Whether you like his music or not you have to admire Julian Cope. He has ploughed his own field for years releasing albums through his own label and has built an equally successful career as a writer. If you can get hold of his two autobiographies, I would strongly recommend them.
For a while he was a pop star Teardrop Explodes hitting the top ten with Reward and solo hits World Shut Your Mouth and Trampoline.
Cope was not happy with his record company, and they were not happy with him, he was meant to be delivering big hits, he was just interested in making music that satisfied his own inventive mind.
Double albums usually fill people with dread, usually overindulgent and a fair bit of a filler. This is eighteen tracks long. They are all great.
Pristeen opens with Cope’s vocals out front then he takes us on a journey of funk, pop and with Hanging Out and Hung Up on the Line we have a fantastic heavy guitar throughout, you could be listening to a heavy metal album, no come back, honest, it’s great.
He attacks Thatcher on Leperskin so that’s worth an extra mark alone.
East Easy Rider, If You Loved Me At All, Drive, She Said, Soldier Blue and Beautiful Love are a man at the top of his game, but this is an album to enjoy from start to finish. Cope is kind of thought of as far out, trust me this is a very canny performer.
He was never as high profile again, but I get the feeling he is perfectly happy with where he is.
8/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: East Easy Rider