I Love Mekons
I Love Mekons (stylized I ♥ Mekons on the album cover; also referred to as I (Heart) Mekons) is an album by the British-American punk rock band the Mekons, released in 1993 on the Quarterstick and Touch and Go labels. It is a concept album consisting of twelve love songs.[1]
I Love Mekons | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 18, 1993 | |||
Genre | Punk rock | |||
Length | 50:01 | |||
Label | Quarterstick/Touch and Go | |||
The Mekons chronology | ||||
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Background
Before I Love Mekons was released, the Mekons had been engaged in two years of rancorous arguments with their record label at the time, Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Loud Records. As a result, the Mekons did not release any albums for two years after the release of The Curse of the Mekons in 1991. Originally, Warner Bros. had refused to release I Love Mekons because they thought it was not good enough. After the Mekons parted ways with Loud Records, the album was released in 1993 on Quarterstick, a subsidiary of Touch and Go.[2][3]
Reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Chicago Tribune | [4] |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | B+[5] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [6] |
Orlando Sentinel | [7] |
Rolling Stone | [8] |
Melody Maker's Dave Jennings described I Love Mekons as "simultaneously a brilliant, exhilarating pop record and an exploration of the assumptions behind other people’s pop records."[9] Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ grade, describing it as "love songs, laid out casually across disc and lyric sheet--a country album without a happy ending."[5]
End-of-year lists
Greg Kot ranked I Love Mekons as his 10th favorite album of 1993,[10] and Mark LePage of the Montreal Gazette named it his 4th favorite album of the year.[11]
Track listing
- "Millionaire" – 4:37
- "Wicked Midnite" – 3:51
- "I Don't Know" – 4:20
- "Dear Sausage" – 3:48
- "All I Want" – 3:49
- "Special" – 2:30
- "St. Valentine's Day" – 4:59
- "I Love Apple" – 3:26
- "Love Letter" – 4:18
- "Honeymoon in Hell" – 5:34
- "Too Personal" – 5:54
- "Point of No Return" – 3:00
References
- Byrne, Richard (2004-03-22). "Mekon Love". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
- Dougan, John. "I Love Mekons - The Mekons". AllMusic. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
- Rothschild, David (1993-03-12). "Cheap Trick Signs With Warner, Plans Album". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
- Kot, Greg (1993-10-29). "Falling In Love With Mekons". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
- Christgau, Robert (2000-10-15). "The Mekons: I Love Mekons". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. Macmillan Publishing. ISBN 9780312245603.
- Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958.
- Gettelman, Parry (1993-11-05). "The Mekons". Orlando Sentinel.
- Kot, Greg (1997-07-31). "The Mekons: I Love Mekons". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14.
- "The Mekons". Contemporary Musicians. Gale. 2004. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
- Kot, Greg (1993-12-31). "City Band Tops Newspaper's Best Album List". NewsOK.com. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
- LePage, Mark (1993-12-23). "Year's high and low notes". Montreal Gazette.
Further reading
- Brown, Peter Robert (2014-11-14). "Meet the Mekons: Popular Music, Art, and Cultural Critique". Rock Music Studies. 2 (1): 22–45. doi:10.1080/19401159.2014.980598. ISSN 1940-1159.