What does it sound like?:
Julian Copes output in the noughties onwards is very variable at best. I made the mistake of buying his 70 minute ambient mellotron album last year that is an exercise of torture
However I read a few things that suggested this was a “proper” album and indeed it is. There’s only “Me and the Jews” that sounds like he made it up as he goes along
The rest are proper vintage Cope with proper melodies and everything. Bits of it remind me of Fried
It doesn’t appear to be on any streaming services or been reviewed anywhere. I only knew it was coming out as I’m on his Twitter account. Would be a crying shame for it to disappear into the ether and not be heard, but I’d get why people gave up on him years ago considering the volume of dirge he puts out at times
It’s very low fi ala Skellington of course but I’d say this is his best album in 20 years plus. If only he’d tour again…
What does it all *mean*?
The old bugger still has it in there somewhere
Goes well with…
Release Date:
18th October
Might suit people who like…
Copeys work pre 2000
Will I, won’t I?
I used to be a massive Cope fan, buying every album, going to a gig on every tour.
The gig at the Lyric Hammersmith, some 20 odd years ago was one of the best I’ve ever been to by any artist.
But his inconsistency, with the ratio of dullness to excellence swaying too much toward the dull, saw me lose interest. I can’t recall the last time I bought one of his albums.
I will search to see if anything from this album appears anywhere online. I can’t say the title comes across as inspiring. But I would be so happy if he could return, at least partway, to the pinnacles he used to achieve.
Thanks for alerting me to this.
My friend Jon, with whom I always went with to JC’s gigs, told me recently that he had read that the man has not been well. So touring, at least in the short term, seems unlikely.
Indeed I thought the same about the title, thinking he’d made another dodgy concept album, but it’s definitely worth a listen
Given the varying quality of his albums and love of puns in titles, he sjhould call the next one Meh Might
Like Carl I’d like to road test this online first. I really miss 80s and 90s Cope. I don’t think I’ve ever liked an artist more than I liked Cope around Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill, but it was all great.
Since then, while I admire his independence I’m buggered if I want to listen to his music more than once. Maybe You Gotta Problem With Me at a push.
For me my favourite ever gig was him at the Town &Country Club in around 92/93. Three sets: acoustic; Peggy/Jehovahkill; Greatest hits. Just brilliant.
You are indeed tempting me, making a parallel with Fried – one of my Top 5 albums ever. Boy, there’s been some shite in the meantime, but I too would profess that one of his gigs was my best ever (1995).
Never seen him live but have always wanted to..
Would be there like a shot if he played Dublin
I had always wanted to but found him distinctly underwhelming at the Barbican when I did. My other half actually fell asleep. I know at least one other Afterworder was there and had a great time, so perhaps his charisma just didn’t extend up into the cheap seats.
Massive fan and follower during the 80/90s.
Gave up in the early 2000s as the output was no good.
Best ever gig was the Jehovakill tour in Birmingham.
I still have the T-shirt and mug!
Have this on order and prompted a re read of Head On/Repossessed which remains a mighty monster of a book
@slotbadger
Indeed.
Due a re-read myself
I kind of gave up around 20 Mothers like many I guess. Have never seen him live solo but did see 2 memorable Teardrop Explodes gigs in Liverpool in 1980/81
Saw him solo, bearded, mid-afternoon at the Cambridge Folk Festival 20+ years ago and I left after about 15 minutes.
I wish I’d seen him in the late ’80s/early ’90s. I even quite like My Nation Underground, which is more than he does.
So I might get this, but not until I’ve heard it first.
My Nation Underground has just appeared on Spotify. As I had it on cassette I probably haven’t heard the whole album in 25 years or more. I really like it! Totally undeserving of its poor reputation. Ok, the title track is shite, but the rest is really good.
My Nation Underground is indeed far better than its creator reckons. I think he has a problem with it because he was making the record the record company wanted. C’mon Copey — sometimes it is OK to want to sell shitloads of records.
Saw him a few times in the ’90s. Probably the best one was at the Sheffield Leadmill on the Peggy Suicide tour. He’d picked up a load of new fans who knew nothing of his earlier work and were utterly baffled by Reynard The Fox. They didn’t even know Passionate Friend. Tsch!
Thanks @Thegp for the heads up on this one. You must have suffered a lot of dross to still be listening and I salute your sacrifice on our behalf. I will investigate this one.
😂thanks suffer is the word if you have ever to listen to “The corpse of Queen Elizabeth” just don’t buy it…
Drunken Songs was bad enough and I gather that was one of the better ones.
Still thanks again for the review. I’m really hoping he’s finally done another good one.
Did anyone do a review of The Culture Bunker boxed set or should I belatedly make the effort?
I don’t think so, go ahead!
I too think My Nation Underground is a fine album although as others have noted JC doesn’t.
He on the other hand thinks Queen Elizabethis a thing of consummate beauty.
Ahhh Copey…I was such a big fan from 1980 to about 2000. And then he turned into…what? He’d like you to think he was a shamanistic seer or something, but in reality he became the type of berk one tries to avoid at festivals, basically. Like others here I sort of admire the independent spirit, but I think it was Bill Drummond who said he has no-one to say “it’s not good enough Julian, go back and do it again,” which to me sums it all up.
The last couple of times I’ve seen him live he spent more time bickering with the sound guy than he did singing and when got round to playing the old favs did it with a palpable resentment. I said my goodbyes and haven’t been back since but I’d actually consider seeing the old bugger again for old time’s sake.
Massive shame because his talent is undeniable. Peggy, Jehovah, Fried, World, Autogeddon all great albums and then some of the stuff on Head Heritage also good but his last few releases were poor. Will give this a try with the hope he has gone back to tunes and some decent recording sound.
If no good will draw a line under it
Read this for a different view of this very strange man:
https://leftlion.co.uk/legacy-content/doggen-7555/
Wow
That’s quite a read.
“He had a guy called Donald Skinner in his band for many years who was a fantastic musician and amazing guy and he kicked him out of the band for doing a crossword.”
Just imagine how bad it would have been if he’d been caught doing a Wordle.
I read that and thought it makes no sense at all, there must have been much more to it than that This makes me doubt some of Doggen’s other claims.
The 2 repeated letters in ‘Drood’ would have caught a lot of people out.
Is this the “exercise in torture”? @Thegp
https://merchandiser.headheritage.co.uk/products/avila-in-albicella
A sleep aid could be good for me right now
It wasn’t that one actually it was the Corpse of Queen Elizabeth I heard
He has a series of sleep aid albums
Thanks. May give it a go for the hell of it
Liked Copey ever since I said hello to him while in a queue for the Midland Bank cashpoint at Liverpool University in 1981, and he was very gracious to me and my girlfriend. Loved the Teardrops stuff but since then very hit and miss. I met a couple of his ex bandmates at student parties around Sefton Park and they said he was a complete knobhead. One of his more recent collaborators (see the Ron Boots interview on Youtube) has said the same, accusing him of stealing all the work he did without any credit. Cope can still be occasionally brilliant but I’ll be giving this a test before splashing out on the whole album.
We must have been at the university at the same time. Teardrops show I saw was November 1980 I think in Mountford Hall. Then at the Empire the following year after he (briefly) became a pop star, audience full of screaming girls. Never met him, but did bump into Ian McCulloch a few times around the city.
Hardly surprising: sunglasses in Liverpool always a suspect style decision. I expect he was forever bumping into people. Or tripping over the tails of his long leather mac.
Was fortunate to go from Penny Lane (Rathbone Hall) to Lark Lane before it became ‘Lark Lane’. Thanks to a flatmate with John Hamm style charismaa, we had parties where everyone on the Liverpool scene seemed to be dropping by for refershments. Mick Finkler [Teardrops] recommended me a good driving instructor, there was someone from the Kindergarten Paint Set who is now a Dame of the British Empire and I think we even had a visit from Courtney Love when she and her other trust-fund Yank pal were squatting in Copey’s Sefton Park flat. Wish I’d taken more slide film photos with my East German Praktica SLR.
Cool. A pub in Lark Lane is where I saw Mac a few times, with his dad I think. I am hazy on this, but I think a school friend of mine spent some time in that Cope residence. He certainly knew Julian’s first wife (or partner).
He was a musician of sorts. I recently re-connected with him on Facebook and it seems he has become a right wing conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer so our reunion didn’t last long enough to ask him about this stuff.
I’m enjoying the Cope’s Notes series – visits to bits of the back catalogue with interesting booklet and disc of relevant unreleased stuff.
A few tracks online now. This one was the one that remained me of Fried for some reason
Love this one as well
And finally this one which is totally Fried-esque to my ears…
The album is fabulous, all of it. I don’t agree with those who see ‘Me and the Jews’ as improvised. On the contrary: I think it’s very bold, a vision of conflict without raising its voice, but hard and deep as a dagger. I feel sorry for all the drummers he’s had throughout his career, but the best of them all is himself. I love the way he handles rhythm and percussion on his latest albums. Well, I love him, plain and simple. I think he’s a Da Vinci of the North. Greetings from the Basque Country.