Skull Orchard

Jon Langford | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 27, 1998)
• Original Release Date: March 20, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sugar Free Records
• ASIN: B00000676T
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,779 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tubby Brothers

2. Penny Arcades

3. Butter Song

4. Sentimental Marching Song

5. Youghal

6. Trapdoor

7. Inside The Whale

8. I Am The Law

9. Pill Sailor

10. The Last Count

11. My Own Worst Enemy

12. I'm Stopping This Train

13. Deep Sea Diver

14. Tom Jones Levitation

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literate Roots Rock, February 8, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Skull Orchard (Audio CD)

Langford rewinds the spool a long way from the Mekons' recent "Me" with this remarkable record. If you loved "Rock n Roll" [and if you didn't, what's wrong with you?] this will knock you over. It's a mixture of the Mekons and mid-period Springsteen, played by The Clash. Two amazing Moby Dick-inspired songs. I can't recommend this too highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sadly underrated work of smart pub-rock and social comment, November 16, 1999

By 

Dan ([e-mail]) (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skull Orchard (Audio CD)

Though I didn't really expect much from this record (I find the Mekons and Waco Bros. records fun but erratic at times), this is a truly stunning album. A stirring blend of Keith Richards/Joe Strummer rock and possibly Richard Thompsonesque folk, *Skull Orchard* doesn't take itself too seriously yet finds Jon Langford singing and playing passionately about his native Wales. Driving hooks and riffs abound, but they are nicely offset with ruminative choruses and quieter acoustic numbers as well. This record at times sounds as if it poured out of Langford's soul, it can be that powerful of a listen.

There's excellent side-playing on it as well by John Rice on fiddle and Mark Durante on guitars. It really saddens me to think this record will never sell many copies. I don't get this excited about many records, please don't mistake this as a review done by a friend of the band or someone who regularly gives an album a "5" 'cause I dang sure ain't and don't. But if you have any interest in the Mekons, the Waco Brothers or well-made rock and roll that actually *says* something, this is simply a must-own.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "We saw a better world just around the corner...", April 9, 2000

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skull Orchard (Audio CD)

Rarely have defeat and disillusionment been so effectively translated into art. Langford has perfected the pop craft first evident on MEKONS ROCK 'N' ROLL (1989). This is a concept album about the demise of the Welsh working class and the (temporary) demise of socialist dreams more generally. Langford rolls his Welsh "r"s with a vengeance, and sings metaphorically about whales and sailors and deep sea divers.

If there was any justice at all, "Trap Door," "I Am The Law" and "I'm Stopping This Train" would have been blaring from radios everywhere, and you'll be blasting the sound for these tracks, believe me. "Penny Arcades" also deserved to be a hit, and it's actually pretty, not angry -- a lovely song with biting lyrics. (Hey, if "Nowhere Man" could be a hit, why not?)

Everything Jon Langford had done up to this point was preparation for this brilliant album, my personal favorite from 1998. It's full of the kind of great songs he did for the Mekons' RETREAT FROM MEMPHIS (1994), another lost gem.

(verified purchase from Zia Records in Tucson)