Careful now, that's a friend of mine. Watch your mouth babe, you're outta line.
When I first forced my presence up the :zoviet*france: chaps all those years ago, probably my second or third visit to the large house in the West End of Newcastle, they were busy scrutinising the films of the artwork for this album. I remember it was only spot colour separations, and didn't include the photos, which were to be added later, somewhere, somehow.
Not all that interesting, I know, but true.
A lot of this stands the test of time quite nicely. Though overly-festooned with layer upon layer of sampled hooks in places, when the tunes are allowed to speak for themselves they're enjoyable and stand up to repeated listening. I remember being very taken with the slowly building, eventually intense rhythms of the epic opener, Touch, with its belching, baritone throat-singing samples and chirpy synth licks. Into mellow dub territory on Heart, then off into trance-ville on Spirit Level, possibly their stab (though I'm certain they'd deny it) at commercial success (and possibly the best use of the sound of the Tardis outside the Dr Who titles).
I only have two problems with this album. I can't think of an occasion when I'd want to listen to it in its entirity. There's so much variation in pace and mood from track to track that something isn't going to sit right, depending how you feel. And restraint, or lack of. In many places less could have been so much more.
And for the record, I never did like one of the Andys - can't remember which one now, but he was a twat.
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