''Meathead'' is a

double album A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...

Captain Sensible Raymond Ian Burns (born 24 April 1954), known by the stage name Captain Sensible, is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. Captain Sensible co-founded the punk rock band The Damned (band), the Damned, originally playing bass before switc ...

, released in September 1995 by Humbug Records. It is Sensible's fifth studio solo album and contains 32 songs across two and a half hours. The album includes studio performances by Sensible's band - featuring ex- Damned bassist Paul Gray, keyboardist Malcolm Dixon and drummer Garrie Dreadful - as well as

demo recordings A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...

and

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

s recorded mostly by Sensible on his own.

Background

Sensible writes in the album's liner notes: "If ''

The Universe of Geoffrey Brown ''The Universe of Geoffrey Brown'' is the fourth solo album and first concept album by Captain Sensible, released in April 1993 by Humbug Records. Background Captain Sensible had grown up musically in the 1960s and 1970s, where "some incred ...

'' was my ''

Sgt. Pepper ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...

'', then this collection of goodies is probably ''

The White Album ''The Beatles'', also referred to colloquially as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover contains no graph ...

''.... warts and all!" ''Meathead'' was recorded in a "full on experimentation mode", where "nothing was off limits", according to Sensible. He described the album as "a mixed bag of stuff including studio performances by my band, cosmic instrumentals, weird (but genuine) clips from radio and admittedly some dodgy demos that have a certain gnarled charm (ie.... too lazy to re-record)." "Freedom" and "Pasties" were originally released in 1991 on the 12" and CD-single versions of the Damned's " Fun Factory" single.

Critical reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

called ''Meathead'' "a sprawling mess of a record", saying that Sensible "seems to be taking a Zappa-like approach to his work with his combination of so many elements: bouncy London pop,

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

ish spacy electronics, found sound bites from TV shows, grating bulldozer guitar riffs, dainty orchestral violins, and silly lyrics about space travel. Often he seems to want to shock or jolt the listener out of complacency with repeated monster guitar licks or spoken dialogue; if the goal is to irritate, he succeeds all too well ... The listener ends up being not so much dazzled as exhausted, or worse, fed up with his apparent value of cocky experimentation over cogent, humane statements."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. ;Musicians *

- vocals, guitar, keyboards *Malcolm Dixon - keyboards, guitar, vocals, lead vocals ("Crazy Fish", "Love Thing", "Inventing the Wheel", "Aliens ? We Are the Aliens", "Stabilizer Jam") * Paul Gray - bass *Garrie Dreadful - drums ;Additional musicians * Howlin' Wilf - harmonica ("Freedom") *M.M. McGhee - drums ("Business Trip to Saturn") *Nial - bass ("Business Trip to Saturn") * Martin Newell - guitar ("Business Trip to Saturn") *Graham - samples, programming ("Business Trip to Saturn") *

Andrew Bor Andy Bor (born 14 April 1963) is an Australian former ski coach and sighted guide for visually impaired skiers. He was a coach at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino, and was Melissa Perrine's guide skier at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in V ...

- piano ("Zarbo Nebula") * Rachel Bor - cello ("Plastic Arcade"), vocals ("The Last Train") *Eric Woods - performer, arrangement ("The Snow Queen (Excerpt)")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meathead 1995 albums Captain Sensible albums