Details
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 1984/85
9. Last Dance
10. Lost Highway
11. Mr Confess, (A Dancing Master Such as)
12. Beaten and Broken
13. Chop That Child in Half
14. Hey! Susan
15. Garage d'or
16. Slightly South of the Border
17. Coal Hole
18. $1,000 Wedding
19. Rescue Mission
Album Notes
The Mekons: Jon Langford (vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums); Tom Greenhalgh (vocals, guitar, piano); Ken Lite (vocals, guitar, bass); John Gill (vocals, melodeon); Chalkie J. White, Sally Timms (vocals); Shelagh Quinn, Dr. Spence (spoken vocals); Dick Taylor (guitar); Susie Honeyman (fiddle); Rico Bell (accordion, background vocals); Robert Worby (saxophone, organ); Lu Edmonds (bass); Steve "Little Willy" Goulding (drums).
Additional personnel: Terrie Hessle, Cobie (spoken vocals); Carlton B. Morgan (guitar, harmonica); Dolph Anonymous (guitar); Brendan Croker (slide guitar, background vocals); Stoke Newington, Jr. (fiddle); Sabine Ex (accordion); Terry Nelson, Ralph Mulcahy (walkie talkies); Jaqui Callis, John Moor, Dave Haines.
Engineers: Tony Bonner, The Mekons.
Principally recorded between 1983 and 1986. Includes liner notes by Sophie Bourbon and Colin Stewart.
ORIGINAL SIN includes the entire FEAR AND WHISKEY album, originally released in the U.K. on Sin Records in 1985, and never released in the U.S. The nine additional tracks are from a variety of sources, including some of the Mekons' other Sin releases.
Titled with a brilliant pun, this compilation collects most of the Mekons' Sin Records mid-'80s output, including their landmark 1985 album FEAR AND WHISKEY and the equally outstanding EP SLIGHTLY SOUTH OF THE BORDER alongside five other tracks. Although this period in the Mekons' history is best known for its groundbreaking country and folk experiments--and the disc does include wonderful Gram Parsons and Hank Williams covers--don't expect pure country.
Besides twangy, fiddle-enhanced gems like "Chivalry" and "Flitcraft," ORIGINAL SIN covers the jerky postpunk "Hard to Be Human Again," the Syd Barrettish "Chop That Child in Half," the surprisingly poppy "Country," and the unclassifiable spoken-word oddity "Psycho Cupid (Danceband on the Edge of Time)." The liner notes list more band members than songs, which helps explain the remarkable stylistic diversity, but somehow these dissimilar songs cohere into something new and exciting rather than sounding confused and fragmentary.
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