This record is my bargain of the year so far, and probably will be for the next nine months too. Banquet Records had a sale on in January featuring a whole bunch of albums for a fiver, and half of the money from the sale went to a local charity to support carers in the Kingston area, a noble cause indeed. Because Banquet is awesome, the sale wasn't the usual shit you see in the January sales and there were some decent albums in there, the most incredible of which was last year's reissue of In/Casino/Out on clear vinyl. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to get this for a fiver; I'd nearly paid £17 for it a few months earlier but they'd run out of stock and waiting for some more to come in. I bought it using the "collect in shop" option and picked it up when I was in town a few days later. I almost felt bad; clearly this record cost them more than £5 given how much it was before the sale, and Banquet were then giving half of that to charity. It felt like I was taking advantage in a way - their desire for floor space and good deed was costing them loads whilst I was getting a classic album for not much more than a pint of beer (or a can of beer, if you're drinking in the wrong venues).
But guilt aside, this album is awesome. I first bought In/Casino/Out on cd in (the excellently-named and sadly-closed) Rounder Records in Brighton (along with Give Up by The Postal Service on double vinyl). I'd got Relationship of Command for Christmas and was keen to hear more At the Drive-In (much more on that here). I'd heard about the song Napoleon Solo so I figured In/Casino/Out was a good place to start. My first impressions were: it was a way crazier album than Relationship of Command; Napoleon Solo was one of the best ATD-I songs I'd heard; I didn't like it as much as Relationship (don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm comparing to one of my all-time favourite albums). Eight years later, my feelings about it are much the same. There are some great songs here but, Napoleon Solo aside, none I like as much as the songs on Relationship. I'd still count this as my second favourite ADT-I album, but maybe that's only because Vaya is just an EP.
Somehow I never managed to get into this album as well as Relationship either. I often find that's the way with albums where there is one song that stands out so much more than the others; when I think of In/Casino/Out, I mostly think of Napoleon Solo but that's because it's such an incredible song - heartfelt and brutal and everything I wanted "emo/post-hardcore" to be. "Our alphabet is missing letters" is a fantastic lyric. That said, it does have other songs, and they have their moments. Chanbara is certainly a song worth getting excited over and I love the whispers in Shaking Hand Incision.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 04/01/13
Colour: Clear
Etching: none
mp3s: no
