Mclusky - My Pain And Sadness Is More Sad And Painful Than Yours (2000) - Review

Mclusky - My Pain And Sadness Is More Sad And Painful Than Yours - (2000) - Cover

Rag Tag Spikey Genius (5/5)

Mclusky are one of those once in a lifetime band for the average punter like me - they start out local, no one turns up at the gigs, time goes on and they sign to Too Pure and Steve Albini produces the albums and suddenly you can no longer see the stage.

Before the sheen, before the big production and before the bright lights called - this album, which strangely isn't an album, not in the purist sense. Multiple producers and styles permeate. But heck, given this the songs don't half shine through and it ain't half one of my favourite punk albums of the first half of the noughties.

The lyrics are sublime - every song is full of wit, sarcasm and spat out with the mentalist fury of a Geordie Frank Black at his most Pixiest. Classic lines, lines which will make you smile, lines which will make you wince and lines which will get you off your arse. I could quote a load here, but I won't - there are plenty there for you to choose your own and then have spare to share with the next door neighbour.

But the music, the music that drags the words screaming and kicking across the dance floor is just as good. Echoes of stabbing Big Black meet Pavement and The Pixies and shake hands with strange synths and loops. They also have short, angry, shotgun songs of early Husker Du, the grime and scowl of Mudhoney and the energy of clanging hardcore.

Angry and tender, schizophrenic and narky, original and classic, grungy and dense. This album doesn't meander so much as it wakes up, kicks a song out of bed, goes clubbing, pulls a new song, does the dirty, then throws in a threesome with two other dirty songs before return home to the wife and kiddies.

A rough diamond of an album, hard to classify - No - Nu Metal No-No's or mainstream indieisms - unique, angry and special.

Mclusky - My Pain And Sadness Is More Sad And Painful Than Yours (2000) - Review

Rag Tag Spikey Genius (5/5)

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