Search - Mclusky :: My Pain & Sadness Is More Sad & Painful Than Yours

The Birth of McLusky

George a Pletz | Central PA, USA | 02/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Not as staggeringly brilliant as "Do Dallas", the debut album gives the listener the groundwork for the McLusky sound. The songs use lean, muscular barbwired guitar trio noise to support screamingly surreal lyrics equal bits bile and humor, delivered with a little concern for politeness. To the band's credit, this brashness allows for startingly bits of mutilated subtlety and acidic pop. I can't say that it took me over upon first listen -- Do Dallas was such an angular assualt -- but, given a few spins it reveals itself as a great release. The inclusion of more mid-tempo sections and non-intrusive bits of female backing vocals (along the lines of Brix Smith or Kim Deal), threw me off at first. With every subsequent listen, different songs have leapt out at me. This week, it is "You are My Sun" and "Medium is The Message". At the beginning, it was "Concentrate" and "World Cup Drumming". Next week who knows?Somewhere between Steve Albini, Black Francis, and Mark E Smith, McLusky squats in a burnt out tenement where few bands live anymore.If you think that beaten and bashed up noise rock reached its peak in the early to mid nineties, this might do the trick. Three and half stars."

The first from the best

Wheelchair Assassin | The Great Concavity | 11/22/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Want the recipe for the best rock band on Earth right now? Take some of the exaggerated dangerousness of British invasion bands like the Rolling Stones and the Who, add the schizophrenic genre-mixing of the Pixies, throw in the punkish aggression of the Ramones and the Clash, and top it all off with an outrageous cockney accent, and you'll have a fair approximation of Mclusky's sound. Their debut album, my pain and sadness is more sad and painful than yours, isn't their best work, as it's just a bit *too* reminiscent of the Pixies (some of the lead guitar lines on this album will have you wondering why Joey Santiago isn't credited in the liner notes), and there are a few less-than-stellar tracks sprinkled throughout. Still, the worst Mclusky album is better than at least nine tenths of what's out there right now.



Like Mclusky's subsequent albums, my pain and sadness is a musical roller coaster ride, highlighted by crazed rhythms, insanely catchy hooks, and surprisingly adroit musicianship. At some points, the guys will just beat you over the head with an incendiary burst of noise, such as the opener Joy and Rise is Nice. At other times, such as on When They Come Tell Them No and You Are My Sun, they'll betray their Pixies influence by injecting a sweet melody into the carnage, with an occasional "woo woo woo" that sounds like something out of the sixties. Whiteliberalonwhiteliberalaction starts out with a sound similarly reminiscent of Black Francis and co. before morphing into a weirdness that is pure Mclusky. With a head-snapping time signature, guitars scratching at the surface, and vocalist Andrew Falkous sounding like a Welsh version of David Yow, the Jesus Lizard-esque She Come In Pieces proves further that these guys know whom to emulate.



Given how good this album is, it's a shame that few people have even heard of it, not to mention the fact that it's highly difficult to find at a domestic price. Fortunately, the success of Mclusky's last two albums, the utter classics mclusky do dallas and the difference between me and you is that i'm not on fire, have given them plenty of notoriety in underground circles of late. If you haven't heard this band by now, you have no excuse. So track down one of their albums, and be prepared to have almost everything you've ever heard seem weak and dull in comparison."