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  The Wicked Bible

  Freelance Mourners’ follow up to 2010’s self-released Let’s Get Dead! marks a considerable change in direction for the Birmingham boys’ sound, both sonically and thematically, with an ambitious concept album The Wicked Bible.
  Based around the infamous misprint that appeared in a 1631 edition of the King James Bible (the publishers accidentally omitted the word ‘not’ from the seventh commandment, making it read Thou Shalt Commit Adultery), the eleven tracks on the album mostly revolve around extra-marital affairs, madness and murder. To their usual squall of trashy guitar and pounding drums, the Mourners have added a patchwork of sleazy trumpets and thumping bass, over which singer Lee Mess howls and hollers his broken poetry of wretched love and squalid affairs, frequently sounding as if his throat has been torn out by wild dogs.
  Album opener ‘If you Can’t be Good’ sets the tone, conjuring images of good ol’ boys drinking bourbon on a Monday night, with Mr Mess making not-too-veiled threats about what will happen should his unfortunate lover ever attempt to leave him. The atmosphere of menace continuing through raucous single ‘I’ll Be There’ and ghostly murder-ballad, ‘Seeds of Doubt’. Next up is ‘Demon Seed’ (a reference to the 1977 Julie Christie B-movie) and ‘What Little Girls are Made of…’ a ska-inflected party tune that manages to both charm and threaten the listener in the same, raspy breath.
  At the centre of the album is the show-stopping, mini-epic ‘Maybe thou Shalt’, which tells the tragic story of Christopher and his swinging wife. Reminiscent of William H. Macy’s character in Boogie Nights, (or perhaps the League of Gentlemen’s Alvin Steele?), Christopher is gradually driven mad by his wife’s constant philandering until one stormy night he resolves to confront her, breaking into next door’s house only to find his wife in bed with his neighbour, leading to a grizzly, sob-stained crescendo.
  The rest of the album continues in a similar vein, taking in themes of loss (‘Baby in the River’), adultery (‘Thy Neighbours Wife’) and abandonment (‘And the Goat departs…’), before ending on the poignant ‘Who Killed the Party?’, which seems to discuss not just the end of the album but perhaps the end of the band.
  Whether or not this is the end of Freelance Mourners, or simply another link in their evolution, The Wicked Bible stands as a monument to their collective talents, capturing the blistering intensity of their live shows as well as providing a showcase for their many different faces, the humorous, the manic, the angry and, perhaps most surprisingly, the sad.
  
  Includes immediate download of 11-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. ... more

  Buy Now  ₤3 GBP

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