The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape

There isn't anything to compare this to. No, there really isn't.In 1987 when this CD was released, I was in Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus, London with my dad. Jordan, Minnesota came on and I was just flabbergasted at this HUGE sound. At that time i was into Metallica, Anthrax, Beastie Boys. This was something else. Lyrics about arson. Unbelievable anger. Drum machines. I often forget how this music altered my course.Just buy it. And burn In Utero.

I can barely express how brilliantly original the noise created on this CD is. The music manages to combine disturbing vocals and metallic guitar sounds with catchy drum beats and rhythms to create a sound of shattering energy which is also strangely harmonious. One of the truly great albums!

great

Steve Albini has a talent for making metal music. Not HEAVY metal; just music that sounds like tungsten steel being torn to pieces by hideously powerful forces.This CD is essentially the first Big Black album Atomizer, plus a few extra tracks tracks from the Headache EP and minus one from the original vinyl (shame; I liked Strange Things).Analysed track by track it's probably only a 3-star CD. But it gets the extra star for Bazooka Joe, Jordan, Fists of Love and Kerosene. The first is a riff masterpiece while the others deal with those staples of modern life: child abuse, domestic violence and arson; and always from the amoral, usually dispassionate point of view of the perpetrator.Possibly no-one has captured the bleakness and frustration of small-town life with its disappointments, frustration and suppressed violence as well as Albini does here.As an early example of aggressive rock music powered by a drum machine, the sound is unique too although it presages the industrial aggression of bands like Ministry. And for the riff-mongers among you, Bazooka Joe is up there with anything Deep Purple and Black Sabbath came up with.

I bought this album after listening to Burn the Priest's (Lamb of God's) version of Kerosene. I have to say that, from the outset, this album reminds me of early Killing Joke (who I first saw live in 1980) with a touch of Joy Division - particularly the drums on a couple of tracks.On the whole it's a good album. It stands the test of time.

:-)

Good item and quick.

Lyrics that spit bile , social confusion and dissolution, a drum machine that was possibly responsible for industrial music, a thumping bass like lightening searing accross an empty dusty highway and guitars that sound as though they could cut through concrete.......welcome to the band that changed the course of punk music!