The so-called folk-punk genre, arguably invented by the Pogues, had its moment in the mid-eighties, and some great music emerged. Among this, lazily labelled the 'English Pogues' were The Men They Couldn't Hang, who had a run of five albums, all of which made the lower reaches of the charts, before a split in 1991.
I owned some of the earlier ones on vinyl, and by the look of this CD (damaged insert), I picked it up second hand for a pittance. I remember being slightly disappointed with this one on release, feeling it didn't have the impact of its predecessors, but haven't listened for some time. And, my first impression on revisiting, is that the faster, rockier songs have stood the test of time better than the ballads.
The album opens strongly, with the powerful The Lion And The Unicorn, an almost trademark TMTCH sound, while the bouncy Great Expectations has a real feel-good sound to it. However, The Family Man feels very much more plodding and less interesting. Handy Man is slightly brighter, but Kingdom Of The Blind really drags. Normal service is resumed on the glorious rollicking Grave Robbing In Gig Harbour, a fantastic sea-shanty-esque romp. In the second half of the album, the lively You're The One is a highlight, sandwiched between a couple of slow ballads (Industrial Town and Australia) which really don't move me. We run to the end with the very folky, upbeat Dog's Eyes, Owl Meat, Man Chop, which gets the toes tapping, then Billy Morgan, one of the slower songs which does have some impact, and, as you'd expect a TMTCH album to end, a rousing drinking song in On The Razzle.
This isn't a bad album by any means, and there's a lot to enjoy, but it doesn't feel as strong as those which came before - perhaps the band had taken things as far as they could at the time.
3* - there are better TMTCH albums, but there are a few great moments here.
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