release date: Nov. 1984
format: cd (1990 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Steve Lovell
label: Mercury Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Reynard the Fox" - 2. "Bill Drummond Said" (4 / 5) - 3. "Laughing Boy" - 5. "Sunspots" (4 / 5) - 6. "The Bloody Assizes" - 9. "Holy Love" (4 / 5)
2nd solo album by Julian Cope released only eight months succeeding the release of his debut album is also his final album on Mercury.
The style here has already changed somewhat. In a way, it has become more original in the way that it's a more coherent whole, though it's still neo-psychedelia. Perhaps the post-punk and new wave styles have subsided on account of a stronger pop / rock and singer / songwriter profile. There's clearly a link to the first [musical] Brittish invasion exemplified by The Beatles and The Kinks, and therefore also to modern contemporaries like XTC, Robyn Hitchcock, and Echo and The Bunnymen.
The album was met by poor reviews and likewise sales. Apparently, Cope's original neo-psychedelia blend was out of tune with time and the album only shone a decade later, but the poor sales led to Mercury dropping Cope after this album.
In retrospect, the album is a stronger release than his more introvert debut, and it bonds nicely with the music of The Teardrop Explodes.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
