Good call, i didn’t realise that was today.
Fascinating to think this was released at the height of britpop, the same day as definitely maybe, no less. To say they are polar opposites would be an understatement but yeah, unashamedly uncompromising and confrontational. Certainly their magnum opus but i do love the post-richey album journal for plague lovers as a follow up to the themes in this. Was it stuart maconie who described this album as a granite obelisk? I think that’s apt. Certainly, the subject matter is still relevant even if the cultural references have long dated - the death penalty for those who deserve it, opioids for the masses, political correctness, corruption of childhood innocence… it just goes on and on and a lot of it you most certainly will not agree with but then they’ve never been a band that pretends to have answers.
Oh and look at the promotional poster for the album’s impending release. The artwork is alarming for sure but they don’t focus on that, they choose to focus on what makes the album what it is and that’s the lyrics, though the music from james and sean deserves equal praise.
