release date: 1989
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,35]
producer: Ron Fair
label: Copeco / Zippo Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 4. "Robert Mitchum" - 5. "Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed" - 6. "Don't Crash Here" - 9. "Great White Wonder"
5th studio album by Julian Cope marks a big change of style. The album was recorded after Cope's disillusions with what he saw as an over-polished and over-produced My Nation Underground (1988) before that album was even released. He didn't like the end result and initiated work with his musical collaborator Donald Ross Skinner on Skellington, which was recorded in just three days. Island Records refused to release the album, so Cope established his own label Copeco and released the album, later reissued Apr. 1990 on Zippo Records, and he then ran into a legal trial with his record company, Island Records for neglecting his contractual obligations; however, Cope only released another lo-fi album Droolian, this time on the independent label Mofoco, and Island called it a day.
Skellington is anything but polished mainstream and over-produced pop / rock. It's neo-psychedelia above anything. Secondly, it's an alt. rock and singer / songwriter release with the addition of a certain amount of satire with only Cope, Skinner and drummer Rooster Cosby performing on the album. A track like "Out of My Mind on Dope & Speed" perhaps says much about Cope's situation at this point of his career. The satirical element sometimes makes Cope sound like the closest one ever gets to a British version of Zappa.
I think, its immediate strength is a spontaneous lightness of catchy tunes and hooks - it's playful and reflects the exact opposite of self-consciousness, in contrast to My Nation Underground. Above anything, it's quite interesting much like the successor, but still with some distance from being great.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]
