So we pretty much all have a copy of Songs About Fucking, right? I must have seen this LP a billion times in record shops before picking it up, but there are quite a few reasons why you notice that sleeve every time you flick past it in the racks; I'm not sure if it's the colour scheme, seeing the word "fucking" in such big letters, or the look on the woman's face, but the three together make for quite a scene. Hats off to them, it's definitely a classic cover.
I bought Songs About Fucking a quarter of the way through the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year (having probably seen it where 12 times already). This was shortly before I started reading Our Band Could Be Your Life, so I really knew nothing about nothing about Big Black other than that album cover and 1000 Hurts by Shellac, which I'd bought two weeks earlier. I was keen to hear some more of Steve Albini's work and I probably heard some recommendations for Songs About Fucking from somewhere (I bet it's in Best Albums of the 80's lists that I've read, and Spillers probably had a some favourable words to say about it on the sleeve in the shop).
When I got home and put the needle on the record, it was way more brutal than I was expecting, but I liked it. I've been known to enjoy music with an industrial leaning and it made Prayer to God on 1000 Hurts sound like a pop song. The whole thing certainly comes under the category "un-easy listening".
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £9 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 01/04/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
