Track Listing
1. Chivalry
2. Trouble Down South
3. Hard To Be Human Again
4. Darkness And Doubt
5. Psycho Cupid (Danceband On The Edge Of Time)
6. Flitcraft
7. Country
8. Abernant 1984/5
9. Last Dance
10. Lost Highway
Review
This is actually a pretty hard album to review, I like it, but unlike most albums it doesn't grow on you with repeated listening, it doesn't get any worse as well, it just kind of remains the same. It doesn't do much to jump to attention, it is just good.
This is an album which has been unfairly said to have started the alt. country movement, well these were obviously people who had never heard of X or the Meat Puppets. So it isn't that original, but it is quite original for the UK, not many bands in Leeds being inspired by country, I'm sure... well good bands anyway.
The album has some very brilliant elements, and it is the songs with the heaviest use of the country elements that work better, that sound more original and inspired, so all in all a pretty good album which I didn't warm up to as much as I think I should have.
Track Highlights
1. Trouble Down South
2. Psycho Cupid
3. Hard To Be Human Again
4. Lost Highway
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The album's musical style represents a sharp break with the group's previous work, as fiddle, harmonica, and steel guitar are included, but the staple instrumentation of punk music is also notable, particularly on the energetic "Hard to be Human Again." Tom Greenhalgh, one of the primary creative forces in the Mekons, commented that as he listened to a great deal of country & western music in the early 80's, "pretty soon the difference between the three chords of country and the three chords of punk became blurred." The album closes with a cover of country music icon Hank Williams' "Lost Highway."
Hard To Be Human Again:
1 comment:
In my opinion, they should have included the album after this, "So Good It Hurts" instead. It's a much better and more varied album: more folk than country influenced. With tracks like "Ghosts of American Astronauts" and the reggea-dub "Johnny Miner" it's a classic. Fear and Whiskey is good, but certainly not their best.
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