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Originally a contribution to the song pimping thread. Realised that I care far too much about this group to squeeze this into the corner of another thread.
I've been wanting to pimp a Fatima Mansions track, but I'm having real trouble choosing one. The thing about the Mansions was that they could turn their hands to anything, and frequently did. It's therefore impossible to recommend one track that represents their output. So, because I haven't pimped anything like five tracks a week, I'm going to pimp the entire mini-album, Bertie's Brochures. The track listing is as follows:
Behind The Moon
Bertie's Brochures
Shiny Happy People
V.N. (Apology)
Mario Vargas Yoni
Smiling
Long About Now
The Great Valerio
There's everything there. Romantic ballad. Political storytelling. Astoundingly memorable tunes. A spleen-rupturing cover version. A Scott Walker cover. Please download and listen. If there's one group I want to introduce people to, it's Fatima Mansions.
As far as I'm aware, all their records were deleted from catalogue a long time ago. Ridiculous.
After that little lot, get hold of their Viva Dead Ponies (the real name of this record is Bugs Fuckin' Bunny) and Valhalla Avenue albums. Viva Dead Ponies, especially, contains an astonishingly broad selection of genres, mashed up into a strange, almost POP!ish brew.
Fan site. Check out the lyrics. Really. There's a few bits and bobs missing from the discography, but then I never knew this before:
quote:Valhalla Avenue: Their most agitated album. It still had its softer moments, but most of the tracks were so vicious-sounding that Radioactive didn't release it in North America. Only available as an import, and worth it if you're a fan of the band.
, so I suppose it's only to be expected that some of their other records never got through to the US. The track listings are a bit screwy too, mainly because some of the tracks from Against Nature and Valhalla Avenue were spliced into Viva Dead Ponies and Lost In The Former West respectively for the foreign releases.
It's not stictly true, either. It's not the music that sounds vicious (well, not always). It's Coughlan's lyrics, the utter disgust he has for the way people let themselves be shat on spewing forth from a voice that, in another life, could have been that of Sinatra-style crooner. When he's not screaming at everyone to get off their lazy arses, he's singing some of the most gorgeous, weary ballads ever put to wax.
Some of the Mansions effect will have been lost now, through the fact that anyone downloading the tracks will miss out on the accompanying inlay sheets, wherein Coughlan would shout off about everything and everyone.
Check out the press cuttings from the same site, then wonder how the hell the group was allowed to die without even a whimper.
Cathal Coughlan's solo career has been hugely disappointing so far. Black River Falls was good, but missing that little magic something.
The way to keep people in line is to scare the shit out of them.
[ 02-03-2002: Message edited by: E. Randy Dupre ] |
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