Julian Cope
20 Mothers (Island)
by Chris Adams
Fuck James Brown – Archdrude Julian Cope is, without a doubt, the hardest working man in showbiz. Over the past five years, he has released four major-label records, four independent albums, and two books, with another two on the way. Julian’s career as a wild-eyed workaholic began in the late ’70s, when he was the erratic, acid-gobbling genius who piloted the semi-legendary Teardrop Explodes to worldwide stardom, rockstar excess, and subsequent implosion. Although his solo career has had its peaks and valleys, Julian’s latest incarnation as an anarchistic New Age prophet is both weird and, thankfully, irreverent.
“Greedhead Detector” sports such a cheery-sounding chorus that it requires a minute to realize that Julian’s actually repeating “fuck you” over and over.
Musically, the album’s poppier than his last few efforts, but it generally flies closer to minimalist Kraut rockers Can than to, say, the Hollies. Critics can easily write off this album as a big, pseudo-conceptual art-wank, but I don’t care. Sure, it’s inconsistent – name a double album that isn’t – but its best moments, like the smoking single, “Try Try Try,” more than make up for any odd indulgence. As far as I’m concerned, 20 Mothers is another crazed classic by a guy who ages a lot better than even your best blotter. Buy it and get righteous, brothers and sisters. The millennium is at hand.