POLL: Easterhouse - Contenders

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I bought this album out of the clearance bin at Camelot when I was about 14 just because I liked the cover. At the time, I felt like I kind of wasted my money. Over the years, though, I keep pulling it back out and liking it more every time. The Smiths comparisons aren't without some grounds, but Easterhouse sounds a little more like "working man" music (or whatever). I realize this is one of the more obscure albums to create a poll for, but maybe other people here still have a soft spot for Contenders.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
To Live Like This	2
Nineteen Sixty Nine	2
Lenin In Zurich	1
Get Back To Russia	1
Easter Rising	0
Inspiration	0
Estates	0
The Boy Can Sing	0
Out On Your Own	0
Cargo Of Souls	0
Whistling In The Dark	0
Johnny I Hardly Knew You	0

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 14 August 2009 06:23 (sixteen years ago)

i like it a lot too. we may be the only ones. it's a great guitar album. i bought it when it came out cuzza whistling in the dark. i just bought it again on vinyl a year or two ago and i still like it just as much. bless their commie hearts.

― scott seward, Friday, 14 August 2009 11:28 (sixteen years ago)

These polls are getting a bit silly now, aren't they?

― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Friday, 14 August 2009 11:29 (sixteen years ago)

it's a little alarm, a little u2, a little chameleons, you know. the communist thing now would probably sound silly to a lot of people, but i think it's kinda cute. they're so serious.

― scott seward, Friday, 14 August 2009 11:31 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n8GZfQrAmA

― scott seward, Friday, 14 August 2009 11:39 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtv56g46P2U

― scott seward, Friday, 14 August 2009 11:41 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJUceq6RsYI

― scott seward, Friday, 14 August 2009 11:44 (sixteen years ago)

I haven't listened to this in a few years. The only song that immediately comes to mind is "Get Back To Russia", so that. I always heard the follow-up album was awful - true?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 14 August 2009 12:10 (sixteen years ago)

I've purposely never listened to the follow-up.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 14 August 2009 16:29 (sixteen years ago)

yeah, i remember when it came out but i was too jaded and fucked up by then. i wouldn't have bought it. i listened to a couple of tracks on youtube and they sounded pretty bad and glossy.

anyway, i voted for lenin in zurich. i love that song. reminds me of some of my fave chameleon epics.

they might have actually been the interpol of their day. all the songs on the album remind me of some other band. i always liked whistling in the dark's clash rip riff.

― scott seward, Friday, 14 August 2009 17:11 (sixteen years ago)

Good point. They do draw a lot of influence from peers. Maybe that's why I like Nineteen Sixty Nine so much, because no other band comes to mind when I'm listening to it.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 14 August 2009 17:21 (sixteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Thursday, 20 August 2009 23:01 (sixteen years ago)

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

― System, Friday, 21 August 2009 23:01 (sixteen years ago)

ten months pass...

Listening right now for the first time in ages. Mastered by H. Weinberg. Better melodies than I recalled.

― bendy, Friday, 16 July 2010 23:44 (fifteen years ago)

I concur, this thread caused me to give it a listen last summer and I really enjoyed it and tracked down some of their non-lp tracks. Still missing a cut or two from their earliest single.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 17 July 2010 00:03 (fifteen years ago)

"Get Back To Russia" is an aural "laughable attempts to make political statements on album covers/posters/signs/billboards/etc." But pretty great, nonetheless. Better when they're less on the Marr tip.

― bendy, Saturday, 17 July 2010 00:07 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, the gather, sparser stuff I like more than the jangles. Shoulda been content...

On to Earth, Wind & Fire!

― bendy, Saturday, 17 July 2010 00:26 (fifteen years ago)

Gather=gother

― bendy, Saturday, 17 July 2010 13:59 (fifteen years ago)

Easterhouse was a second tier Rough Trade band that managed for one album to punch above their weight. When I listen to it now I love the naive charm, melodies, and big chunky basslines. Interpol before Interpol sounds about right.

― don't cry for me maradona (leavethecapital), Saturday, 17 July 2010 15:51 (fifteen years ago)

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