Scandinavian Leather and Party Animals are probably the two most similar Turbonegro albums - both start with a gentle intro, both have mostly black covers, and both have one truly incredible song that stands a mile away from the rest and means the album becomes a bit of a waiting game for that one song (Fuck the World here, and City of Satan on Party Animals, in case you were curious). Whilst Apocalypse Dudes was part of the trilogy with those two, it sits apart because it is filled to brim with huge songs.
As a result, if you took all the songs from those two and asked me which album they were on, I'd struggle to say. That's not a criticism as such, but I'd recognise an Ass Cobra song from an Apocalypse Dudes song instantly. The innuendo and sex references are more blunt here than elsewhere - Sell Your Body (To the Night), Train of Flesh, Wipe it 'Til it Bleeds to name but a few; the latter is an amusing song and a comical start, but was never going to be a classic. Gimme Some has some very classic Turbonegro melodies and could sit happily alongside some of their best. Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed is another highlight.
As I mentioned, Fuck the World is the stand-out track and everything about it says "lead single" (except, possibly, the word "fuck" in the title); the production is slick throughout, but it's even tighter here - the strings in the chorus couldn't be further away from the early definition of "death punk" but work perfectly. I've always loved the line "I've got razorblade lips / I'm gonna kiss some wrists".
Anyway, I picked this up in a record store in Melbourne on a trip down there towards the end of my time in Australia. A few months earlier on a trip to New Zealand, my German friend Nadine had been knocking Turbonegro (rather, laughing about a friend of hers getting excited about buying a Turbonegro record - I never got to the bottom of why she disliked them) and I bought a copy of the excellent Alpha Motherfuckers compilation when we rolled into Auckland; she had driven us to Melbourne, so I wonder if I was keen to show her that Turbonegro weren't a band to be laughed at. I can't remember which shop I bought it in - it was possibly the same shop were I bought Tremulant by The Mars Volta and the A Gun Called Tension album, because I don't know if I bought anything in the other record shops I found. I can't remember the name of the shop, but remember it being half a floor beneath street-level and had an incredible collect of strange stuff; I could have spent a lot more in there than I did.
I also bought Apocalypse Dudes on cd on that day. It's a bit unfair on Scandinavian Leather to say this, but Apocalypse Dudes has obviously spent a lot more time getting played than this has. History has certainly shown that to be the stronger album.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 13
Cost: £7.74 new
Bought: Melbourne
When: 31/05/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none
