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The Menace (album)

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For the 1932 film, see The Menace (film).
Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Entertainment.ie(Negative)[3]
Entertainment Weekly(C)[4]
Los Angeles Daily News[5]
NME(6/10)[6]
Robert Christgau(A−)[7]
Rolling Stone[8]
Sorted(Negative)[9]
The Austin Chronicle[10]
The Independent(Positive)[11]

The Menace is the second and final studio album by English alternative rock group Elastica, released via Deceptive Records in April 2000.

Background

After the release of their eponymous debut record in 1995, the band started touring and in the process started partying ferociously and dabbling in drugs. The first attempt to record their second work was in France and Ireland at the end of 1996, but internal problems caused the departure of members (including vocalist/guitarist Donna Matthews and bassist Annie Holland) and the temporary dissolution of the group.

Leader Justine Frischmann, who had recently broken up with boyfriend Damon Albarn of Blur, started to work on Brian Eno-influenced mood music with flatmate Loz Hardy of Kingmaker, resulting on tracks like "Miami Nice" and "My Sex", which ended up on the album. Frischmann reconnected with Annie Holland in early 1999 and formed a new line-up of the band, including Justin Welch, keyboardist/vocalist Sharon Mew, formerly of Heave, guitarist Paul Jones (Linoleum's former member) and keyboardist Dave Bush, formerly of The Fall.

The band listened to previous recordings of the material and decided to re-do it all in four weeks, in September 1999. Bush's ex-bandmate Mark E. Smith participated in the writing and recording process of two songs in the album, "How He Wrote Elastica Man" – (a play on the title of the Fall's 1980 single "How I Wrote Elastic Man"), and "KB". The album also features two early sessions with Donna Matthews ("Image Change" and "How He Wrote Elastica Man") and a Trio cover, "Da Da Da", featuring the keyboards of Damon Albarn, under the anagram alias Norman Balda.

The cover photo was taken by visual artist and musician Maya Arulpragasam, who also directed the video for "Mad Dog God Dam" and designed the cover for the band's last single "The Bitch Don't Work."

Track listing

All tracks written by Justine Frischmann, except where noted. [12]

  1. "Mad Dog God Dam" – 3:16
  2. "Generator" – 1:50
  3. "How He Wrote Elastica Man" (Frischmann, Mark E. Smith, Julia Nagle) – 2:02
  4. "Image Change" (Matthews, Frischmann) – 3:27
  5. "Your Arse My Place" – 2:15
  6. "Human" (Matthews, Frischmann, Gilbert, Gotobed, Lewis, Newman) – 3:29
  7. "Nothing Stays The Same" (Matthews, Frischmann) – 2:44
  8. "Miami Nice" – 3:21
  9. "Love Like Ours" (Matthews, Frischmann) – 2:22
  10. "KB" (Frischmann, Smith, Nagle) – 3:12
  11. "My Sex" – 4:10
  12. "The Way I Like It" – 2:39
  13. "Da Da Da" (Krawinkel, Remmler) – 3:52

Personnel

Elastica
Additional musicians
Technical personnel

Songs

  • "Mad Dog God Dam" is the result of Justine Frischmann's first stint at programming on Cubase.
  • "Your Arse My Place" is a twisted 12-bar-blues which was made for the sake of a filler at a John Peel's BBC session recording. Its main riff is "borrowed" from Adam and the Ants' "It Doesn't Matter" – a song which, fittingly, was recorded by the Ants for a John Peel session in 1978.
  • "The Way I Like It" was written for Damon Albarn.

References

  1. ^ http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/the-non-definitive-guide-to-the-follow-up.htm
  2. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: The Menace – Elastica". Allmusic. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  3. ^ Connon, Damian (10 April 2000). "Review: Elastica – The Menace". Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  4. ^ Raftery, Brian M. (18 August 2000). "Review: The Menace (2009) – Elastica". Time Inc. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  5. ^ Shuster, Fred (1 September 2000). "Sound Check". Los Angeles Daily News at TheFreeLibrary. Retrieved 21 June 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Review: Elastica (1) : The Menace". IPC Media. 2000. Archived from the original on 30 October 2001. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  7. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Review: The Menace (Atlantic, 2000)". Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  8. ^ Kot, Greg (17 August 2000). "Review: Elastica – The Menace". Jann Wenner. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  9. ^ DeLong, Donnacha. "Review: Elastica – The Menace (Deceptive)". sortedmagazine.com. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  10. ^ Beets, Greg (13 October 2000). "Review: Elastica – The Menace (Atlantic)". Nick Barbaro. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  11. ^ Gill, Andy (31 March 2000). "Review: ELASTICA – The Menace (Deceptive)". Independent News & Media. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  12. ^ BMI Entry
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