward for Cope. Not interested in sounding like a chart act now - he wants to sound like Julian Cope, and this track really benefits from his personality coming through in his voice. I love this track.


From Julian Cope - © terrascope

'My Nation Underground', was just me figuring I ought to do another album and not feeling sure of what I wanted to do. That was a bad time. A bad album.
That's a pretty harsh critique of a record which featured one particularly fine song, 'Charlotte Ann', and was to my mind a very coherent album.
Well, I've got to be harsh about my own music, haven't I? 'Charlotte Ann' is a good song, but one good song is not enough. Perhaps it was a coherent album, but it was nothing like what I had inside me. I couldn't put it out, I just could not get it out. If you think it's even halfway decent then I'm pleased 'cause I was trying, blasting my mind apart.
It didn't come across as a pained album, though.
No, no, that's the thing, I was not getting over what I wanted to get over. It seems a lot easier to translate where I'm at now because I just sit back and watch it going on, really.


Skellington next?

 

I just listened to the Kabalist Lp, and I quite like it. It sounds a bit like Blixa Bargeld and Die Krupps. As you say there's some good tracks on the Muzik Club cd. I've been reading about Chris Olley on Wikipedia. Some of his record titles are fantastic.

• A Streetcar Named Disaster
• A Streetcar Named Disaster (Bonus Disc)
• East Of Edale (website only EP)
• Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wade (website only EP)
• Six 8 Track Demo's (website only EP)
• The Grapes Of Hyman Roth (website only EP)
• A Dog Is For Christmas (website only album) DELETED
• The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen By Proxy (Compilation Japanese Import)
• Sign On You Crazy Diamond (Internet only Album)
• The Blackest Soul
• Crap On A Hot Tin Roof (Box Set)
• Love, Peace And Sympathy

And I didn't know he did so much with Julian Cope.

 

The only other thing by Chris Olley I own is the F**k Me U.S.A. 3cd anthology which I bought from his bandcamp. I later found of the Kabalist project was originally to be called F**k Me U.S.A. but Chris and Cope didn't exactly have the same vision so they took their ideas away and came up with 2 very different projects. FMUSA is very much in the style of the 1st Suicide album, minimal, repetitive instruments, and delayed vocals.

 

I notice Giorgia Marauder was involved with this project.

 

Next up, we have a brace of self-released essential detours and one direct anticipation of things to come:


SKELLINGTON (1989)

Side One: Doomed / Beaver / Me & Jimmy Jones / Robert Mitchum / Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed / Don’t Crash Here / Everything Playing at Once
Side Two: Little Donkey / Great White Wonder / Incredibly Ugly Girl / No How, No Why, No Way, No Where, No When / Commin’ Soon


DROOLIAN (1990)

Side One: Sqwubbsy / Look After Your Leathers / Unisex Cathedral / Commin’ Down / Safe Surfer / Yeah Yeah Yeah
Side Two: Jellypop Perky Jean / When Will I Get to Hold You? / Louis 14th / “. . . Atonement of Wasp” / Gentleman Dude / Kelly. . . / Church of England 1991. . .


WHERE THE PYRAMID MEETS THE EYE (1990): I Have Always Been Here Before

 

I read a review of Skellington in the NME and scrambled to find out where I could order it (I think I ended up getting it from Sister Ray, way back when you'd fax UK record stores and hope they had what you were looking for). I was astonished by the stripped-down minimalism of it after the lavish Island albums, but loved the songs. Being steeped in the Flying Nun aesthetic throughout the 80s, stripped-down minimalism held no terrors for me, and hearing Cope just playing wacky, personal material after the big label strictures of the last couple of albums was heartening. (By this point I'd gobbled up the first two solo albums and all the Teardrops material and those Island LPs were looking sadder and sadder in comparison.)

Droolian was more of the same, though I've always liked the album less. There's a lot more b-side self-conscious weirdness here, and fewer strong songs, but 'Jellypop Perky Jean' is a terrific pop song in any version. The early 'Safe Surfer' doesn't give much of the hint of the overwhelming prog epic it would become, but it's a nice footnote.

'I Have Always Been Here Before' was subsequently released on the b-side of 'Fear Loves This Place', and it has thus been lumped in with the Jehovahkill recordings, but it's a pivotal track that really occupies quite a different place in Cope's development. Following on from the Roky-Erickson-dedicated Droolian, it's the first full flowering of the Peggy Suicide sound, and it absolutely blew me away when I first heard it on Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, and made me very excited for Cope's next album. That's actually one of the strongest tribute albums from an era which was clogged with the things - well worth picking up if you find it in a bargain bin.

 

I really liked "Out of My Mind on Dope and Speed" on Floored Genius, and wanted to hear more. It took me FOREVER to get to hear these albums (via tape trade)... and then even longer to finally find them on CD.

Skellington is full of great songwriting. Super-catchy singalong ditties and a great piano-punk rocker ("Out of My Mind on Dope and Speed"). That one song inspired me to to try to make a "keyboard punk" album of my own, which ended up my favorite album that I've done. It doesn't sound like Skellington but it has that same stripped-down lo-fi manic energy.

Droolian didn't click with me as much, perhaps because it seems to be more about exploring weird sounds than recording quick, catchy ditties. There are some nice moments (like "Jellypop") but it seems like he had fewer ideas, and less time to turn those ideas into music. "Sqwubbsy" is the first song that I can remember which falls back on spoken word, a habit he never seemed to shake.

I think most of Cope's output since then (especially after Jehovahkill) has been more Droolian than Skellington. I think that's because it's easier to make Droolians than Skellingtons. For Droolian you just have to have some rough ideas, go into the studio and fiddle with some knobs, make stuff up as you go along, and copy and paste the "not too bad" bits together. For Skellington, you have to actually write the songs all out beforehand. And that sort of polished writing is hard, especially when you lack time and isolation. It will be interesting to see whether his third autobio (please please please) will explain the changes in his creative time and environment.

 

I got to listen again to my fried cd for sure : this song (laughingboy")is a crossover of syd Barrett and Sarah recods imho. This thread is great to rediscover Julian cope !

 

Syd Barrett is definite. Sarah Records reminds me of a cross between The Smiths and Ride. The slow dreamy quality of Fried is what I like - a bit like Syd on Valium.
---
These two LPs are my top 2 Cope albums. I love lots of his others but when it comes down to it these are the ones I never tire of and those I feel happiest listening to. They must have taken the least time to record - it's funny - they've got such low-fi technique and that makes it work really well. Yes - I'm going to say that for me both are better than Peggy or Jehovahkill.

Every song on Skellington is a jewel - how did JC suddenly come up with these after swimming in custard on the last two albums? Doomed is so catchy but it's like how did anyone not write this before? I love the way his enunciation dissolves totally half way through just because he's so into the song it doesn't matter. Why should it? Incredibly Ugly Girl is so unspeakable but wonderful (gnashing of teeth and weeping). It's a thing that no-one would ever say let alone make a song out of it. Little Donkey - so simple but so great.
My favourite is No How No Why No Way etc Donald Ross Skinner's electric guitar parts are beautiful. Great lyrics and low-key vocal

And Robert Mitchum. Julian always plays it. To be honest I'm a bit bored with that one but it's still perfect, especially when he starts to sing in Franglais.

Droolian is a bit more spaced out, but I love its feel. Starting straight away with Sqwubbsy the songs just feel so natural and relaxed - coming straight out without effort.
Tracks like Look After Your Leathers, Atonement Of Wasp and Yeah Yeah Yeah are right up my street. This is what I like about Julian - just nothing like anything. Church of England 1991 is so low-fi it's incredible - it's just recorded on a Dictaphone with the pause button pressed randomly here and there. It shouldn't work but it does.
Church of England 1991

I got into these when I bought Floored Genius in 92 - the tracks from these stood out for me, and I had to track them down. Now I've got them on vinyl & cd. The Skellington vinyl has a run-out groove thing happening which is an excerpt from Safesurfer I think, and
IS THIS PART 1 OF DROOLIAN? on the deadwax. Droolian has OL' LEPERSKIN IS BACK. How did they know? Leperskin was to be a track on the next album. They were released within 2 months of each other, but Skellington was a year late if I'm right.


This is where I just got totally hooked on Julian and had to get everything he did (which is not something I'll ever achieve, but I'm getting there).
10 out of 10 for Skellington.
11 out of 10 for Droolian, my top JC album.

I got into Roky Erikson thanks to Julian and picked up that comp cd. On the Cope song longbarrows and pyramids make an appearance

~ I Have Always Been Here Before ~ Julian Cope (Roky Erickson cover)

 

I really liked "I Have Always Been Here Before", which I got on Jehovahkill Companion. I had no idea it was recorded before Jehovahkill. It makes sense that it was recorded around the same time as Droolian, which has that Roky theme.

"I Have Always Been Here Before" is a huge leap in sound quality from Droolian, though! It makes me wonder where Cope found the time (and money) to add so much polish to a one-off tribute song, while his own projects were so cheaply lo-fi at the time.

Do you think someone else paid for the studio time? And who would that be? The record label? If so, did that record label select and pay all of the artists on that tribute CD in advance? And were they involved in the production?

Or did Cope fund and produce the Roky cover on his own, justifying the expense as an investment (since he might gain new fans from it)?

I think there is an interesting story here, about Cope's jumping back and forth between his low budget "side" projects and the more expensive studio efforts. Come on, Cope, get to work on that third autobio!

(Also, wouldn't it be interesting if someone else wrote a bio on Cope? It would take a lot of research and interviewing to dig up information that Cope hasn't already disclosed in his own books and liner notes. In fact, if a third-person bio were actually written (successfully), I think the story behind the writing of that bio would be interesting in itself. Bring on Michael Pellerin!)

 

From glancing at Wikipedia, it seems that the Roky comp was the brainchild of American record industry all round good guy Bill Bentley, who has helped out a number of struggling artists. Apparently he heard Roky was a bit strapped for cash and this was at the time when he had been arrested for mail theft - he had developed an 'interest' in the US mail, including that of his next door neighbours, and couldn't afford a legal team to represent him (although he later got off without charge). Bentley was working for Warner Brothers who I'd dare say had a few bob to spare and Julian and Donn-eye must have availed themselves of a bit of it. It really does sound as accomplished as Jehovahkill, you're right!

 

I just found this article written by Bentley and it looks like Julian sent him the tape from UK:
In 1988, during the second annual South by Southwest, original Austin beatnik Tary Owens (1942–2003) informed me Erickson had hit a rough patch. The capital's homegrown psych pioneer liked gathering his neighbor's mail and taping it to his wall, almost like a security blanket. Unfortunately, postal authorities considered it mail theft, which landed Erickson in a federal mental health facility in Missouri. He needed help, and in the late Eighties tribute albums proved all the rage...
I Have Always Been Here Before, Julian Cope
Fellow psychedelic explorer Julian Cope sent the tape from England to his label Island Records' office in New York. Donna Ranieri, who once worked there, got into their mail room and spent hours searching for the lost tape, finally finding Cope's beat-up package sitting in a corner. Cope ventured to SXSW the year after its release, and hid in a car instead of doing the interviews we'd set up.
Record Store Day Unearths a Roky Erickson Rarity

The lyrics are very changed. Is this the first reference to the Neolithic in Cope's writing?

Julian's version:

From the Long Barrows of Wiltshire to the Pyramids
From the stone circles that challenge the scientists
And the Neolithics that tread the ancient avenues
The children that died forever more exist
For the Caveman won't leave you alone
For you and your gods alone
For leaving the centuries
For leaping the centuries

[Chorus:] I have always been here before (er...dang dang dang dang! - come on - sing it!)
Belief in my mind's opened the door . . .

Look behind you, look behind you, you are always there
Twenty-one years old -- or maybe twenty more . . .
Obelisks will mark the place you fell
Where children play they will mark the place you fell
You are perfect, you are immeasurable
Comes death -- oh, no mortal remains
Like the grey weather stones you shelter behind
You are a monument of your very own

(Chorus)
We sell soul (repeat)

The childish man shrinks back from the unknown world
And the grown man is threatened by sacrifice
Whosoever protects himself from what is new and strange
It's as the man who is running from the Past

(Nicked and tweaked from Erik's Choice: For the Caveman Won't Leave You Alone )

Roky's version:

It seems like a bell rings time for deja vu
Everything is familiar from being here with you
All you ever had before you've had to understand
Now all you have to do is want to have at your command

I have always been here before
Allowing my mind's call of known of
In cold parade more never stops this flow
I have always been here before

That that is pleasing, that that is real
That that is forever keeps filling never filled
That that snuck up on you in the night
That that you remember in an early child's delight
That that was supposed to have frightened you
But somehow you never took to fright

I have always been here before
Allowing my mind's call of known of
In cold parade more never stops this flow
I have always been here before

From the gargoyles to Stonehenge
From the Sphinx to the pyramids
To Lucifer's temples praising the devil right
To the devil's clock as it strikes midnight

I have always been here before
Allowing my mind's call of known of
In cold parade more never stops this flow
I have always been here before

 

I much prefer Cope's version. I LOVE that whole Jehovahkill sound.

The trouble I have with Roky is his accent (which is very southern). I don't mind a country accent if I'm listening to bluegrass or jam bands, but to me it clashes with my expectations for '60s psychedelia, for which I tend to prefer a more UK-based sound, at least for the vocals.

I bought a 13th Floor Elevators compilation once. I think I listened to it 2 or 3 times max. Just couldn't get into it. That voice. Too twangy. I grew up mostly in Virginia and developed an aversion to the southern accent, although I probably have a slight one to some people's ears. Hopefully after living in NZ for a while I'll shake it. Out, damn'd accent, out!

 

To add some complication to the proceedings, because Cope was signed to Island at the time, the request for his contribution to the compilation would presumably have gone through the label (who would likely have received payment for the contribution and allocated budget for the recording). I assume that the track was recorded as part of the ongoing Peggy Suicide sessions, so Cope may not have even seen any direct payment for this particular track.

This is an interesting period for Julian Cope's relationship to Island, as his response to what he considered the creative debacle and loss of control of 'The Scottish Album' was to take charge economically and become ultra-corporate, strictly controlling the recording costs of his next album himself and presenting the label with regular updates on its progress. He correctly figured that if he could deliver his new album cheaply enough, Island wouldn't meddle so much.

This in turn gets us into the very murky and unpleasant territory of big-label exploitation of acts. Acts were offered generous advances to sign with majors, but after that they were generally scr*wed, as the major would then charge up every expense (recording costs, marketing etc. - all carefully inflated) to the band's account so that, in most cases, they could never make it back into the black. Unless the band happened to fluke U2-level success, they'd just get further and further in debt to the record label and never see a penny from record sales.

 

This may be common knowledge, but what was "The Scottish Album?"

 

My Nation Underground. Cope hated it so much he refused to speak its name and instead followed the stage superstition of referring to Macbeth as 'The Scottish Play'. I think that's such a delightfully Cope thing to do, and I called my comp of the Underground singles The Scottish Singles in tribute.

 

ok...now we get to the point where we are approaching lift off. looking forward to it!

 

I'm already in orbit!
BTW, above I wondered how JC had suddenly discovered a rich seam of top drawer catchy songs, which he certainly couldn't locate on My Nation Underground. Well, since finding my copy of Repossessed, at the very end (p.174) he says that Skellington consisted of mainly years old songs which he used to sing to Dorian around the house as a joke. Songs such as Beaver and Robert Mitchum predated the Teardrops and the latter dates to A Shallow Madness 1978.
Out of My Mind On Dope And Speed was from the time of the Teardrops at Club Zoo 1981.
Still, he generally had no trouble writing catchy hooks when he wanted to.

 

PEGGY SUICIDE (1991)



2LP Tracklist:
Phase One: Pristeen / Double Vegetation / East Easy Rider / Promised Land / Hanging Out & Hung Up on the Line
Phase Two: Safesurfer (full length version) / If You Loved Me at All / Drive, She Said (full length version)
Phase Three: Soldier Blue / You / Not Raving But Drowning (full length version) / Head / Leperskin
Phase Four: Beautiful Love / Uptight / Western Front 1992 CE / Hung Up & Hanging Out to Dry / The American Lite / Las Vegas Basement

CD Tracklist
Phase One: Pristeen / Double Vegetation / East Easy Rider / Promised Land / Hanging Out & Hung Up on the Line
Phase Two: Safesurfer (edit) / If You Loved Me at All / Drive, She Said (edit)
Phase Three: Soldier Blue / You / Not Raving But Drowning (edit) / Head / Leperskin
Phase Four: Beautiful Love / Western Front 1992 CE / Hung Up & Hanging Out to Dry / The American Lite / Las Vegas Basement

Of the four unique tracks on the LP configuration, only the long version of ‘Safesurfer’ has appeared on CD, on the Floored Genius compilation (and a promo CD for Peggy Suicide).

The 2009 2CD reissue adds a second disc of previously released single tracks.

 

THE PEGGY SUICIDE SINGLES PART 1


Beautiful Love / Port of Saints 7” (1991)
Beautiful Love / Port of Saints / Love L.U.V. (Beautiful Love Remix) / Unisex Cathedral 12” & CD (1991)

‘Unisex Cathedral’ is the same as the Droolian album version.


Love L.U.V. (Beautiful Love) / Dragonfly 12” picture disc (1991)


Safesurfer (demo) / If You Loved Me at All (demo) 7” (1991)

Sold at 1991 gigs and from Head Heritage website.


East Easy Rider (edit) / Butterfly E 7” (1991)
East Easy Rider (edit) / Butterfly E / Almost Alive / Little Donkey 12” & CD (1991)

Single edit of ‘East Easy Rider’ runs 3.38.
‘Little Donkey’ is a completely different recording from the Skellington album version.


Easty Risin’ (East Easy Rider) / Ravebury Stones 12” picture disc (1991)

 

THE PEGGY SUICIDE SINGLES PART 2

Had to break this up so I could post images of everything


Head (single remix) / Bagged Out Ken 7” (1991)
Head (single remix) / Straw Dogs / Anyway at All / Bagged Out Ken 12” & CD (1991)

The single remix of ‘Head’ runs 3.36, with a very extended outro.


Heed: Of Penetration and the City Dweller (Head Remix) / Bring Cherhill Down (vocal) / Bring Cherhill Down (instrumental) 12” picture disc (1991)


Dancing Heads EP

US EP compiling the four remixes from the UK Peggy Suicide singles. ‘Heed: Of Penetration and the City Dweller’ is re-titled ‘Head (Long Meg and Her Daughters Mix)’.

There were also a bunch of remixes of ‘Soldier Blue’ prepared by Michael Franti, but I haven’t seen any evidence that these were actually physically released as a promo, so I’m not counting those as part of the actual discography until proven otherwise. Does anybody here actually own a physical 12" promo from Island of this release?

All of the Peggy Suicide single tracks are collected on the 2CD edition of Peggy Suicide except for:

Port of Saints
Easy Easy Rider (single edit)
Almost Alive
Little Donkey (re-recording)
Head (single remix)
Bagged Out Ken
Bring Cherhill Down (instrumental) – an edit of the version found on Rite.


2 METER SESSIES VOL. 3 CD (1992): East Easy Rider (radio session)

A great, loose extended live-in-the-studio version, running six and a half minutes.

 

"Pristeen... Pristeen..."

When I first heard those vocals back in 1991, I thought "God, this is grating". And I still have that reaction. That first song does nothing for me, and is, IMO, one of the most annoying leading tracks ever. It's like one of the more irritating songs off of Droolian.

However, that "lame" song does something that Cope really hadn't done before, at least to this degree: it starts off quiet and subdued, and then gradually builds in intensity. The atonality doesn't go away, but it gets louder, and somehow manages to feel "epic" toward the end. As an experiment in gradually increasing intensity it's successful... but the underlying lack of melody and [possibly deliberate] out-of-tune singing are like fingernails on a blackboard. I am tempted to skip it each time I put the album on... but I never do, because it is part of a whole.

Fortunately, the rest of the album is chock full of incredibly catchy and stunning moments. There are so many highlights, and so many musical styles covered. I don't have time to list them all. I appreciate the funky stuff, garagy stuff, weird experimental stuff, and of course the epic "Safesurfer". Even the relaxed closer "Las Vegas Basement", though not my preferred type of music, is done very well, and does a perfect job of closing the album.

Peggy Suicide's variety reminds me of the Beatles' White Album... there so many different styles and approaches to making music here that at least some of is bound to push your "good" and "bad" buttons. It makes for an adventurous listen. I just wish I wasn't so annoyed by "Pristeen"!

Overall, this is tied with Jehovahkill as my favorite Cope album. If I had to recommend a Cope album to someone as a "starter" I would pick this one, because it really shows off his range of interest, and capture Cope and his excellent band at their most dancy, jammy, garagey best.

A total classic. I love it. Warts (I'm looking at you, "Pristeen") and all!

 

How much can Tripecac take? Maybe you would've liked take 1? No I can see your point but I loved it as an opening. Cope sounds in charge and sounds pissed and unhinged but I think that's a good thing. It does build to exasperation on purpose. But man this record 'floored' me when I first heard it because I wasn't expecting it. It's a great exercise in experimentation and control. The musicians are in TOP form. The vinyl sounded amazing and is worth seeking out for those that haven't heard it. It is kind of white album-esque in it's scope but I think 20 mothers fits that bill more aptly. This was like the floodgates of catchiness creativity etc came pouring out. There's also some beautiful tracks on here. And at such a weird time in musical context. It really doesn't fit in any category but it kicked and the drude has to still be proud of this one.