Didn’t have time for this album. Sorry.
No worries - I skipped last week. All just a bit of fun.
1 Like
It was an 8 at the time, but just a 7 now. “This is how it feels” is still one of the all-time greatest pop singles though.
1 Like
Yup.
A better album than I remembered - I had thought that they were a great singles band but the albums were patchy. However, I liked most of this one. Very strong opening few tracks; I really enjoyed Song For A Family and Besides Me. Bit more hit and miss towards the end of the album. She Comes In The Fall is great, I liked Sun Don’t Shine, find Sackville a bit boring. Overall, very good. A solid 8 from me.
1 Like
The Inspirals had some great singles. The albums never did anything for me at the time. I have enjoyed the listen this week though. Which seems to be the theme of this thread for me.
3 Likes
Yeah, I was really surprised to return to this and see that they’re not there, and I think it misses them. Fun to revisit though, and She Comes In The Fall is still a banger
2 Likes
The Inspiral’s debut is underwhelming, if we are being honest. The band had a good 1989 but only Move and the re-recorded Directing Traffic make it onto their debut and those two songs, together with She Comes in the Fall, are the best here. It’s a bit odd, like others have said, that they didn’t include Joe or Find Out Why; maybe they wanted to move on. Beyond that, I’ve always loved the bassline from Sackville, This is How It Feels was good at the time - good enough to get me into the band - but it lacks something, maybe in its structure, and there are a few very workmanlike songs in the middle of the album and Sun Don’t Shine is awful.
That said, I’ve had plenty of fun this week going back through the Inspiral Carpets, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Charlatans stuff from the same era and would love to see Squirrel and G-Man in this club. Might nominate it myself if we go around a third time.
1 Like
Had a bit of a listen to Life today but came to the conclusion that it’s just not for me. Most of the songs I skipped after listening to the first 30 seconds or so, on some I found the organ sound genuinely irritating (we need some Charlatans in this club to put this right). She Comes In The Fall was good at the time and still good now, though is the single version a remix or re-recorded version as the one on Life seemed slightly different to how I remember?
Seems unfair to vote as I didn’t properly listen, so I won’t drag the average down.
2 Likes
I’ve gone for 9. Maybe I am getting overexcited because the album is patchy as hell, but, come on, it has This is How It Feels and She Comes in the Fall on it. What do you want? Blood?
3 Likes
Not sure I can agree that Rob Collins was half the organist Clint is, but I’ll let it go 
I think the issue with not including the earlier singles was more to do with how bands perceived ripping off the fans at the time - this massively changed in the mid 90s when indie went major - and they didn’t want people paying for the same songs again. Otherwise, Life could have been 13 tracks long and with some more real bangers.
8.09 average then - feels about right.
2 Likes
My turn this week. I’m going to try something a little different with this selection. Rather than presenting some personally beloved album of earnest jangly indie pop that I know will make some people go “not for me pal”, I’m going to pick an album from a moment in my life that I’ve not listened to in over 35 years. It may be a revelation, it may have aged like milk, anyway, let’s find out together.
I’ve selected ‘99%’ by Meat Beat Manifesto, released in 1990. Around this time I had a brief flirtation with industrial music (largely due to my childhood best friend who went on to have a career as an industrial artist). He gave me a tape of this album, which I loved. Originating from Swindon, Meat Beat Manifesto were an EDM/industrial duo of Jack Danger and Jonny Stephens. They were hugely influential and are often cited as the progenitors of The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers.
I grew up in a part of the UK that was remote and very much off the touring map so I used to take every opportunity to just go to a gig (any gig) when visiting my sister at university. Fortunately one of my visits coincided with a gig by Meat Beat Manifesto supported by Consolidated (a radical activist industrial rap outfit from San Francisco). This would be 1990 when MBM were touring ‘99%’. It was essentially two guys on stage with a dancer (not a Bez figure, he was a Michael Clark classically trained type) and the gig was nothing short of a religious experience. I can still remember the intensity of the bass when they played ‘Radio Babylon’ - not on the album but released around the same time. This could have been the moment when I embraced rave culture but I soon drifted back towards depressed blokes with guitars, however, I still remember this gig vividly.
Anyway, let’s see how ‘99%’ holds up. Even if you can’t make it through the first track give ‘Dogstar Man/Helter Skelter’ a listen and try to imagine being a teenager in a hot sweaty club with strobing lights and this pounding out at a bone shaking volume - “It’s in my brain now…”
Also, bonus indie points are available for spotting the Pixies’ samples.
7 Likes
Great choice - I only really know Radio Babylon which was from around this time but not on the album, so will be great to listen to something completely new this week 
1 Like
Excellent, album-wise I’m only familiar with Satyricon so look forward to this. Still listen regularly to Mindstream which is an all timer, especially the Orbital remix that they then used themselves in instrumental form as Remind on the Brown Album.
3 Likes
I’ve got the acid again 12 here somewhere and remember enjoying it so not sure why I didn’t dig deeper. Will have to find time to give this one a go
Ooh nice, Remind is ace.
1 Like
Never listened to these as the name gave me Jez and Super Hans vibes but this write up sounds interesting so will give them a go
2 Likes
If anyone hasn’t heard it, it rips.
2 Likes
For additional context, here’s ‘Radio Babylon’ with its bass line that was famously sampled by The Future Sound of London on ‘Papua New Guinea’ (along with a Dead Can Dance vocal) - which you can currently hear on the Specsavers advert on every Amazon Prime ad break.
2 Likes
I wasn’t expecting to like that as much as I did - great companion to former club featurees Pop Will Eat Itself and Renegade Soundwave. I’ve definitely embraced the late 80s / early 90s industrial sound in recent years.
Looking forward to another listen today.
2 Likes