Mclusky’s Andrew Falkous picks the best sub-45-minute punk albums of all time
“I’ll be back” said the Terminator once, before embarking on a dervish of violence. Mclusky made no such promise when they broke up in their pomp two decades ago, but the lacerating evisceration of Mclusky’s return still comfortably lays waste to 20 years of distance between their third and fourth albums.
READ MORE: The five guitar albums that could save the world, as chosen by Propagandhi
Since the Cardiff-borne band called it a day back in 2005, their legend as one of THE great lost bands of the first wave of post-hardcore has only grown, even as frontman and guitarist Andrew Falkous took his gleeful menace and knack for obliterating dickheads with coal-black humour into other projects.
For a decade now, Falco has also performed various benefit and festival gigs as ‘Mclusky’ or Mclusky* in the UK – with the added punctuation a reference to the fact that original bassist John Chapple was not involved, as he’d emigrated to Australia. Beyond that, it seemed that Falco was minded to leave things be. That was, until 2020 when he officially announced that himself, drummer Jack Egglestone (a member since 2003) and bassist Damien Sayell would be making a new album as Mclusky – no punctuation required.
Image: Damien Sayell
Short Sharp Shock
Now, five years later we finally have the fruits of that promise: the typically pithily titled The World Is Still Here And So Are We. It’s very fitting that a band who made their name with ferocious, intelligent skewerings of the ridiculousness of early 2000s society on their Steve Albini-produced masterpiece Mclusky Do Dallas to return at the exact moment that it feels like the world is once again circling the drain.
The World Is Still Here… injects an acerbic dose of grim laughs and cathartic squalls of distorted electric guitar into your veins and doesn’t hang around doing so. The album’s 13 tracks are blitzed through in just 33 minutes – a record even for a band that has never once made an album longer than 45 minutes.
“In terms of the kind of basic rock music that we play, there was an ideal length that comes between 28 and 36 minutes,” Falco explains of the brevity of their songs. “That gives you enough time to kind of exist in this very real, visceral thing, but it also leaves you wanting more. There’s this finality to it but your first instinct should be to play it again immediately.”
Image: Keira Anee
In this era of bloated albums calibrated to maximise streaming success, then, who better to choose the antidote to that – the best punk albums that get in, get out, and don’t hang around for you to ask questions. To hear Falco tell it, pretty much anyone but him.
“I find it really tough to choose albums because I’ve spent so long in my own musical mania,” Falkous admits. “I’m not good with lists generally. I feel as if it’s all about making a statement of personality, rather than of intent, then getting the fuck out of there before everybody realises you’ve done the same three things over and over again.”
Politely, we disagree that he’s not good with lists, and we’re here now so we’re going to make him do it anyway…
The Jesus Lizard – Goat (30 mins, 24 seconds)
“Goat is the ultimate example of four ridiculous men in a room for a bit. I love Mouth Breather, but that album is all about Nub. That song has the confidence to do one of the best bits of music in the history of rock music, the first slide guitar bit with the bass pounding away… it even has the fucking cheek to do that once. In terms of songwriting, that’s just rude. It’s like showing you the greatest shoes you’ve ever seen on a first date, then you never see them again. It’s beyond cheeky, it’s war. The war is going on around you, humanity is happening, I think. When I really like an album, it washes over me in one go, so I don’t really pay attention to song titles. That album is so complete in around 30 minutes.”
Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (34 minutes, 24 seconds)
“I only really got into Devo only five years ago. It’s one of those bands where I didn’t get into it because people tell you how much you should like them, and there’s nothing more tedious than people telling you that you should like something. I’ll decide for myself, thank you very much! If you’re lucky enough to get into Devo later in life, you can draw a line through every band you’ve ever liked all the way back to them. That’s true of Jesus Lizard, XTC and Gang of Four. You can hear Gang of Four in Big Black and Shellac, the clank and the slide of the guitars.”
“The best way to describe Devo is like a club for very odd people, but they’re not ashamed of being odd. By odd, I don’t mean peculiar. You don’t need to get a criminal record check to work with young children, just a bit odd. This gang of people making this crazy pop music, but it’s music you can run off singing into the night, and all the instruments are doing mad things but it’s still pop music.”
Gang of Four – Entertainment (39 minutes, 53 seconds)
“That’s singularly the greatest album ever made by people. Mostly because it is incredibly singular. It doesn’t sound like anything else. If you broke it down, it would sound like the rhythm section are playing a completely different set of songs from what the guitarist is playing or the singer is singing, but… there’s this moment where everything seems to happen, and everything goes in the same direction. Everything hitting in the same moment. The rhythm, the drums, and the guitar playing is like nothing that ever came before.”
“I don’t know anybody’s name. I’m not a historian of rock music, but I know who Andy Gill was. The guitar playing on that album is so nasty, but it’s got so much soul as well. It’s quite an incredible achievement, so many great songs on that album, and it’s way, way ahead of its time. This is a record that shows you can approach an instrument as an extension of personality.”
USA Nails – Life Cinema (12 minutes)
“They’re definitely one of the best British bands. They’ve been playing with us for years, and supported Future of the Left [Falco’s post-Mclusky band] at Heaven nightclub in 2012… They’ve done a few records, and every one of them is great, but my favourite is Life Cinema.”
“If we ever have the option, and sales, they’re a band we always look to take on tour with us. USA Nails are incredibly talented guys, a little bit contrary – they’d hate to be seen as ambitious in any way – but they’re great.”
Editor’s note: As we end our call Falco also says that he wants to shout out Leeds rockers and fellow touring mates, Thank – whose 2024 album I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed comfortably fits under the 45-minute limit.
Mission of Burma – Vs (41 mins, 30 seconds)
“In 2001, we were completing the mixing of Mclusky Do Dallas. Bob Weston, bassist of Shellac [along with Steve Albini], came in and played us some of what he’d just recorded with Mission of Burma.
“You can tell that it’s made by a band in a silo. Mclusky was like that in the beginning. DIY scenes can be supportive in your day-to-day life, but in my experience, I’m yet to see a situation where it happens in music. The best music is made in a vacuum, happening out of nowhere.
“As I’m a bit of a pop song guy, myself, That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate is the perfect pop song with a rawness to it that, so that when it finishes, you go, ‘What the fuck was that’? On the whole, ‘vs’ is a bit more off-beat, post-punk I suppose. I don’t like busy music, and this is a bit busy at times, but it’s more primal.”
The post Mclusky’s Andrew Falkous picks the best sub-45-minute punk albums of all time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
