Julian Cope [Album Covers]

1983 Sunshine Playroom	1984 World Shut Your Mouth SR	1984 Fried SR	1987 Trampolene
1987 Saint Julian SR	1987 Eve’s Volcano ‘Covered in Sin’	1988 My Nation Underground SR	1990 Droolian R
$[ 9 / 43 ] 1990 Skellington Near the end of the 80s, according to his second autobiography, Repossessed, Cope was signed up to produce another band who, due to health reasons, cancelled a pre-booked, three-day studio session. With time and technology available, Cope seized the chance, called in his band (Skinner, DeHarrison, and Cosby), and, on the sly, recorded the half-hour long Skellington, which he released via the Zippo label much to Islands consternation. Very much conceived as an initial riposte to what he considered the failure of My Nation Underground, Skellington lets Cope call the shots on a sometimes fragmentary and goofy but often fascinating example of his quick mind at work. Though he does sound like hes straining for material at points -- one number, "Robert Mitchum," is a totally archival piece written with Ian McCulloch before the Teardrop Explodes days -- clearly hes not aiming for deathless art, but a good, righteous blast of inspiration. Allegedly recorded and mixed in the order in which the songs appear, Skellington shows Copes voice in much better form than the sometimes indifferent mixing on My Nation would indicate. His voice is often lower and richer than on many previous outings, making for a great contrast to the past while foreshadowing much of the approach on Peggy Suicide, as does the organic flow of the music. The band keeps up with Cope like a charm, not minding the ragged edges -- the sheer vibe alone beats out everything back to Fried, if not earlier. Murky horn arrangements and the generally acoustic-led songs drew comparisons to similarly fractured recordings like Syd Barretts solo work and Skip Spences Oar. Even with a quick, wired song called "Out of My Mind on Dope and Speed" and the concluding high-pitched semi-wail of "Commin Soon," Skellington is less minds losing sanity than Cope and company unwinding to generally fun effect.$ 1990 Skellington R	1991 Beautiful Love EP	1991 Dancing Heads	1991 East Easy Rider
1991 Peggy Suicide SR	1992 Rite	1992 Floored Genius: The Best of Julian Cope and the Teardrop Explodes 1979–91 SR	1992 Jehovahkill SR
1993 The Skellington Chronicles	1993 Floored Genius 2: Best of the BBC Sessions 1983–91	1994 Autogeddon SR	$[ 20 / 43 ] 1995 20 Mothers Returning to a full CDs worth of material, Cope on 20 Mothers creates 20 songs, covering a wide variety of topics as opposed to the general concept records from his then-recent past. Everything from reestablishing contact with his estranged brother Joss ("Wheelbarrow Man") to vegetarianism, bandmates, his mother-in-law, and even Kurt Cobain get touched on, as discussed in his entertaining liner notes. Its a bit of a fractured record as a result, but no less interesting for it, containing the range of Peggy Suicide without sounding like a revamp of it. Moon-Eye is the main guitarist in place of Skinner, who only contributes a bit of Omnichord here and there, while Thighpaulsandra is a full part of the band, contributing synths, piano, and string arrangements (which crop up throughout the album and are quite exquisite). Cosby provides his excellent drumming as always, while old bassist James Eller and producer Ed Stasium turn up for "Try, Try, Try." This lovely ballad-into-energy number was the lead single, providing Cope with one last U.K. Top 40 hit before fully turning his back on the charts and major labels. Often his singing on 20 Mothers is a bit strained in comparison to earlier albums, whether its the production, his throat, or just the way he wants to do things is unclear, but its a touch disconcerting on first blush. Musically, the same rough but right feeling on Autogeddon prevails, with plenty of detours into tribal psych, feedback madness, even quirky synth-pop; if anything, the overall sound is a bit thicker in points than the at-times hollower recordings on the earlier record. An amusing cover note is that the front picture is, indeed, 20 mothers, with Copes legendary-in-her-own-right wife Dorian second from the right in the front row, while Cope is pictured with his daughters Albany and Avalon on the back.$ 1995 20 Mothers SR
1996 Interpreter SR	1997 Rite 2	1997 The Followers of Saint Julian R	1999 Ye Skellington Chronicles
1999 Leper Skin: An Introduction to Julian Cope R	2000 An Audience With the Cope	2000 Floored Genius 3	2002 Rite Now
2003 Rome Wasn’t Burned in a Day R	2005 Citizen Cain’d R	2005 Dark Orgasm R	2007 Christ versus Warhol
2007 You Gotta Problem With Me SR	2008 Black Sheep SR	2009 The Unruly Imagination	2009 Floored Genius 4
2012 Psychedelic Revolution S	2012 Woden S	2013 Revolutionary Suicide SR	2015 Trip Advizer S
2017 Rite at Ya: Monotonous Meditations From the Back of Beyond (1993–2016)	2017 Drunken Songs R	2018 Skellington 3 (The All‐New 21st Century Adventures of Skellington)