The Other Side of the Counter

  Thanks to ' Leeroy Halloween ' who suggested this for review.  This was originally written a couple of months after  Tim Smith 's death  in July 2020 .  I didn't do a huge amount of research into the history and context of Cardiacs' work before writing this review. This is not because I don't think that these elements are necessarily unimportant. It's more the case that, having been immersed in the minutiae of the history of The Fall over the previous three years, it was quite refreshing to take a formalist approach to reviewing other artists in these blogs; to just hone in (hopefully) objectively on what the music actually sounds like .  I should confess in advance that when I'd previously dipped my toe into Cardiacs' back catalogue, I always ended up a little bemused and slightly disappointed. The two songs I'd most often seen referenced or promoted were ' Is This The Life ' and 'Tarred And Feathered'. The former, from the alb...

"I'll Never Eat That Pie" Suggested to me via Twitter by  Mark Dyball   This is what I knew in advance: Nancy is Frank's daughter, obviously; famous for ' These Boots Are Made for Walkin' ' and the theme to the Bond film You Only Live Twice . She had also appeared in my  You Must Get Them All  blog   via The Fall's cover of ' The City Sleeps Tonight '. As for Lee, he had also cropped up in my Fall blogs: 'Loop41 ‘Houston' was a cover of one of his songs . In addition, the two of them recorded ' My Elusive Dreams ', which MES referenced in 'The Reckoning'.  Hazlewood was a complex character. According to a 2013 Guardian   article : 'He was funny, charismatic and supportive but he could also be cold, vengeful and mean. Like Serge Gainsbourg, he made both exquisitely subversive pop music and cynical kitsch, and gave the impression that he regarded his career as a private joke with financial benefits. The only niche he...