
October, 1989
Two words always spring to mind when listening to Pat Fish and the Butchettes - Lloyd Cole. They cause a real commotion on tracks like New Invention , with its Rattlesnakes guitar sound. Lyrically, this song is a wonderful critique of England - Fish despairs at "Sex On The Phone" and "The Hit Man And Her" (but do you blame him?) This is Thatcher's real Britain: all mod cons, alcoholism - a Tory twilight zone.
Line Of Death initially about life in West Virginia, ingeniously electrifies Deliverance's dueling banjos and turns into a kind of Arab chant with echoing vocals.
This album sounds like it took years of meticulous composing and recording, rather like Cole's work, yet the JB's last album, Fishcotheque , was released only a year ago!
A bit of jit git on The Word I Was Looking For mixes with sax and Housemartins small-pop to produce an up-tempo criticism of society's shallowness: "If ideas were legal tender, lots of people would be broke."
Fish has carved himself a real singer/songwriter niche for the nineties. Outstanding tracks including Bicycle Kid - a Hitchcock-esque (Robyn Hitchcock, not Alfred) look at growing up and new parental treatment. Fish almost despairing at the family. Musically simple. Lyrically superb. Exciting overall. Lloyd Cole And The Commotions are dead.
Long Live The Jazz Butcher.
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Dominic Mohan....
- OFFSIDE TRAP DRUMMER - NN4
24Apr2006 1:34 PM (17 years 42 days ago)...now Virgin Radio DJ and gossip writer for The Sun ???
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Wa-hey!
Fish Boy - NN1
9May2003 7:24 AM (20 years 28 days ago)Never saw this review until today. Lloyd Cole dead? Long live me? Marvellous stuff, COME ON...