release date: Oct. 1988
format: vinyl / digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,02]
producer: Ron Fair
label: Island Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "5 O'Clock World" - 3. "Charlotte Anne" - 5. "China Doll"
4th studio album by Julian Cope continues where Saint Julian (Mar. 1987) ended only introducing a bit more neo-psychedelia to stronger orchestrated arrangements of mainstream pop / rock closely related to David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, and Tom Verlaine.
To me, My Nation Underground is without much originality or interest, and in imho it's simply his least interesting album. Although, his very first solo album with Island Records, Saint Julian and this one are his so far commercially best-selling albums, Cope himself apparently has disowned this as no less than an artistic mistake. It's also clear that the successive albums showed a very different side to his talent, and thankfully so.
[ allmusic.com 2 / 5 stars ]
