Relatives in Descent

Post punk sung by someone who sounds both uninterested in singing post punk, and very interested in sounding exactly like Nick Cave.

Favourite songs: Windsor Hum, Male Plague, Corpses in Regalia, A Private Understanding, The Chuckler, Here is the Thing

Least favourite songs: Night-Blooming Cereus

3/5

I've listened to Protomartyr before, most notably the album after this, and I was very unimpressed, however Relatives in Descent was banging.

The songs generally have two different modes: a talk-singing type of post-punk/art punk usually with a social message, and a noise rock and more melodic mode with a hook that usually takes place during the chorus. I think these two styles play off each other well, the former builds anticipation and gets the point of the song across and the latter is the wonderful release. There's also hints of goth here and there and it gives it a delightfully dark vibe across most of the album.

I do feel the album has a serious lull in the second half of the album, I think after Don't Go To Anacita, but it doesn't diminish the quality too much

I think this album was the big inspiration for a lot of the art punk bands around today, including the Windmill Scene (which I'm a big fan of), obviously they weren't the only band doing similar music as there were others (e.g. Iceage, Women/Vietcong/whatever they're called now) but this was definitely the most notable and probably the most influential. I think the album is the reason why that widely mocked post-punk talk-singing became a big thing with more modern acts, I don't have an issue with it personally and it's done tastefully here.

Should it be on the list: Yes probably, you could make a strong case for it. I remember this being a big post-punk indie record when it came out, and arguably starting that new wave of art punk that's popular nowadays.

Top 3 songs: A Private Understanding, My Children, Half Sister

Sounded like Swans quite a lot, just not quite as good.

Like Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Joy Division, and At The Drive-in had a jam session in Manchester in 1980, then sent the results through time to be polished and produced to modern standards.
A great suggestion, by a band I am looking forward to exploring more

Night-Blooming Cereus was a good song. The rest? fine.

Brooding dark post punk, enjoyed this but not sure I fully clicked with it to come back, the vocals though very post punk just a little off putting.

Post-punk lives on.