- Released: 1980
- Origin: Cardiff, Wales
- Label: Rough Trade
- Best Track: Music For Evenings
Welsh post-punk band Young Marble Giants’ one and only album seems universally revered by critics. Kurt Cobain is said to have put it in his ten most influential albums of all time, although I’m sure he said about many more than ten albums during his tragically short life!
Listening to it for the first time, it really is a record that helps a lot of later work fall into place. I can certainly see the influence Collosal Youth may have had on one of Kurt’s other favourite bands – the Vaselines.
The album is relentlessly minimal, with hardly any percussion and many songs little more than a voice and a guitar. Despite that, they carry depth, with highlights including the spidery bass of ‘Constantly Changing’ and ‘Music For Evenings’, and the fairground keyboards of the title track.
A crucial album to post-punk, and carrying through to alt-rock and grunge.
366Music 