release date: Feb. 1984
format: vinyl (M RED 57) / cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,35]
producer: John A. Rivers [recording engineer]
label: Cherry Red Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Red Indians" - 2. "The World Is as Soft as Lace" (4 / 5) (excerpt from 'Big Blue') - 3. "The Optimist and the Poet" (4 / 5) - 4. "Mexican Bandits" - 5. "The Stagnant Pool" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "A Preacher in New England" (3,5 / 5)
2nd studio album by Felt following two years after Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty (Feb. 1982) feels like an improvement to an interesting debut. Like was the issue with the debut, the credits omits an actual producer. John A. Rivers is credited as recording engineer. As with the band's first four albums, this is also dominated by lead guitarist Maurice Deebank's meandering and reverbing guitar together with vocalist and guitarist Lawrence's jangle pop sound. Felt notoriously make rather short albums, playing time-wise, and half of the tracks here are almost entirely instrumental compositions. They are more complex than the music on the debut, but other than that, the two albums are closely related. The guitar jangle pop element dominate more on this. The cover art was taken from the poster for Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey's experimental art movie "Chelsea Girls".
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Sounds 5 / 5 stars ]
[ collectors' item - from ~ €60,- ]
