I don't make a habit of buying music by bands that I've not listened to before, but I do find myself doing so on occasions. This record was bought on one such occasion.
I'd heard of the band in the way that you do but have no reason why you have. They were a name I was aware of but that was it. I'd not long started back at uni and one lunchtime flicked through the university paper for the first time. It was mostly shit, but somebody had written a piece about this album which I read still with no idea what the band sounded like. I can't remember what he said about it, but I think it was a positive review. It probably was. Anyway, a short time later I was in London on a Saturday afternoon looking to blow some money on new music and found myself on Berwick Street. Outpriced by Sister Ray, I was in the second hand shop by the market (the same place I picked up that Gowns EP - that shop has done me pretty well in record of bands I hadn't listened to!) They had a mint copy of The Midnight Organ Fight for £9, which is a bargain for an LP in there, so I picked it up. I'd only bought cds that day and knew I had to cycle back from the station in the rain, so I was worried slightly that I'd destroy the sleeve on my journey home, but it survived somehow.
I pretty much instantly loved the album. Musically its just the right side of epic and the vocals work perfectly. The thing that really got me though was the lyrics. I have never heard someone more pissed off and literal about it. He is a man upset and not afraid to tell everyone. The Midnight Organ Fight is definitely my favourite break-up album (Domestica, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and You're a Woman, I'm a Machine are all good ones too). It peaks with Keep Yourself Warm as the height of bitterness. All the songs are fantastic though - The Modern Leper, Head Rolls Off, Poke and Floating in the Forth are all highlights.
I remember thinking afterwards that my old housemate Nicky would be really into them (he had previously got me into The Twilight Sad) so I recommended them to him. Not only did he already know them but he was convinced he'd made me listen to them in the kitchen of our old house. I still have no recollection of this whatsoever, but I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I'd stored some enjoyment of this band that only came out due to the one time I read the university newspaper and that store in Soho having a cheap copy on vinyl. I probably would have come across them in time, but its a nice series of coincidences that made me buy it. A few months later their third album came out and I enjoy that one nearly as much.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 14
Cost: £9 second hand
Bought: Soho
When: 28/11/09
Colour: black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
