Product Description

'Loss' is the debut album from Mull Historical Society. Made up of one key member, Colin MacIntyre, 'Loss' is an album of gentle indie anthems and sits happily along side bands such as Travis, Pulp and Radiohead. The singles Barcode Bypass, I Tried and Animal Cannibus are also included on the album.

Track Listing

1. Public Service Announcer
2. Watching Xanadu
3. Instead
4. I Tried
5. This Is Not Who We Were
6. Barcode Bypass
7. Only I
8. Animal Cannabus
9. Strangeways Inside
10. Mull Historical Society
11. Paperhouses

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31605 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
Mull Historical Society seem to live in a hermetically-sealed world on Loss, like their indie peers Clearlake and Belle and Sebastian, where reality is glimpsed only through a filter of fanciful fantasy. Named after a genuine society, dedicated to the preservation of tradition on their home island--the Isle Of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides--Mull are a Scottish band of a familiarly twee mould. A mere duo, consisting of frontman and songwriter Colin MacIntyre and bassist Alan Malloy, their sound is bolstered on this debut with a jumble-sale haul of queer, quirky little touches: an alarm bell ringing in the background of "Public Service Announcer"; a children's choir, accompanying the whimsical, gently unfolding "Instead"; and a mixture of samples, electronics, and imaginatively-utilised household instruments, billowing out of this record's numerous nooks and crannies. It's easy to see whispers of Mercury Rev--albeit, a Rev transplanted from the backwoods of Middle America to the sandy, windswept beach of a remote Scottish island--providing an inspiration for some Mull's wide-eyed tales. If you can hack MacIntyre's occasional simpering tone, the likes of "Barcode Bypass"--the tragic tale of the closing of the local cornershop--or "I Tried"--heartbreak, rendered as a chugging, theremin-accompanied indie-rock anthem-- offer a world so pure, so untainted, it's got to be worth a visit.-- Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

A breath of fresh Hebridean air
There are a lot of bands trying to do what Mull Historical Society manage here so effortlessly, and precious few seem to get it right. That is, to make music which is innovative, original and meaningful, but which also succeeds in being listen-able: that is, something which is a genuinely fun and not just 'interesting' experience to listen to.

The use of a variety of musical techniques and media is original and yet well-handled: as well as guitar and bass there are choirs, brass, wind and some frankly weird unidentifiable instruments, which are unobtrusive and add to rather than detract from the music and above all Colin MacIntyre's vocals. Meanwhile, the sometimes parochial and simple lyrics about life, love, history, family and loneliness are rescued from sounding contrived by their unpretentious innocence, and the relatively upbeat tunes which they are set to. There's a flavour of optimisim which is a very welcome breath of fresh air compared to the dull, self-pitying dirges which many of their peers succumb to.

The result is a beautiful album with a beat that you can nod your head along to. I find it amazing that a gem like this is not better known. I've been wrong many times buying on an impulse a new, interesting-sounding band I've barely heard of, only to find that despite different levels of pretention they all sound pretty much the same. Loss is a CD which I have no regrets at all about buying. It really is a special album which I whole-heartedly recommend.

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MacIntyre has a very good ear for writing melodies, and this collection is well worth the price. Though some other reviewers mentioned Mercury Rev as a comparison, I don't really see it. He brings to mind Elvis Costello and The Shins more than anything else I can think of. His vocal style is completely different than Jonathan Donahue's, and I wouldn't call this orch-pop at all.

So far the standout tracks for me are Watching Xanadu, which is an up-tempo number built around the refrain "she could love anything," whose melody brought to mind the Costello reference above. I also very much like Maybe I, which utilizes a boys choir to very beautiful effect.

Besides the solid songwriting, the instrumentation is all just great as well and the harmonies are quite nice.

eclectic and exceptional
When describing a debut album of such awe-inspiring magnitude as this the word 'bold' doesn't quite go far enough. This album is by no means original; it borrows from a mish-mash of styles; but the end result is an intricate and adorable selection of songs that reveal something new or unexpected with every listen. Once you manage to grasp the rhythm of 'Public Service Announcer' the rest of the album swaggers along with all the poise of an established artist. Everybody will know the reverberating dream sequence in 'A Day in the Life' at the end of Sergeant Pepper's- 'Loss' is saturated with these spine-tingling moments (Colin MacIntyre is surely the only person to make the word 'supermarket' sound utterly beautiful). Valid comparisons can be made with Super Furry Animals, Sparklehorse, and Mercury Rev; even Grandaddy on occassions; but the mix goes deeper than that. There's so much going on in every song you find yourself enveloped by the music, and by the time the hidden gem 'Loss' fades away (those choirboys must have been mystified by MacIntyre's requests), there is a genuine feeling of loss. With such enchanting music you wish it could continue forever.