Sulk

Product Information

RANKINE: Bill liked the good things in life. I just think he wanted it on his terms. But there were aspects of it that didn’t sit well with him. Like having to do the things you have to do. BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies, Alan Rankine and Michael Dempsey". BBC . Retrieved 13 August 2021. Dingwall, John (6 May 2016). "The Associates in talks to stage anniversary concerts". Dailyrecord.co.uk. a b "ASSOCIATES | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com . Retrieved 16 June 2021.

This deluxe reissue features exclusive sleeve notes from Simon Reynolds with interviews from Alan Rankine, Michael Dempsey, Mike Hedges & Martha Ladly plus previously unseen photography by Derek Reid, Tom Sheehan & Eveline Dröge.Party Fears Two" (2000 V2 Promo mix) – This 5:12 mix appeared only on the 2000 Associates promo should have been included.

Growing up in the 1980s, a much derided decade, I've always been an advocate of pop: it's not a dirty word! & the early 1980s, post-Abba/post-Bowie/post-Chic/post-Moroder/post-Roxy, was an era when pop was at its most inventive. From ABC's The Lexicon of Love to Scritti Politti's The Sweetest Girl, from Cabaret Voltaire's Red Mecca to Simple Minds' New Gold Dream, from The Human League's Dare! to Prince's Controversy etc- this was an era of wild abandon alluded to on the recent compilation 'Death Disco'. Associates' Sulk is probably the masterpiece of the era, an album that on one hand was perfect pop, and on the other wildly experimental. This is the album that just edges out other contenders for greatest album of the era- Sorry for Laughing, The Correct Use of Soap, A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, Avalon, Climate of Hunter, New Gold Dream...Also, a more primeval version of Club Country, anintensely boisterous alternative version of And Then I Read a Book, the several very different versions of Its Better This Way, of course, the full single version of 18 Carat Love Affair and the incredible Love Hangover. If there is a cure for this, I don’t want it… He later taught at Stow College in Glasgow, where he helped students set up their own record label, Electric Honey, which later launched the careers of bands such as Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro. It’s a flawed masterpiece. The flaws being Nude Spoons and Bap De La Bap, which we didn’t nail but we gave them our all. We wanted to stretch pop music as far as we could but still have fun doing it. As told to Charles Waring Hawking, Rom. "10 Bewilderingly Underrated Post-Punk Bands You Need to Hear". Flavorwire . Retrieved 3 March 2017.

Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5. The US tour had been set up but then Bill announced that he didn’t want to do it and derailed everything. He said, “Man, this whole touring thing, I just don’t like it… but we could just be a studio band.” I said, “No, Bill, you’re perfectly capable of singing live and people come to see us primarily because of you so we can’t be a studio band.” He just couldn’t Waring, Charles (June 2016). "The Associates – The Affectionate Punch, Fourth Drawer Down, Sulk". Record Collector. No.454 . Retrieved 24 June 2017. RANKINE: I remember when Bill came down to Edinburgh. I had a flat I was sharing with my girlfriend – and Bill had to stay where the rest of the band was staying. He came to me after two days, and he said, “Man you’ve got to get me out of here, I cannae take it any more, there’s too much testosterone.” Within two days, Bill was sleeping on the couch in the lounge, and we were listening to Giorgio Moroder and the Munich Machine. So we were absorbing all of that, and Low and Heroes, and the stuff that was happening with Eno and Fripp. Bill and I had so many things to draw on. We loved the cinematic stuff. We loved the way that you could play with people’s emotions. At the same time there was a pop sensibility. Bill and I used to warm up in the studio and we’d do “Let’s Spend The Night Together” by the Stones, or “Brown Sugar”, and Bill would be camping it up, and suddenly we’d just shift and we’d be doing “The Look Of Love” and Bill would be imitating Dusty Springfield. Divine Comedy recorded a version of "Party Fears Two" on their album Victory for the Comic Muse in 2006, Parlophone – 00946 365372 2 1Alan Rankine, the Scottish musician and record producer best known as the keyboardist, guitarist and co-founder of influential post-punk outfit The Associates has died. Note: the versions of "And Then I Read a Book" and "Australia" are different on the 2000 and 2016 releases.

If you are a dyed in the wool Associates fan or you’ve never dipped your toe in the water before, buy this album. I’d hate to think there are people on this planet who have never experienced Sulk. They don’t know quite what they are missing. The Associates are relying on two factors here: 'quirk', which only attracts the mindless or performative; and a very thin veil of 'intellect' over what is, in reality, a total absence of talent or ability when it comes to the creation of music. Outside of the studio, almost not one of these numbers would even be playable. Inside the studio, they amount to a heap of cacophony and obnoxity (not a word). If one is so enamoured with 'difference' that one must sidestep achievement altogether, then one is a vain idiot. The main single is all worth time here, and not much.One final thought. Can you get too much of a good thing? Judging by the number of times I’ve listened to (a variety) of versions of the “most perfect pop single of all time”™ Party Fears Two, the answer is absolutely not. How can you ever tire of listening to this slice of pure pop perfection? Michael was a very distinctive bass player and the way Bill and I telepathically worked, bouncing off each other, he was very good at just slotting in the middle without interrupting. Murphy was Australian and quite a character. In all the time that we played live together, he never bought a drink and if you went to a party with him, he would start rummaging through the bins looking for something to eat. When we were rehearsing, he would have the NME spread out on his floor tom and he’d be reading it as we were playing. Sulk is the second studio album by Scottish post-punk and pop band the Associates. It was released on 14 May 1982 on their own Associates imprint of Beggars Banquet Records for the UK and throughout the rest of Europe on WEA Records [2] [3] and in the US on 4 October by Sire Records.