OK, you’ve had plenty from me on this album. I wrote thousands of words on it when it was first reissued, I delicately and some would say expertly compared the band’s situation in 2004 to the Soviet Union’s position at the end of the 1980s. Consider this album done! So, is now the time to write my previously threatened and detailed defence of Josef Stalin??
No. I’ve not eaten all day. And I’m a bit tired as well. I’ve been looking at this computer screen all day, my head hurts. And I’m horny. And thirsty.
I stand by the fact that ‘Lifeblood’ definitely doesn’t deserve its black sheep reputation, but at the same time I worry that the reappraisals might be going a little too far, as it’s far from the band’s best. However, it’s a pretty gorgeous and brave record, and also coincided with one of the most bizarrely prolific eras of the band’s career in terms of b-sides, collected on this 20th anniversary edition.
One tiny titbit that I’ll add to my review is this little fact pie: ‘Lifeblood’ has been described by Nicky as the “‘The Holy Bible’ for 35 year olds”, which… hmmm… Yeah, no. That only works if you reduce ‘The Holy Bible’ to someone in their 20s moaning and ‘Lifeblood’ to someone in their 30s moaning, which is only half accurate. ‘THB’ is faaaaaar more than that.
However, ‘THB’ album finishes with a sample of Albert Finney as Sir in the 1983 film ‘The Dresser’: “Two hundred and twenty-seven Lears, and I can’t remember the first line”. Sir laments how he still require prompts from his dresser, Norman (Tom Courtenay), as he oscillates between self-pity and survival as Nazi bombs fall upon Bradford around them as they prepare for their last performance on King Lear. Sir explains how he can no longer do it, how he longs for the end:
“I am being crushed, the lifeblood is draining out of me. The load is too much L…] I cannot give any more. I have nothing more to give. I want a tranquil senility […] I cannot move that which cannot be moved.”
So that’s something…
And that big review of ‘The Holy Bible’? It’s coming next year, I promise.
OK, now for the previous entries…
Lol.
Album Title as AI Image
Guys, these are all way cooler than the cover you went with! Why not swap them?
Necessary Evil 
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