Too Pure / Beggars
2006
Mcluskyism
About This Album
Like most things on their side of the Atlantic, Americans have a choice when it comes to Mclusky. There is a limited, triple-disc box set that features the single disc here (all A-sides), a platter of B-sides (that guitarist/vocalist Andy Falkous has heaps of trouble with, according to the liner notes), and another of "C"-sides (live cuts, demos, rarities, and so on that he likes almost as much as disc one). Mclusky was one of the U.K.'s woolliest, funniest, grittily in-your-face rock & roll bands, though they were drastically underappreciated in their native Wales as well as abroad. They issued three full-lengths and a slew of singles during their lifetime. So much indie rock is predicated on a few different "acceptable" tropes; these yobs didn't play to any of them. That may sound like hyperbole for the benefit of kindness for the deceased, but it's not. Falkous and his mates knew how to tear down a joint when they were on, and they certainly understood how to make singles. They were totally obnoxious -- often evil little jerks on record -- but the music not only holds up, it put to shame so much of what was around them at the time that it brings a snide tear to your eye to think of them being gone.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,6,7,8 and 11)

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