Super producer of such illustrious bands as McLusky, Nirvana, and Bush, (SERIOUSLY STEVE WTF?) Steve Albini recently said that McLusky is the best band working in England right now. Yeah, that may be his characteristic bravado and showmanship, but it also may be pretty close to the truth. On their third full length, The Difference Between Me and You is that I'm not on Fire, McLusky abandons the super spazz and freak-out levels that made them so lovable on Do Dallas.
Though the album starts off very promising as "Without MSG I am Nothing." ramps up the distortion, and a rather catchy hook. The song as a whole leads up to a full onslaught of distortion and screaming. This is a very promising start to the album, much like "Lightsabre Cock Sucking Blues" was to Do Dallas. After this, the excitement slows down considerably for some reason. Many songs take on drone influences, staying rather slow and contained.
The lyrics tend to stay away from joke lyrics and focus on actual attempts at song writing. "1956 and All That," previously released on the There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson EP ,) discusses the effects of war. Then the modern day fairy tale "That Man Will Not Hang" follows in similar fashion. That's not to say there are no flat out fun songs, though. The aforementioned "Without MSG I am nothing," and the later song "Forget About Him, I'm Mint," (and, if you haven't noticed by now, but these guys have some of the greatest song titles of the year) are both fun songs that are great sing alongs. Scream with lead singer Andrew Falkous "Everywhere I wanna travel by Xwing!" and simply realize there is nothing of importance in some songs. With that said, the lyrics are probably the biggest improvement made by the band.
The album as a whole is very subdued, and lyrically serious. The whole notion of this being subdued and serious may sound strange, because it really is a lot distorted and spazzier than many other things out there. After listening to Do Dallas, though, it is possible to understand the full possibility and range of these guys - Pixies comparisons not withstanding. Simply stated, as I was waiting for this album, I was expecting something that would make me scream and freak-out and eat babies. While there are some attempts at this, it is just far too constrained and mature to make me want to eat babies.
