Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Soul Desert
2. No Hard Shoulder To Cry On
3. Akhenaten
4. The Mystery Trend
5. Upwards At 45 Degrees
6. Cut My Friends Down
7. Necropolis
8. Slow Rider
9. Gimme Back My Flag
10. Poet Is Priest...
11. Julian H. Cope
12. The Subtle Energies Commission
13. Fa-Fa-Fa-Fine
14. Fear Loves This Place
15. The Tower
16. Peggy Suicide Is Missing

Disc 2:

1. Nothing
2. I Have Always Been Here Before
3. This Is My Kin
4. Michael Rother
5. Gogmagog
6. Gone
7. Vivien
8. You Gotta Show
9. Sqwubbsy The Olmec
10. Sizewell B
11. Paleface
12. Free
13. Poet Is Priest
14. Starry Eyes

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45949 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-30
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .35 pounds
• Running time: 146 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Jehovahkill, Julian Cope's 1992 album, continues--and refines--Julian Cope's crusade to make music safe for acid-damaged intellectuals. This time out, his main target is the reclamation of pagan ideals and symbolism appropriated by Christianity--when was the last time you listened to a pop-rock album with goals as extravagant as that? Cope's ultimate brilliance is that he is able take concepts such as this and render them in a manner that is hard to take offense at. Whether you agree with him or not, the songs are gentle, catchy statements of their author's beliefs, never preachy and always shot through with just enough psychedelic weirdness to keep the experience musically arresting.

Standouts include the opening track, "Soul Desert", which sneakily prepares listeners for the combination of musical styles that will follow; the simple acoustic guitar and vocal combination (along with the occasional cymbal and synthesizer squelch) of "Up-wards at 45" that builds to a full-on rock freak-out; and the redemption and joy of "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fine". Though perhaps not the best place to begin with Cope's catalogue--neophytes should investigate the Floored Genius compilation--Jehovahkill is an excellent example of how Cope and his band can incorporate everything from funk, punk, surf and neo-techno into 70 startlingly original minutes.

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Customer Reviews

A Cope meisterwerk!
Can't believe that 'the early nineties' is so darn long ago! Anyone who has the older versions of this album (I had it right from the day of release, when it came in a blue box) should seriously consider investing in this. As well as the original album, which is every bit as good as the other reviewer says, is a second disc, which is a contains all those tracks from those long-lost 'Fear Loves this Place' EPs, which are just fascinating. Cope is shown in full creative flight. A great document! Topping the disc is a long (over 20 minutes) version of standout track 'Poet is Priest', which I know will get played over and over agin by me . . . like the recent Orb reissue, I'm finding disc two is even better than the original album.
The music is all over the place, a real patchwork of garage, Krautrock, folk, melodious pop - the lot. Even if you've no idea about what the lyrics are about (and they aren't as opaque as you'd think) the music is enjoyable and even (dare I say it) frequently beautiful. The lyrics are easy enough to get if you've read 'The Modern Antiquarian', which Cope was working on at the time. My taste was more to 'Peggy Suicide' and '20 Mothers', but hearing this great set again has dislodged themfrom the top! What a unique talent the Arch Drude has. These various 'Deluxe Editions' are the most enjoyable thing to come out of the record industry for years, and I truly hope it's not long before 'Peggy Suicide' gets the same treatment.
UPDATE!!! Since writing this review after hearing it a few times, I read a few more by other listeners. Some reviewers are noticing low level crackling on parts of the album. I've relistened to mine, and yes, it is there, most obviously on the last track of disc 1 and a couple of tracks on disc 2 (not the ones recorded on a dictophone!). But to be honest I hadn't noticed. Maybe this will be rectified by Island, but for now I'm happy enough with what I've got, and consider myself fairly fussy. Consider it one star docked, and if you can hear a copy before deciding to buy, all the better.

Deluxe reissue of classic deleted 1992 album
`Jehovahkill' advanced on the double-album format of the previous year's `Peggy Suicide', Cope undergoing an epiphany & going upwards at 45 degrees after a minor-diversion towards the mainstream (see autobiography 'Repossessed/Head-On'). Cope had some success with `Peggy Suicide', delivering an album in phases, & `Jehovahkill' both advances & continues that. The `Floored Genius'-compilation had sold well & the `Jehovahkill'-tour, which had epic shows, sold out. So, why was Copey dropped shortly after the release of this?????

`Jehovahkill' has dated wonderfully - & along with `Peggy Suicide' and '20 Mothers' was his most consistent album of the 90s (the others were good, sometimes great, but with poor moments). Cope & long-time collaborator Donald Ross Skinner with drummer/saxophonist Rooster Cosby are the band for this album, which advanced Cope's autogeddon/megalithic/enviromental concerns & comes with a booklet leading towards Cope's books `The Modern Antiquarian' and `The Megalithic European': stone-circles, pre-Christ cross, quotes from forward-thinking drudes like William Blake & Philip K Dick...

The music sounds great now, it has dated brilliantly- it's easy to see an influence on the Radiohead of Kid A/mnesiac here: `Poet is Priest' is futurist-dance music with a hint of krautrock that Radiohead would do now to acclaim, `No Hard Shoulder (To Cry On)' meanwhile has a mindblowing guitar sound that prefigures records like `OK Computer'. Cope is acoustic here (the beginning of `Soul Desert' - whose title is taken from Can - to the humorous `Julian H Cope') - but the album flows between these points. There are spacerock-inflected instrumentals (`Necropolis', `The Subtle Energies Commission'), divine alt-pop (`The Mystery Trend', `Slow Rider', `Fa-Fa-Fa Fine') & strange psychedelic droning classics like `Know (Cut My Friend Down)' & `Gimme Back My Flag'.

The stand-out tracks for me remain the immense `Upwards at 45 Degrees', which moves from acoustics to full on rock mode; the epic `The Tower', 10-minutes of what The Doors would sound like if they'd been Can & single `Fear Loves This Place'- which is a wonderful anthem...

`Jehovahkill' is a wonderful album- it deservedly did well on a recent poll of the best albums ever on Cope's Head Heritage website- & sounds simply perfect now! `Fried' used to be my fave album of Cope's- it's been a brilliant career- but `Jehovahkill' pretty much slays that now I think! `Jehovahkill' was the last record Cope recorded for a major label: their loss!

This welcome reissue comes with a bonus disc that fans will adore, fourteen tracks include out-takes and rarities as well as an alternate version of `Sqwubbsy' from `Droolian',a track called 'Michael Rother' in tribute to the Neu! member (anticipating the later penchant for Krautrock & Death in Vegas' 'Sons of Rother'), the great cover of the 13th Floor Elevators' `I Have Always Been Here Before' (from the `Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye' compilation and featuring Cope's brother Joss on backing vocals), and `Fear Loves This Place' b-side `Paleface' that has been hard to find for years. In all, a must have and definitely my favourite Cope-album in the definitive form...quite handy since my ancient cd (the original purchase of which found me going into a WhSmith in Marlow to have a look, leaving my bike unlocked outside...which some %%%%%% nicked in the minute it took for me to check Smiths didn't have it!)plays very little of 'Phase Two' and won't let me download 'The Tower' either...An album that makes more sense when you think of acts of more recent years in similar climes: Super Furry Animals, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Strangelove, Ultrasound, The Beta Band, Dog Man-Suede etc...

Worst 'remaster' so far
This album is a total classic and represents a significant highpoint in the extensive back catalogue of Mr Cope. However, the new (2006) Island/Universal 2CD remaster is HORRIBLE. As reported here and elsewhere, there is clearly audible distortion throughout all of the first disc (the original album) plus some of the second disc (bonus tracks). It reduces the sound from a £2000 CD+headphone system to that of a cheap MP3 player. Actually, no, a cheap minidisc player - it really is that bad. It is not possible to exaggerate the appalling downgrade in sound quality compared with the original 1992 Island CD. The recording has been mastered at ludicrously high levels which, sadly, seems to be the current vogue, but quite how no-one at Universal quality control let this distorted mess reach the shops is anyone's guess. The distortion is not present on the original release. The fault has been reported on Copey's own website, on Steve Hoffman's forum and on numerous entertainment retail sites. DO NOT BUY THIS CD. Pick up the original album as a used CD and download the bonus tracks. A CD sounding this bad offers absolutely no incentive to pay for music from a major record company.