|
World Shut Your Mouth
|
| Price: |
5 new or used available from £24.95
Average customer review:
Track Listing
- Bandy's First Jump
- Metranil Vavin
- Strasbourg
- Elegant Chaos
- Quizmaster
- Kolly Kibber's Birthday
- Sunshine Playroom
- Head Hang Low
- Pussyface
- Greatness and Perfection
- Lunatic and Fire
- Pistol
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #143868 in Music
- Released on: 1990-07-19
- Number of discs: 1
- Format: Import
Customer Reviews
One of two classic early solo lp's from Copey.
Reading Julian Cope's memoir, Repossessed (available with Head On), this & follow-up album Fried are made even more compulsory listening. Coming out of the messy break-up of The Teardrop Explodes, which saw the material that would be belatedly released on 1990's Everybody Wants to Shag the Teardrop Explodes, Cope took on the Teardrops debts & went to live in Tamworth, with vague plans to become a taxi driver (as Tim Buckley had), or maybe go & work on an oil rig for several months. Instead, he stayed indoors with Dorian (who would become his wife) with some cheap keyboards, an epoch of imagination & a new found love of songwriting- particularly Tim Buckley & Nick Drake.
The album open's with Bandy's 1st Jump- which was reportedly about Ian McCulloch's sister (as had Passionate Friend)& took us deep into the place where Cope was residing. This is much more instant than the Teardrops, straight to the heart of the matter- imagine a tighter take on psychedlia & you're close (Love's Seven & Seven is, for example). Metranil Vavin, title from a Russian poet, is a reworked version of a lost Teardrops track- this is much closer Beatles-White Album terrirtory than the more synthetic take on the posthumous Teardrops release. Next up is single that should have been (a term applicable to most songs on this album)Strasbourg- which has the romantic notion that one lover can be France, the other Germany. A modern pop classic...
Next up is An Elegant Chaos (which surfaced on 1991's Floored Genius compilation), which is a gorgeous pop song in the English sense: oboes, psychedelia, Madness-quality songwriting. I think the lyrics are wonderful, especially the bit journos criticise him regarding cow's- which is an amusing reading of Nietzsche's Herd theory, if you think about it (& far less horrific than abysmal lyrics of this era, as found in songs like People are People, The Lebanon & The War Song!). Quizmaster is my favourite song on this collection, tight psych-rock curled around a melancholy lyric- this is what bands like SFA and The Coral should have sounded like!
Kolly Kibber's Birthday (see the beginning of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock) is more mininal stuff- a drum machine, cheap casio sounds, a lo-fi take on krautrock- file next to Felt or The Magnetic Fields. It mentions Liverpool; which was a downer...
Non-hit single Sunshine Playroom uses the drum machine in an overloaded manner, as if to replicate a rushing heartbeat as the body refers back to childhood & toys: "there's something making me want to go back!"- Head Hang Low is ta-ta to the Scott Walker-fan period of Cope's life, having more in common with tracks like The Great Dominions & Tiny Children that what would follow. The chemical outsider who would recur on such tracks as Laughing Boy & Me Singing appears here; a meeting point, perhaps.
Pussyface (aka Sex (Pussyface)) is another old Teardrops track yet to be released- more of a groove, it provides respite from the melancholy that precedes it. Next up is Greatness & Perfection- one of the perfect pop songs Cope produces from time to time, replete with those divine "Ba-Ba-Ba's". The album proper ends on the sinister Lunatic & Fire Pistol, the Roky/Syd-influences apparent in the charming English music (think XTC).
This edition comes with bonus cuts from the Sunshine Playroom single- none of which stand out- though with the exception of Hey High Class Butcher they remain unavailable elsewhere. World Shut Your Mouth is a great album, with a great cover- yet more evidence that the 80s wasn't as horrific as the existence of The Thompson Twins would suggest...
The Archdrude's debut
After the somewhat acrimonious split of the Teardrop Explodes Julian Cope returned to his hometown of Tamworth to embark on on what was to become an extraordinary solo career. His first effort World Shut Your Mouth is a classic of 80's indie/pop with outstanding tracks like 'Strasbourg', 'Elegant Chaos', 'Kolly Kibber's Birthday', 'Sunshine Playroom' and reworkings of old Teardrops era songs like 'Mentranil Vavin' and 'Pussyface'. With oboes, keyboards, occasional drum machines and a mix of highly polished production and low-fi minimalism WSYM is an accomplished debut that clearly demonstrates Cope's grasp of melodic pop and English psychedelia plus a willingness to experiment and challenge in the best tradition of the Teardrops. With bonus tracks now added from the 'Sunshine Playroom' single (the highlight being 'High Class Butcher') this is a must have for Teardrop/Cope fans or for anyone who needs convincing that the 80's did produce great music
Retreating from the collapse of the Teardrop Explodes
Retreating from the collapse of the Teardrop Explodes to his hometown of Tamworth, Cope produced his first solo effort with help from producer Steve Lovell on guitar and fellow Teardrop Gary Dwyer on drums.
The result is a surprisingly vibrant, rich album that shows Cope easily moving on from his group days while retaining his unique powerful and natural gifts for singing and songwriting.
Cope's own particular, heavily psych-into-pop-inspired goals aren't lost in it. Some of his songs are so inspired that one just has to wonder how in the world they didn't end up as hits somewhere. "An Elegant Chaos" is a great example, an at-once cryptic and fascinating lyric peppered with just enough knowing irony ("Here comes the part where I break down and cry") and a synth-string-touched crunch given a breezy pace.
Top it off with Cope's singing and the result is simply genius. Two songs from the final Teardrops sessions, "Metranil Vavin," an homage to a Russian poet, and "Pussyface" get enthusiastic run-throughs here. "Metranil Vavin" in particular is a kick, shifting from garagey crunch and energy to a show tune chorus at the drop of a hat, while sitar from Lovell and concluding oboe from Kate St. John (Ravishing Beauty), who plays on many other cuts, add even more pastoral trippiness.
Further strong cuts include "Kolly Kibber's Birthday," with a fast rhythm machine and keyboard drones leading the way; the quirky string/brass surge of "Sunshine Playroom"; and the upbeat "Greatness and Perfection." Throughout World, Cope demonstrates why he's one of the best, most unaffected singers in rock around, his vocals carrying sweep and passion without sounding like he's trying to impress himself or others.
