Dear Jesus, why haven’t you listened to the debut album by the Raincoats??? It’s out of print, you say? It’s full of jarring vocals and equally jarring electric violins, you say? Well, I’m just hearing a bunch of excuses for passing up on one of the most underappreciated post-punk albums of the 70’s.
The Raincoats self-titled is full of fantastic vocal arrangements and the kind of ire and derision that apparently only the British were capable of in the late ‘70’s. Tune in for the fantastic, gender bending cover of the Kinks classic “Lola” and stick around for the anthemic blasts of “No Side to Fall In”, “Fairytale in the Supermarket” and “No Looking”. There are few songs that capture the joy and confusion of falling for someone quite like “In Love”. The fact that is in fact out of print (despite a reissue back in 2006) is really a crime against music lovers. The Raincoats are still touring and put out new music well into the 90’s, but I’ve never heard anything that quite matched the exuberance of this first release. Seriously, it’s out there so check it out.
