I had a bit of an odd time with this band, I used to love them when they where played on MTV’s 120 minutes back when I was 18 and even video’d them but it took me a good 20 years to get around to buying anything by them and when I did eventually order the George Best album from Amazon it turned out to be a misaddressing and the album actually contained a powerpoint presentation of the dangers of alcohol abuse by the drinks manufacturer Diageo, Ironic really considering what killed George Best. I read that this album was originally recorded under the name of David Gedge’s current band Cinerama but on listening to it he decided it was to dark and released it under the his old bands name instead, to be honest I don’t care its just sublime whatever the name on the cover.
There I was sitting at my desk waiting for a client to get back to me about a project I was working on and i decided to drop by the Young God Records web site as I do every now and again and I found a video on there of a live performance form the additional DVD that comes with the limited version of this CD.
I resisted buying this album for a while but it was inevitable at some point as both my wife and I have a liking for Nick Caves body of work. My reticence was due to the solo project ‘Grinderman’ and whilst I really like the project we only get to share listening to music in the company of our children and much of the content of the Grinderman album is far from there small ears.
I first heard of the release of this album in the Observer Music Magazine whilst staying in a hotel in Bournemouth for my mother-in-laws 80′th birthday celebrations and the news was one of the highlights of the trip. Several weeks later I heard a track on the Jools Holland TV show and I became excited all over again, my first impressions where ‘Now thats brave’ and I instantly admired them for standing on the same vain but with an altogether more evolved sound.
