Cardiacs – A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window

'In a City Lining' or 'The Icing on the World.'

ok i will have to fight deeznuts and ACTUAL HUBBY for yr hand in marriage

and now i'll have to mull over the answer at interminable length. ooh, so tough. might have to give it another listen... ;-)

the two abbott's mentioned are both in my top 5 along with "A Little Man And A House", "R.E.S." and "The Whole World Window", picking one of those 5 is gonna be a tough, tough ask.

oh shit "Dive" and "The Breakfast Line" are fucking brilliant too tho

look, this is one of the best albums ever made, it would be easier to list the tracks i'm not considering. "is this the life", "interlude", "victory egg". and fuck, they're all great as well.

How did LJ not start this?

Title track best work-dread angst track ever and I do a lot of that, so that might win just for the hours spent moping into it, but when not in work-mope mood, uh... RES. No, The Icing on the World. Wait, I'm Eating In Bed. Too difficult!

Tough one, maybe RES.

thinking 'in a city lining myself'. another listen required.

'In A City Lining' is my favourite from here.

voted R.E.S. but it wasn't easy

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I much prefer Heaven Born..., but off this I'd take "Is This the Life".

Haha, the big difference between us as Cardiacs fans I think is neatly illustrated by the fact that "Is This The Life" is my least favourite track here! I always was a sucker for the more convoluted (read: spellbinding) material. :D

Now listening to "In A City Lining" and kinda wishing I'd voted for it instead.

"Is this the life". Like Alex I prefer "Heaven Born..."

No debate about the inclusion of I'm Eating In Bed? I've probably listened to this album 1000 times without it (cassette, then vinyl when the cassette wore out) and about 50 without (CD). Great song. Not voting for it though.

haha i just had to listen to "the whole world window" the other day so i grabbed the disc and stuck it in my car and ended up listening to the entire thing about four times through.

pretty much all of the songs on here left me in complete awe the first time i heard them. 'i didn't know you could do that with notes and chords!'

'the breakfast line' probably isn't my favorite song on here overall, but that ending section, that big ef'n part with all the strings that just keeps rising forever, still makes me wonder if another band will be able to pull something like that off ever again. so i think it gets my vote.

Heaven Born has 'Helen & Heaven' and 'March' two of my favourite Cardiacs songs.

"Is This The Life" is my least favourite track here! I always was a sucker for the more convoluted (read: spellbinding) material.

a man after my own heart.

this has already been established! nice to see a pocket-sized cardiacs contingent creepy-crawling out from beneath the bark. pity the word hasn't spread beyond a mere few. it's not like the music defies you to love it; nobody to whom i've played "dog-like sparky", for instance, has not been impressed/bowled over/thrilled.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

amusing how FOUR of the "zero score" options here on this one ALBUM poll would top just about any other song poll you could care to name, were i the arbiter. the winner was i guess somewhat predictable although if i'd actually gone and voted IACL some justice might have been done!

https://www.loudersound.com/news/cardiacs-first-full-length-album-gets-4cd-reissue

ABOUT TIME!!!!

never caught the cardiacs bug like you all but this album is still great

it's still great obv but also their weakest album (not counting toy world) imo! so much greatness beyond this

Will respectfully disagree with the above poster, I think this is their second best behind StG! Very well sequenced, a good mix of their spacier epic tracks and denser, more manic songs, and closes with the best song the band ever wrote. (Also a good first Cardiacs album for any neutral observers!)

Great that it's finally getting a vinyl reissue. Very tempted by the 4xCD version, I already have it physically but if any band's going to lure me into the world of deluxe releases it's Cardiacs. And that interview material too...

I agree it's a really great album to start with. it was my first one and after 3 tracks I thought they were the greatest band in the world. I think On Land & StG are probably better albums but if you're not really acquainted with the band I think they're just too much. not to say A Little Man pulls any punches it's just more comparable to things you probably already like (if someone's recommending Cardiacs to you, that is).

Preorders on the box set are up.

https://abc-mary.myshopify.com/products/a-little-man-and-a-house-and-the-whole-world-window-special-edition-vinyl-casebound-book?fbclid=IwAR2S1uucp1wc8WqmHOk4rhaEQYDWgftrKd0D4lcx_tScZI8TygSpVqyzFhk