Worst Poll Scenario - the dEUS albums poll

Welcome DL! :)

Agree w/ Simon that while 'Pocket Revolution' has two good singles, as an album - after many line-up changes - it's ultimately forgettable. And like Gaudio said, Carlens took the more freaky bits with him to Moondog Jr./Zita Swoon.

'Nothing Really Ends' is probably my favourite post-IC songs, but I think it might have been recorded a while before the other songs on that album.

It was recorded during the 'Ideal Crash' sessions, when the band stayed in Ronda, Spain, for a couple of months. They thought it was a great song, too, but just couldn't seem to find a place for it on 'Ideal Crash'. They passed it on to the singles comp Simon mentions, made it a single too.

I get the impression that in Europe it's the post-In A Bar material that is most popular

From my experience (and I'm sure Stevie Nixed would back me up on this) this isn't the case; the first three are canon, after that - apart from an odd single here and there - it's become a bit 'meh' sadly.

They did a 20th Anniversary of Ideal Crash tour last year, playing the album in its entirety, in Belgium and over here. I hesitated but ultimately decided against going. I've seen them loads live back in the day, so no need really.

I think I read on Tom Barman's instagram that they wrapped up a new album.

shit man i never checked out moondog jr. listneing to greasy black feather now and it's ticking a lot of my boxes

Also, who wrote "I skipped the part about love" first - I take it that was R.E.M.? Or is it a reference to something sooner?

I remember reading an interview with Tom saying that playing R.E.M. while busking in the streets was their worst case scenario, so yes, definately R.E.M.

I think I heard a lot of the songs off WCS via singles a long time before I heard the album itself, so that might be why I hear it as disjointed. I should go back to it really. Hotellounge is probably my favourite dEUS song.

It has two tracks of the Zea-EP, they seem out of place on WCS. OTM regarding Hotellounge.

Off WCS which I'd heard before the album: Suds & Soda (on a comp), Jigsaw You (Live B-side), Via (Single), Hotellounge (Single), Great American Nude (B-side), Secret Hell (B-side)... So it looks like I'd heard most of it in some shape or form before actually hearing it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

not really surprising

It is to me, a bit! Thought 'In A Bar' would be second to either of the two others tbf. Good showing, relatively speaking.

I honestly think they've been received very differently in the Anglophone world than they have in the rest of Europe. They were never MASSIVE in the UK (although the show I went to see at the Scala in London was busy and the crowd was fervent), but from where I'm standing it was IABUTS that won most people over to them.

I remember the first album getting some rapturous reviews over here, by the time In A Bar... came out it was one Britpop explosion later and from then on they seemed to be treated as a kind-of-interesting but basically peripheral band. It hasn't occurred to me to listen to any of these in two decades and tbh I'd forgotten about them but revisiting them might be a rewarding project over the next few days.

I revisited In A Bar... a few weeks back, playing dEUS to my housemate who hadn't heard them before. Was surprised to find that the songds I used to love (like the title track and Little Arithmetics) hadn't aged so well, while others like Theme From Turnpike which I wasn't that keen on really came into their own.

I think you're right DL. Holland and Belgium were properly swept away by WCS. Funny you mention 'Little Arithmetics', because I to me that one def stood the test of time. The title song less so. Good idea to play it now to/with someone who's not heard of them before though, I might try that.

(In the end I voted with the heart and went for WCS, first love and all that)

Curious what you think Matt DC!

I still love Little Arithmetic, but there's a whimsicalness and a preciousness about parts of In A Bar which made more sense in the nineties (or at least to me in the nineties) than it does now. The other albums don't really do this as much.

I discovered dEUS because our local record shop was giving away WCS-era singles on CD for 50p each, and being a school kid with no money and a hunger for music they were very welcome. I also remember reading an interview with Tom Barman in one of those Volume CD/booklet compilations. My guess is that UKers' interests were piqued by WCS but it was In A Bar that they rushed out and bought.