Peggy Suicide

I enjoyed this quite a bit (I knew some of Cope’s stuff, but hadn’t heard Peggy Suicide before). I like the art-rock-meets-neo-psychedelia vibe, the sprawling arrangements, and some of the lyrics are ace, too. It’s a (very) good album, but honestly, I don’t see why it should be on this particular list…

Nicht wert

eh rock, né. tem umas mais rock que as outras. tem até um flerte com o noise ali, umas guitarrada mais espacial, mas só isso.
era pra ser ok, com umas músicas bacaninhas, mas eh longo demais. daí fica só chato na maior parte do tempo

This is a long-winded, decent psych rock album, from the The Teardrop Explodes guy. There is some good variety, and neat ideas, but I honestly didn't really get much from this. A couple of good songs here and there, but this was just way less interesting that I was expecting. And I don't even really know why. I just don't gel with this thing. Maybe I think it lacks it's own identity? I dunno.

Some of this was pretty good. But it was kind of all over the place and entirely too long.

Peggy Suicide sounds like someone has put a bunch of my favourite bands of the 80s and 90s into a blender. It’s strange how different the groups that I’m reminded of are - The Smiths, The Fall, Happy Mondays - linked only by the fact they’re all from the North. While sonically Julian Cope travels vast differences, there’s a sense of fun and a gentle nature throughout which I find attractive, as he leads you from track to track. It’s a very explorative “anything goes” writing style that absolutely commands the extended runtime, with him wringing the most out of every idea.

Peggy Suicide by Julian Cope is an album that has completely passed me by, as has Julian Cope himself. I know very little about him or his music, so I’m going into this one completely blind. Let’s give him a listen.

Listening to anything that runs for over an hour is a big ask. For me, no album needs to be this long, and it’s almost impossible to maintain the quality and hold my attention across that sort of running time.

There are definitely parts of Peggy Suicide that I enjoyed, but there are also plenty that didn’t do much for me. It’s OK overall, but the sheer length works against it. There are some interesting moments and good songs buried in here, but it’s far too inconsistent to justify the length and another listen.

Favourite track: East easy rider
Least favourite track: So much of the album was dull and unnecessary
Album artwork: Love the album cover. It’s bold, strange and immediately grabs your attention.

2/5. An album of experiments in Psych and alternative rock that saw Julian Cope changing up his sound and adjusting to the 90’s (though it did come out before the grunge explosion of late 1991.) and like many albums that see an artist expanding their sound and experimenting, it’s a mixed bag. There’s some moments I enjoy like the strange but effective instrumental build near the end of “Hung up and Hanging Out to Dry” but most of it did basically nothing for me. He’s obviously pulling from a ton of different influences here but never really develops any single idea or style fully into something distinct. and at an hour and sixteen minutes it definitely runs too long for its own good.

The first song was really bad, but the rest of this album is kind of groovy in an Nick Cave way. Still, 78 minutes is too long for this kind of thing. I could've listened to Dopesmoker 1.24 times instead.

2.5/5.0: Mixed

this really couldve used an editor to cut it down because alot of it is actually pretty good.

Why? What the fuck are we even doing here?

Peggy Suicide was a fairly decent listen. It took a search of Cope's Wikipedia page to learn that he was in The Teardrop Explodes and i will definitely say that this album is far more interesting than that Teardrop Explodes album i listened to earlier. That being said, it does still feel like pretty generic 90s country rock for most of the album with some stranger ideas in some of the later songs but not very much. I will still say that the album is pretty solid. The music on offer was pleasant and the weirder aspects didn't drag it down too much. The vocals were also pretty good here too and were probably the best aspect of this album. This album isn't super great but for what it does, it does well.
Best Song: East Easy Rider
Worst Song: Hung Up And Hanging Out To Dry

an extra star because, you know, boobs

Alrighty! Never heard of Julian Cope, I always enjoy listening to something new. Lets keep running notes.

Pristeen - "I went down on Pristeen, now how much does it take, to go down on someone, someone that you hate." Well at least the final minute of the song he figures out how to make his flat tire voice be louder and more annoying. Not a solid start.
Double Vegetation - Not gonna lie, I'm diggint the bad 80s movie bar band sound. The cheese ball arrangement and production is fun, it almost makes up for the god aweful lyrics and vocal delivery. And no, nothing will convince me this is incredible metephorical poetry.
East Easy Rider - Who decided the production twist would be to push his vocals even further forward into the mix? The bad 80s movie bar band fun has worn off.
Promised Land - Well I wish this song was 3 minutes and 39 seconds shorter.
Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line - "Well the blues had a baby and the bastard couldn't sing
So the priest holds the candle and the parents kiss the ring
Someone shouted "Let's keep the afterbirth and throw the kid away" LOL good news is the arrangement isnt interesting at all so you get to really lean into the vocal phenomenon that is Julian Cope and stew over these types of lyrics.
Safesurfer - This actually has some of the best bits of the album in it. Some fun synth, a couple of well placed piano chords and an actually catchy melody part. Trouble is this needed someone to put those things together and make this a 3 minute focused song not the meandering 8 plus minutes of hoping it would end.
If You Loved Me At All - Whatever the fuck that sound is he is making right off the bat I hope to never hear again. Fucking balls, Im not even half way through this album...
Ok, no more running notes, this doesnt need a dissertation. Suffice it to say I did not enjoy this anymore as it went on.

Things like this baffle me. How does this end up on a list of albums you must hear before you die? Who is honestly listening to this on a daily basis because its become such a core part of their musical identity? If I was at a friends house (a good friend, the kind you can be honest with and not just be polite) and this was playing I would probably say something to the effect of "dude what the fuck is this?" and then laugh thinking they were playing it just to get a reaction out of me.

Far from the worst thing I have heard on this journey and yet just as far from anything I would actually want to listen to again.
2 stars.

Zvuči tačno kako bih očekivala da zvuči album jednog muzičara, muzikologa, historičara, i kosmičkog šamana sve u jednom čovjeku. Nesumnjivo muzikalan i na neke načine impresivan, a na druge lud i nelogičan. Previše za svariti u jednom slušanju jer ovo sve čujem prvi put iako sam upoznata s nekim drugim njegovim stvarima i imam baš dobro mišljenje. Ovdje su mi neke pjesme odmah za lajk, neke nemaju nikakvog smisla, a definitivno ne guši kao brojni drugi dupli albumi. Zasad dobra trica, a svakako će se opet slušati.

This was a tough listen.

This feels like a mix of Nick Cave’s gothic post-punk, the Velvet Underground’s psychedelic rock, and David Bowie’s glam rock. It’s a bit long and there’s a lot going on, but I dig it.

Some nice wee bits in here, especially at the start rather. It's just too long darling with too many mid ones in the final half

Good album. Never heard of Julian Cope, but this was a pretty nice surprise.

Yes, the album is way too long, but it is also very varied so it manages to keep some interest.

Some songs I enjoyed: "Pristine" (I love the Velvet's vibe, probably my favourite), "Promised Land", "Safesurfer" (very good 8 min track), Leperski (nice bass), or "Las Vegas Basement". Interestingly, the first and the last song are probably my favourites.

This is between 3 and 4 stars for me. Leaning towards 3 because of the length, and towards 4 because of the variety and originality (also, 3 or 4 tracks are very good).

Overall, I think I'm leaning towards 4 stars.

For a record this long & so-called ambitious, there's an unwonted naïveté & a naturalness that renders the whole experience not only worthwhile but an organic enterprise. & I go for that sort of thing. 'Each day we get closer to the big bad fire / I looked down at the sickness in you.' Eclecticism is not the same thing as random variety, but Peggy Suicide has a sense of both cohesive diversity as well as scattershot energy: Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, oh I don't know, how about Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, & Alex Chilton, all these styles & more are featured, but I also get the feeling for a personality that I guess we can only attribute to Julian Cope himself. Whoever he is, I don't care much for the looks of him, but this album in a vacuum, yeah, real deal.