Songs About Fucking | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 10, 1987 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 31:45 | |||
Label | Touch and Go | |||
Producer | Big Black | |||
Big Black chronology | ||||
|
Songs About Fucking is the second and final full-length studio album by the punk rock band Big Black, released in 1987 by Touch and Go Records, and reissued in 2018. The album includes a rendition of Kraftwerk's "The Model" in a remixed version from that which appeared on Big Black's then-recent single. The compact disc of Songs About Fucking added the other side of that single, a cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore".
Steve Albini has said that Songs About Fucking is the Big Black album that he is most satisfied with. In a 1992 interview with Maximumrocknroll magazine, Albini said:
The best was side one of Songs About Fucking. I was real pleased with the way we did that. We just hopped into the studio, banged all the songs out and hopped out. Didn't take long, didn't cost much, just real smooth. Side two we recorded at a more leisurely pace and I think that hurt us. And that Cheap Trick song got on the tape and the CD by accident, and we just left it on.
The band had already decided to split up before the album was recorded, prompted by guitarist Santiago Durango's decision to enroll in law school, and the band's desire to quit at what they felt was a creative peak. [1]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A− [4] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
The Great Rock Discography | 8/10 [6] |
Tom Hull | A− [7] |
MusicHound | [8] |
NME | 9/10 [9] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [10] |
Select | [11] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 9/10 [12] |
Songs About Fucking has been called "certainly the most honest album title of the rock 'n' roll era". [13] Lyrical themes on the album include South American killing techniques ("Colombian Necktie"), bread that gets you high ("Ergot"), and how "slowly, without trying, everyone becomes what he despises most". [13] While the album's title (commonly blanked out when displayed in shops on its release)[ citation needed ] and the sleeve were controversial, according to one reviewer, "as brutal as that cover is, the music is even more so", [14] and it was considered "as dark and frightening as the band name suggests" by another, Treble's Hubert Vigilla, who goes on to say "Songs About Fucking is loud, it's abrasive, it's unattractive in the extreme ... So really, it's everything that made Big Black so great in the first place". [15] Dave Henderson of Underground magazine gave the album a 2.5/3 rating, calling it "a napalm attack that sticks to your skin like burning party-jell, spiced with hundreds and thousands, a prickly sensation that's as all-consuming as it is repellent". [16] Reviewing for The Village Voice in April 1988, Robert Christgau found Albini's innovative guitar sounds undeniable: "That killdozer sound culminates if not finishes off whole generations of punk and metal. In this farewell version it gains just enough clarity and momentum to make its inhumanity ineluctable, and the absence of lyrics that betray Albini's roots in yellow journalism reinforces an illusion of depth". [17] Trouser Press later called it the band's "finest work" and "their most raging, abrasive, pulverizing record". [18]
When asked by The Guardian to name his top 20 albums, John Peel included Songs about Fucking as his fifteenth favourite album. [19] Robert Plant claimed that the album had made him "an Albini fan," [20] and Albini went on to be the recording engineer for the Page and Plant album Walking into Clarksdale (1998).
Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank |
---|---|---|---|
Pitchfork | US | "The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s" | 54 [21] |
"The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s" | 135 [22] | ||
Beats Per Minute | US | "The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s" | 47 [23] |
Terrorizer | UK | "Terrorizer Albums Of The Eighties" | - [24] |
The Guardian | UK | "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" | - [25] |
NME | UK | "The 50 Albums That Built Punk" | 33 [26] |
Rockdelux | Spain | "The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s" | 39 [27] |
"The 200 Best Albums of All Time" | 99[ citation needed ] | ||
"300 best albums from 1984-2014" | 136[ citation needed ] | ||
All tracks are written by Big Black, except where noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Power of Independent Trucking" | 1:27 | |
2. | "The Model" | Karl Bartos, Ralf Hütter, Emil Schult | 2:34 |
3. | "Bad Penny" | 2:33 | |
4. | "L Dopa" | 1:40 | |
5. | "Precious Thing" | 2:20 | |
6. | "Colombian Necktie" | 2:14 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
7. | "Kitty Empire" | 4:01 |
8. | "Ergot" | 2:27 |
9. | "Kasimir S. Pulaski Day" | 2:28 |
10. | "Fish Fry" | 2:06 |
11. | "Pavement Saw" | 2:12 |
12. | "Tiny, King of the Jews" | 2:31 |
13. | "Bombastic Intro" | 0:35 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
14. | "He's a Whore" | Rick Nielsen | 2:37 |
Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD. It was produced by Steve Albini. Surfer Rosa contains many of the elements of Pixies' earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound.
Zen Arcade is the second studio album by American punk rock band Hüsker Dü, released in July 1984 on SST Records. Originally released as a double album on two vinyl LPs, Zen Arcade tells the story of a young boy who runs away from an unfulfilling home life, only to find the world outside is even worse. Zen Arcade and subsequent Hüsker Dü albums were instrumental in the creation of the alternative rock genre, and it is considered by some to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun. In 1985, Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who played on Big Black's two full-length studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987).
In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 21, 1993, by DGC Records. After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, Nevermind (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albini to record In Utero, seeking a more complex, abrasive sound that was reminiscent of their work prior to Nevermind. Although frontman and primary songwriter Kurt Cobain claimed that the album was "very impersonal", many of its songs contain heavy allusions to his personal life and struggles, expressing feelings of angst that were common on the band's previous album.
Noise rock is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extreme levels of distortion through the use of electric guitars and, less frequently, electronic instrumentation, either to provide percussive sounds or to contribute to the overall arrangement.
"Dumb" is a song by the American rock band, Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the sixth song on the band's third and final studio album, In Utero, released in 1993.
Pink Flag is the debut studio album by English rock band Wire. It was released in November 1977 by Harvest Records. The album gained Wire a cult following within independent and post-punk music upon its initial release, later growing to be highly influential on many other musicians.
Sister is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in June 1987 by SST Records. The album furthered the band's move away from the no wave genre towards more traditional song structures, while maintaining an aggressively experimental approach.
The Hammer Party is a 1986 release of Big Black's early EPs made between 1982 and 1984. Originally released by Homestead Records, and later rereleased by Touch and Go, the LP came out at the same time as Big Black's Atomizer album, and featured the six songs from Lungs one side and the six songs from Bulldozer. The CD version was expanded to include Big Black's third record, Racer-X.
Atomizer is the debut full-length album by American punk rock group Big Black released in 1986.
Let It Be is the third studio album by American rock band The Replacements. It was released on October 2, 1984, by Twin/Tone Records. A post-punk album with coming-of-age themes, Let It Be was recorded by the band after they had grown tired of playing loud and fast exclusively as on their 1983 Hootenanny album; the group decided to write songs that were, according to vocalist Paul Westerberg, "a little more sincere."
Double Nickels on the Dime is the third album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the California independent record label SST Records in 1984. A double album containing 45 songs, Double Nickels on the Dime combines elements of punk rock, funk, country, spoken word and jazz, and references a variety of themes, from the Vietnam War and racism in America, to working-class experience and linguistics.
Cheap Trick is the debut studio album by the American rock band Cheap Trick, released in 1977. It was released under Epic Records and produced by Jack Douglas, a frequent collaborator of the band. The album did not reach the Billboard 200 chart but did "bubble under" at number 207 for one week in April 1977.
Pigpile is a live album by the American musical group Big Black. It is a recording from July 24, 1987 during the post-hardcore band's final European tour, released in 1992 originally as a VHS tape. It was later issued as an audio-only LP/cassette/CD. The recordings were made at the Hammersmith Clarendon ballroom, London. A 5" transparent heavy-duty vinyl record was included away free with all copies of the VHS tape and some copies of the soundtrack album, featuring a cover version of the Mary Jane Girls song "In My House". Lower-quality recordings from the Hammersmith concert had previously appeared in a different configuration on the bootleg LP Tonight We Walked With Giants.
Steve Albini is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer, and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, Flour, and is part of Shellac. He is the founder, owner, and the principal engineer at Electrical Audio, a recording studio complex in Chicago. In 2018, Albini estimated that he had worked on several thousand albums over his career. He has worked with acts such as Nirvana, Pixies, the Breeders, PJ Harvey, Gogol Bordello, and former Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
The Undertones is the 1979 debut album by the Undertones. The album was recorded at Eden Studios in Acton, West London in January 1979 and was released in May that year. The original release included just one single release: "Jimmy Jimmy" and an album version of "Here Comes the Summer", which was never released as a single.
Ultravox! is the debut studio album by British new wave band Ultravox. It was recorded at Island Studios in Hammersmith, London in the autumn of 1976 and produced by Ultravox! and Steve Lillywhite with studio assistance from Brian Eno. It was released on 25 February 1977 by Island.
Album – Generic Flipper is the debut studio album by the noise rock band Flipper. It was released in June 1982 by Subterranean Records. It is also referred to as Album, Album: Generic, Generic Flipper and just Generic. It was issued on CD for the first time by American Recordings in 1992 and later deleted. In 2008, the rights reverted to Flipper, and the album was reissued on December 9, 2008, by Water Records. Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, who joined Flipper in 2006, contributed liner notes to the new reissue.
David Michael Riley was an American musician who was the bassist in the punk rock band Big Black from 1985 until the band's dissolution in 1987. Riley moved to Chicago in 1982 from Detroit, where he had worked as a recording engineer. He played on Big Black's two studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987), as well as their Headache EP (1987), several singles, and two live albums. After Big Black, Riley recorded tracks with several other artists before being incapacitated by a stroke in 1993, losing the ability to walk. He became a blogger, and published a book in 2006 titled Blurry and Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism. He died in late 2019 from squamous cell carcinoma.
Racer-X is the third EP by American post-hardcore band Big Black. It was released by Homestead Records in 1985 and reissued by Touch and Go Records in 1992.
As Big Black was splitting up, they released their finest work: a second actual LP, Songs About Fucking. As if to go out kicking, screaming, howling and biting, it's their most raging, abrasive, pulverizing record, with only an excellent and ironic guitar take of Kraftwerk's "The Model" providing any relief. Albini's screeched vocals are so low in the mix they're just another instrument. Obsessing as usual on the excessive and bizarre side of human life, his stories remain mini horror movies set to the punishing, scathing guitar attack. Lyrically and aurally like Atomizer, it's liable to alter your perceptions.