SING TO GOD

Part pub knees-up, part wickedly complex progressive music, part in-yer-face punk chutzpah, the CARDIACS' 'Sing to God' is unfailingly excellent and in places astonishing.

The supposed inventors and sole members of the genre 'pronk' (prog punk), the CARDIACS sound like you'd expect: a mash-up of brazenness and sophistication. But don't be deceived. Behind the punky singing and out-there music lies a band with a meticulous ear for complexity. Some of the music on this album defies description: 'Eat It Up Worms Hero' is akin to a smash-and-grab raid in which the object stolen is your brain, so bizarre is the sound. 'Angleworm Angel' is a riot. 'Dog Like Sparky' will haunt me for ages, and 'Fiery Gun Hand' is plain creepy. 'Dirty Boy' is so far beyond brilliant it deserves entirely new adjectives. How on earth did they make sounds like that? Can I listen to it again?

This band is clearly sited in the experimental side of modern prog: there are few references to the classic prog sound of the 70s on 'Sing to God'. Instead, this album demonstrates how the SPIRIT of progressiveness can infuse any genre and make it an adventure. It will more than satisfy anyone looking for something different, anyone who wants a new taste to wake up a jaded palette.

I don't think it's quite a masterpiece, however. First, it needn't have been a double CD: with a little trimming of some of the less interesting tracks, this could have been a killer disc. I don't have any objection to extra material, but the quality here is uneven. 'A Horse's Tale' and 'Red Fire Coming Out Of His Gills' aren't really up to it. Second, I miss the cheekiness of their earlier stuff, the blart of Sarah Smith's saxophone, the tossing-off of outrageously complex material without a moment's thought. Here it sometimes seems a little too knowing, a little too clever. And I can't help feeling that with age has come a slight diminution of their incredible energy. Tim's Smith's voice seems to have receded along with his hairline. Nevertheless, I wish more bands were like the CARDIACS.

This is dangerous territory: venture into the CARDIACS' world at your peril. Don't blame me if you become addicted.

How should one even begin to explain this monster known as Sing To God? Well you really don't, just listen to Eden On The Air and the album will work it's own way into your heart and mind from there on!

Originally I was very suspicions to all the positive reviews that this album has received on a number of different websites and I must admit that it took me a few revisits until I actually started to appreciate all this music. But once I did it sort of became an addiction where I basically had to hear it at least once a day over a course of three months time. So now there is no doubt in my mind that this is just a real beast of a composition that transcends both genres and time!

Both of the albums two parts have something great and unique to add to the album so I definitely recommending getting the complete album especially once they finally become available through the official website. Until then almost all are their albums are available on iTunes I would consider it a wasted opportunity if you decided to hold on to your hard earned cash on this rare occasion.

Sing To God is an essential double album for everyone who enjoys creative music with a twist!

***** star songs: Eden On The Air (2:21) Eat It Up Worms Hero (2:33) Dog Like Sparky (4:53) Fiery Gun Hand (5:13) Bellyeye (4:09) A Horse's Tail (3:47) Manhoo (4:59) Bell Stinks (1:19) Bell Clinks (2:54) Angleworm Angel (2:24) No Gold (3:31) Nurses Whispering Verses (9:53)

**** star songs: Insect Hoofs On Lassie (3:00) Fairy Mary Mag (3:44) Wireless (8:22) Dirty Boy (8:54) Billion (0:41) Odd Even (3:18) Flap Off You Beak (3:44) Red Fire Coming Out From His Gills (2:14) Foundling (5:27)

*** star songs: Quiet As A Mouse (1:28)

Total rating: 4,52

There are very few albums I can listen to more than once or twice per week. Most of the time I end up waiting even two weeks between listens of my favorite albums, both because I enjoy listening to a variety of music and because I don't want the albums to get worn out for me. On occasion, though, I find some here and there which I can listen to nonstop. At first, this album was one I didn't listen to more than once a year, but for whatever reason it's really clicked with me lately and now I've listened to it three times in two days (well, I'm partway through my third listen, but you get the idea). I don't know what exactly it is about this album, but I can't get enough of it. I absolutely LOVE what Tim and crew did on this album. Maybe it's the incredibly diverse mix of styles/elements in their music, maybe it's their energy...most likely it's the indescribable, incredible genius of Tim Smith really displaying itself for all to see. Such true Genius (yes, with a capital G) is a very rare thing in rock music, I think. Very few other people really "do it" on the same level as Tim seems to be able to - for me, he's right up there with Christian Vander and Tatsuya Yoshida in my trinity of most revered musical minds. Anyway, I suppose I should get onto the album at some point in this review...

What exactly is this album like, you might ask...I'd tell you it's like punk, prog, classic rock, modern rock, and about 1000 other things combined (though in my opinion in an entirely different way than the combinations made by Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, etc) and wholly unlike anything else. It is, if I may say so, one of those very rare cases of musical perfection. The album can be IN YOUR FACE, it can be subdued, it can be anywhere in between, and it manages to pull of just the right mixture of it all. Some tracks are good beyond words (for example, I agree with Russell about "Dirty Boy", it's one of the most amazing tracks I've ever had the good fortune of listening to), others are "just" amazing. My first exposure to the band was the track "Fiery Gun Hand" which is available to listen to here at PA, and that one hooked me right away - the bizarro atmosphere, the high energy, and the completely astounding guitar solo worked together really well for me. Other tracks (including "Dirty Boy") took many, many listens to truly love, but now I think the album would be sorely lacking if it missed even the shortest of tracks on display here. I guess that to sum up what I'm trying to say here in one sentence, I'd have to say something like "I'm so incredibly in love with this album that I can't even begin to describe it." I don't have much else by the Cardiacs yet, but very soon now (thanks to the current availability on iTunes) I'm going to expand my collection, and most likely I'll end up writing more glowing, completely biased reviews of their albums.

Again, as Russell said - be careful...it's very easy to become addicted to this album. I'm assuming most of you can guess (even if you didn't see the rating before reading this) that I consider this a true masterpiece. Five stars isn't enough, but I suppose it'll have to do.

P.S. Be willing to give this album a good amount of listens. It is definitely a grower, and it's well worth the time.

Let's just get this out in the open: This is probably one of the best albums of the 90s, one of the best progressive albums, and one of the best albums, ever, period. I saw the reviews here on PA and got the album, and almost cried just from the ambition, originality, creativity, and actual PROGRESSIVENESS that the "Cardiacs" display here. This is no Neo-Prog, which tries to return to the days of the old, but instead "Sing To God" takes the old it pushes it forward at about 400 mph. It might be a bit of a culture shock at first, but the Cardiacs actually manage to combine what many think of as musical arch enemies (though I certainly don't): Punk and Prog (Or "Pronk" as it is called sometimes), and instead of just "dumbing down" the prog with the punk as one might think, it takes punkish elements such as fast drums, power chords, and distorted singing (Provided by the great Tim Smith, who sounds a bit like Johnny Rotten, only in tune), and mixes these elements with some very frantic sounding (Even Zappa sounding) melodies. This results in music that can be very much "In you face" and at the same time be very melodic.

The album itself is not a concept album, but more a collection of songs, written by Tim Smith when the band was on a break. Though the unconeptiness of it all, the album achieves a pretty high level of fluidity. And all the songs are great. Not one would I want off this album, and every song is very close to a masterpiece or higher. The first two opening tracks, "Eden On The Air" and "Eat It Up Worms Hero" are not only amazing tracks, but they show the astounding variety of the band's sound. "Eden" is quite beautiful and very weird (In a good way, of course), and "Eat It..." Is the band at its heaviest, and yet very melodic. It is just unexplainable. Other very good tracks are "Insects Hoofs On Lassie", "Fiery Mary Mag", and "Dirty Boy", just to name a VERY select few.

This is probably one of the most rewarding albums in progressive music. I warn anyone who is a bit startled at first listen: It's scary at first. This is far more different than any progressive music I have ever heard, but it's also much more (literally) progressive than anything made after 1974 (Which was King Crimson's "Red", of course). This album will make you want to stand up and cheer, it will make you go through several epiphanies, and just completely melt off your face.

This is album deserve 6/5, but unfortunately there's no such option on PA (Lame!).

'Sing to God' is a culmination of 15 years hard work and toil.

The Cardiacs are probably best known for their crazy appearance on UK TV show 'The Tube' in '86 - which turned me into a lifelong fan. It was like something straight out of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest'!

This is the Cardiac's undoubted masterpiece. They're clearly off their rockers - but musically they're finely honed and tuned in to one another to the nearest nanosecond. Just as well for them as this must have been absolute murder to record. The tempo shifts are dramatic to say the least.

Tim Smith... acknowledged Gentle Giant fan is the singer songwriter genius responsible for this monstrosity of a double album which at times threatens to collapse under its own weight... but never does because of the skill involved in the musicianship. The highlight must surely be 'Angleworm Angel' which puts knots in my stomach each time I hear it with it's intensity and frantic pace. Towards the end it even seems to turn into a football hooligan chant - with its 'Oi, Oi, Oi' shouts

I saw the Cardiacs in '92 for the princely sum of £2 in Glasgow and to this day it's my favourite gig of all time. It was hysterical to watch and hysterical to listen to, with the bass player Jim taking a fair amount of abuse from brother Tim, simply because he was fat!

'Sing to God' is an incredibly complex and masterfully executed double album without a dull moment. It's also their hardest hitting, most ambitious, fearless and most difficult listen. One of my all time favourite albums. One for a desert island. Hope you're better Tim... I really miss the Cardiacs.

"And now for something completely different.... the Eraserhead of Prog"

"Sing To God" is an album that I had to check out due to the glowing praise it receives here, the album cover appears like a rash all over the forums, those staring eyes and white faces burned their image into my brain. I thought it would be something different. I was right. It is. I can only describe this music as I hear it. And at times it is impossible to describe, so here goes my attempt. I am just going to post my notes as I don't want to spoil my initial reaction with any edits. Hope this makes sense and you can comprehend them. So this is a different review from me, but one that I think is appropriate as the initial reaction to this music is one of astonishment.

1. Eden On The Air (2:21) nice intro to the band, a chiming bell, vocals are unusual, plain weird and surprisingly original. Challenging though to hook onto this at first. Queen harmonies and accented ocker vocals from Tim Smith.

2. Eat It Up Worms Hero (2:33) Hello Frank Zappa! Playing all the wrong notes over a fast tempo and loud noisy vocals. It fades and piano starts up for no reason and ends abruptly. At this point I am thinking either they are geniuses or just sending up the music scene. No, they are geniuses.

3. Dog Like Sparky (4:53) time sig change heaven. The British accents are strong, The Kinks revved up to maximum overload, or maybe it's The Living End with time changes thrown in. Love the way the chorus changes sig and speeds up absurdly. Hard to make out what the song is about but I think it's about a dog like Sparky because ; "we never ever sing like Sparky, crawling is my world (?)." Interpreter please.

4. Fiery Gun Hand (5:13) a fast rollicking quasi-punk song, notable for one of the weirdest manic lead guitar solos by Jon Poole which I read is actually over 40 edits of a guitar solo just collaged together, but its effective and very memorable. A lot of this music sounds like takes montaged together to create those razor sharp time changes and chord progressions. The sound is very random but keeps the ear jarring wonderfully. The keyboard breakdown at the end is also all over the place, but its refreshing to hear such inventiveness on a song. Brilliant.

5. Insect Hoofs On Lassie (3:00) the time sig switches bizarrely from 4/4 to a swing time rag. It is akin to what might be described as circus jazz. The keyboard motif that ascends and descends is effective. The staccato harmonies that blast out sound like Queen. Indescribable music with dramatic tension and the songs don't go for long which is a good thing so we can prepare for the next slice of weirdness.

6. Fairy Mary Mag (3:44) by the time this one strikes up I am already used to Cardiacs, and expect bizarre time changes and loud processed multi tracked singing. This one has a medieval feel in the music and then some splashes of colour especially the of kilter ending. The sweet child's voice is very peculiar but more of that will be nice to balance Tim's abrasive vocals.

7. Bellyeye sounds like the alternative indie bands from the 90s overflow of such bands, were talking Ash, Blur and others similar. Tim is fantastic on vocals here, loud, brash and with straight tough ocker British accent. This one is a lot more straight forward than the hyper strangeness previous. The melody is a lot easier to latch onto and I really liked this one. It soon lapses into some odd meters but feels less patched together for my ears which are already beginning to cope with the interchanging musical shapes and keep up with the vocal gymnastics.

8. A Horse's Tail (3:47) a manic intro and vocals that go up and down the scale following the circus riffs. One part chilled me with some snarling shouts. The weird melody is always changing and sounds like about 6 songs spliced together. I like that though as you never have time to get bored. That's one thing it isn't; boring. Anyone who says that clearly didn't hear it properly. The metal riff at the end is great but fades before you have time to enjoy it. Once again the band are really pushing the envelope with all these time sigs and its original to say the least.

9. Manhoo (4:59) has psychedelic processed vocals and some high pitched munchkin voices which are okay for this type of music that is now reminding me of The Sweet on helium. Weird but that's how it sounds. It even has a 70s feel like bubblegum pop such as 'Poppa Joe' or 'Co- Co' from the glam era. As I write that the time sig changes and become quite serene before it bursts open into a thrashy loud nasty section. Then an orchestra is heard sounding like it is spliced backwards, back to the main theme, and the verses return. So after all these detours it actually goes back to the original song. The Beatles 'I Am The Walrus' style is a strong contender here for how it sounds.

10. Wireless (8:22) is the longest piece on the first part of this oddity. The sigs chop and change ridiculously and I love it, especially that repetitive rhythm figure, it's beginning to lock into my skull. The ending of this track sounds like someone splashing water, a narration about the power of boats on waves, and then a sweeping mellotron cuts through with astounding impact. If you listen to this music and then turn on the commercial radio station, your ears will go into overload just trying to adjust to the straight 4/4 rhythm. The Cardiacs are wildly inventive and splish splash melodies all over the place and it actually becomes a compelling experience. Then I remember looking at the track listing that I have another CD of this stuff to listen to! Bring it on, this is great.

I am now converted by this stage to Cardiacs style, my ears are adjusted to odd time changes, and I want more so eagerly turn up the volume for the next CD to infiltrate my senses.

1. Dirty Boy (8:54) is another lengthy belter. It starts with a slow plodding rhythm, reminding me of Alice Cooper's 'Devil's Food' for some reason, and some excellent guitar riffs. The lead breaks are simple here but effective. Tim's vocals are harmonised together with I don't know how many layers of vocals but it is a solid sound that is generated; a veritable wall of sound. This is noisy and anthemic and gets weirder as it goes, with very high vocals and almost non stop guitar clanging on a ruptured percussion beat. An absolutely addictive classic track. The lengthy 2 minute held note at the end is ear piercing but effective in jarring the senses.

2. Billion (0:41) the shortest thing on the album, which is basically a cathedral keyboard driven with processed vocals. reminds me of The Residents short tracks; a melody, a short verse and an abrupt end.

3. Odd Even (3:18) this has a warbled guitar distortion and Tim's vocals are non stop with some more harmonies. The shimmering music is rather off kilter and even has a medieval guitar solo with random notes, and a finger pop in the cheek to signal it in. What else are they going to throw at us?

4. Bell Stinks (1:19) nice title, the band have a wicked sense of humour, and this is a prime example.

5. Bell Clinks (2:54) nicer title, nutty music that may be punk prog; The Living End put through a blender. This is loud brash and abrasive and crunches with razor time changes. The lead break is even humorous as it is just a scale played over and over.

6. Flap Off You Beak (3:44) a whimsical melody, piano, lots of layered vocals, kerangging guitar clangs, and a low organ drone is what you hear. A side show circus of punked up prog.

7. Quiet As A Mouse (1:28) a short sharp shock of prog comedy. Voices are heard conversing about keeping mice alive, what are they, scientists doing experiments? "This one looks too quiet, quiet little mouse". Then a screaming sound ending with a ding. Hilarious.

8. Angleworm Angel (2:24) well the energy level is turned up to 11 on this fast frenetic hyper speedy thrasher. The guitars scratching metal chunks are great. Tim doesn't let up and sings flat out like a punk on speed. This is uproarious fun after the silence of the previous track. My ears are jelly now and I need a break. What's next?

9. Red Fire Coming Out From His Gills (2:14) a slower beat thankfully and I like Tim's vocals here and the chorus is terrific with that orchestra sound that chimes in. This is another highlight for me. Wow, those drums are incredible. It's over just as I start enjoying the rhythms.

10. No Gold (3:31) a nice falsetto vocal, backwards chiming keyboards, reversed strings, even sounds like variations of the melody of Big Ben's chimes.

11. Nurses Whispering Verses (9:53) is the lengthiest song on the album. Where are the nurses? I love the riff! That is just killer and so technical with all the chaotic time changes. That lengthy esoteric sound at the end generated with keys and effects is eerie, but a great way to end it. The album has not run out of steam and this is one of the greatest Cardiacs songs on offer here. But there's one more song!

12. Foundling (5:27) The last song is nice and long to end on a high note. This is softer, gentler and I can actually hear the lyrics; "I could walk with angels but I'd rather walk with you, the foundling" and "in the life everlasting, here comes the bride but he knows where she came from." Perhaps at the end my ears are fully adjusted now. There's some seriously weird stuff happening here. The melody is fractured with some low drones that have spacey sounds. A creaking door is heard. What, is it over already? This was a great album. The rollercoaster ride is over. Time to play it again.

So at the end of this album my ears are still ringing with odd time changes and noisy brash guitars and Tim's high warbling vocals and it has been a pleasant journey into an original sound. Cardiacs should be commended for their hyper originality if nothing else. Punk meets prog. Is it possible? Their inventiveness is off the map and some of the songs are killer classics. With 2 CDs of strange loud songs it could be hard to accept for many listeners and indeed the band are not going to appeal to one and all, but in a similar way to the nutter alert of Magma, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Residents, Frank Zappa or Van der Graaf Generator, once the style hooks into your system you are probably going to revel in the work of the band and listen to nothing else for a while. The album takes some getting used to, especially the time sigs and Tim's vocals, but it is out of the box and delightfully so. It is ferociously original and daring, taking risks that no other band would dare. This RIO (Rock in Opposition) group is exactly that; music that is in opposition to everything else out there. One of a kind and definitely worth a listen, parts are brilliant, parts are confounding but it is always compelling and jam packed with more inventiveness than most bands out there in the alternative scene.

EDIT: I was going to give it 4 stars then listened a few more times...... Scratch that down for another 5 star review. Sorry those who disliked this, it is an incredible original sounding masterpiece and deserves more recognition than it is currently getting. It is addictive and I will never get some of those delirious time sigs out of my system.

This is one of those bands you never seem to hear about, but the once or twice you ever hear them mentioned, they're described as the greatest band in the world. They seem to occupy a nonexistent genre that no one else has really pulled off in quite the same way. This is progressive rock, no doubt, but they are not a prog rock band. This is high-energy, fast post-punk music, but it's not really a punk band either. Some writeups refer to them as "pronk". Personally, though, I think it's a mistake to expect too much of the "punk" side of the equation. I know a lot about both prog and punk, and these guys are definitely much closer to the prog side. In fact, I would never have made the punk connection myself, had I not read it somewhere previously.

Their music is actually quite conventional on the surface, meaning it's not avant-garde noise, nor is it too complex for its own good. The pieces are mostly reasonable length, seem melodic enough, but there's something very strange about them. Each song seems to head in several different directions, an approach that sounds random at first but starts to take shape around the third listen, as if you're starting to understand their "language". Tempo shifts, complex keyboard solos, multitracked Queen-like vocals, moments of almost ridiculous intensity (e.g. the last couple minutes of "Dirty Boy" sound like a swelling finale that never ends), all this is is crammed into a dizzyingly overstuffed double CD. It can get exhausting, but if you're willing to just let it wash over you, and don't try to nail it down tightly into a preconceived stylistic mold, it's a very fun, exciting listen.

I've heard one other album by these cats, and it's not nearly as good as this one. This one, from what I've read, gets the most polarized reviews - either love or hate. I can't say yet that I love it or hate it, but it's interesting enough to bring me back for repeated listens. Now, for example, I'm almost getting dizzy listening to "A Horse's Tail". I think this band could benefit from some more objective analysis that doesn't just buy the stock line of "punk prog" hook line and sinker. It's not. If anything, it sounds like a progressive Midnight Oil or something. Weirdly cool.

'Sing to God' - Cardiacs (10/10)

Listening to Cardiacs, I get the mental image of a deranged gerbil in a hole somewhere composing music. Although at one point he may have been content to write jingles and fine- tuned pop ditties in exchange for sunflower seeds, Cardiacs represents everything past the point where the gerbil loses his grasp on reality and becomes wrapped up in creative fervor. Now unabated by mundane rodent things, the gerbil and his music fall deeper into madness. Although this may not do well to describe Cardiacs' manic mix of punk rock and avant-prog, it should give a good indicator of the feeling "Sing to God" gives me as a listener. It's catchy, experimental, and about as close to the peppy end of a manic depressive episode as I imagine music could aptly depict. Really, it's pop music beyond words or sense, and I can't seem to get enough of it.

Among other things, punk music arose as an opposition to the bombast and overcomplexity of progressive rock. In lieu of this, it's quite the irony to see Cardiacs not only fusing the two styles together, but doing so as if prog and punk were made for each other. "Sing to God" runs the gamut in terms of styles: a sense of symphonic bombast comparable to Yes is mixed with Beatles-esque baroque pop sensibilities and injected with the venom of pub- dwelling punk rock. These sounds- which would often conflict with each other in the 'real' world- are all fused with a viciously tongue-in-cheek attitude pleasantly reminiscent of Frank Zappa. I could also compare the band's overdubbed vocal harmonies to Queen, or the general 'what-the-hell-am-I-listening-to' atmosphere to Mr. Bungle, but Cardiacs ultimately stand on a ground of their own. Did I forget to mention that the band manage to make this experimental chaos as catchy as the plague?

Many of the songs on "Sing to God" rest on a tightrope between order and chaos. Many of the songs enjoy a level of comfort in catchy instrumental hooks and quaint vocal melodies. With the exception of a few tracks (most notably the cinematic-worthy "Dirty Boy", the unsettling soundscape "Quiet as a Mouse" and some of the shorter musical sketches), the majority of "Sing to God" boasts a foundation in good old fashioned songwriting. Vocalist and mastermind Tim Smith has a zany and wildly charismatic voice that would have even fit comfortably into British alternative rock canon, were it not for the extent Cardiacs take their basic elements and contort them. Although some elements are best kept as a surprise for fresh listeners, be sure to expect everything from 'chipmunk vocals' to film score flourishes, classically-influenced pianos, circus music, hyperpunk rhythmic energy and everything in between. Of particular note are the extra-wacky tunes "Dog-Like Sparky", "A Horse's Tale" and "Dirty Boy", a longer piece that gets remarkably profound and damned near celestial by the end of it. Tim Smith's lyrics are a world of their own, and though there's not often the sense that there's an explicit meaning behind the absurdity, they're absolutely fascinating within the context of such a chaotic album. Although- at an hour and a half- the album may be a little long for one comfortable sitting, there is no filler to speak of, although the first half is decidedly better than the latter.

In spite of the zany effects, absurdly surreal lyrics, wall-of-sound production and mile-per- second flow of ideas, Cardiacs remain- at their core- a pop band, and "Sing to God" remains a pop album. In the end, it's the interplay between the hyper-weird and catchy elements therein that makes the album so bloody fascinating. Depending on where your mental state may be at the time of listening, it will either be a trip through the most euphoric hyperparadise dreams could forge, or a reality-distrupting soundtrack to nightmares. Whatever way it may strike, "Sing to God" is pretty unforgettable, and it just may be the greatest experimental rock record I have ever had the strained pleasure of listening to.

More Songs About Dogs And God.

My gawd this is a bouncy album.

OK, so I first encountered them and brother Tim many years after this was originally released and frankly it bowled me over. I'm not entirely sure it would have worked for me when it came out in 1995, but then again I was a huge XTC fan and was going hungry for more of the same.

So, it would figure that when I took an interest in Cardiacs the catalog would be out of print. But yeah, I finally got an import of the re-release in 2013 and delighted in how it is wonderfully crazy.

So, this is pronk... I find it actually has very little to do with punk aside from a less than easy to listen to vocal style. There is no disdain for making complex music and interesting lyrics unlike the punk of the 1970's that allegedly destroyed progressive rock or art rock or whatever the hell you called it, if you were listening to it back then. Commercialitis was what brought the golden age of prog to an end.

I had refrained from exploring Cardiacs because my first encounter was a video from an older album that was fairly decently weird but didn't click with me. Finally ordered a copy of this and boy did it click. There was good new stuff out in 2013 but this one, which I got late in that year, really rivaled those.

I think what really makes this album for me is how they use synthesizers, really well. That if nothing else, that really divorces them from being punk.

My favorite songs to god are

Fiery Gun Hand "Sacred patience and a short silence And we will be sure as eggs is eggs that Jesus'll hold his fiery hand to the gun

And together we'll blow him to the ends of the earth To the ends of the earth"

and

Flap Off You Beak - "All nineteen birds flying fast up They are dead they are not alive Bad bird you flap off you beak High and mighty beady bird eye."

Also I had it in heavy rotation and was doing stair detailing when I head "perseverance understanding climb the stairs and cross the landing" in Horse's Tail.

I must admit i'm a little intimidated doing this review, my first of a CARDIACS album. I really hadn't checked them out until last year mainly because of the descriptions I had read about their music being fast-paced with chipmunk backing vocals and that Punk flavour. None of those three descriptions appealed to me in the least. Well after their music finally became available again about a year ago I decided to give them a chance, and here I am back to report. Run! Do not look back! Haha, just kidding I highly recommend this double album with perhaps the most talked about album cover on the planet. It always gets comments from those who see it for the first time. I should mention that Steven Wilson thinks Tim Smith(CARDIACS leader) is a genius and stated that CARDIACS music is complex especially the way Smith interlocks passages together. Kavus Torabi from KNIFEWORLD who played in the CARDIACS claims "...Tim is a visionary man, every, every, EVERYTHING he wrote is extraordinary". So yeah there are a lot of CARDIAC fans out there who will convince you with passion that there is no greater band. This is melodic yet frantic music with clever lyrics to over simplify it. Tim Smith was a fan of Prog before he started this band in the late seventies. He was a big fan of HENRY COW and saw them in concert back in the seventies. So the music of CARDIACS is Progressive Rock, onlyTim has put his own stamp on it.

Up first on disc one is "Eden On The Air" which is mellow compared to what will follow but I really dig this tune. "Eat It Up Worms Hero" hits the ground running. This is intense and quirky just as you'd expect from this band. "Dog-Like Sparky" opens with piano before Tim comes in with vocals and zany music. You'll notice that some CARDIACS album covers feature dogs on them. I like when the female vocals come in. Great singer that Sarah Smith is. Such an amazing track. "Fiery Gun Hand" kicks into gear fairly quickly with drums leading the way. Vocals join in. Man this is crazy with the lyrics and intensity. Check out the guitar solo 3 1/2 minutes in! As Karvus says, CARDIACS rarely have guitar solos but when they do they are the best. One of CARDIACS greatest tracks for sure. "Insect Hoofs On Lassie" makes me laugh but then the humour in a lot of CARDIACS music does. Brilliant! "Fairy Mary Mag" is just a killer! Love the instrumental intro. Vocals arrive along with what sounds like mellotron. So good. It sounds like Zappa before 3 1/2 minutes. Themes are repeated in this one of my favs. "Bellyeye" is another catchy track with vocals and it's funny. "A Horse's Tail" is another uptempo song with some insanity, okay lots of insanity. "Manhoo" is pretty good but it hasn't actually won me over yet despite the many who love it. "Wireless" ends disc one and it's 8 1/2 minutes long. Man this sounds so amazing, it's just different in that you really need to hear it. Sarah sings on this one too along with Tim. The second part of this track called "Perl On The Sea" comes in before 5 minutes as we get the same melody but spoken words come in. This is really cool, especially when the spoken words stop and we get this atmosphere in the form of orchestration to end it.

Disc two begins with "Dirty Boy" without question my favourite track on here and I can't believe it goes on for almost 9 minutes. I can't see another CARDIAC's track doing for me what this song does. The guitar, the passionate vocals, the lyrics. I'm in awe of this track and will stop here before I just gush all over the place. "Billion" is a short(less than a minute) piece with reserved vocals and a cool soundscape. "Odd Even" is fantastic, very catchy. So many great tracks on this recording. "Bell Stinks" is a short and intense instrumental until it becomes dreamy then it kicks back in. "Bell Clinks" is the fastest paced tune on here. Even the vocals are going a million miles per hour. "Flap Off You Beak" opens with piano before the whole band joins in. It settles some when the vocals arrive. "Quiet As A Mouse" is short with samples of a conversation between two people then strange sounds when they stop. "Angelworm Angel" is fast-paced with vocals and it rivals "Bell Clinks" with it's break-neck speed. "Red Fire Coming Out From His Gills" is interesting with the tempo changes and lyrics. "No Gold" is also different with the softer vocals and more laid back sound. "Nurses Whispering Verses" is a top three song for me. It kicks in before a minute and then proceeds to kick some major ass. Man what a song! The final tune "Foundling" really intrigues me for some reason. It's partly the words and partly the more laid back vocals as the sound pulsates slowly when he's not singing.

Man what a recording this is. This was released back in 1996 after the band was well established. As double albums go there are some tracks I could do without yet the highs are addictive to say the least. Still I can't give this anything more than 4 solid stars, that may change down the road.

Considered the pinnacle of the Mark II phase, SING TO GOD was the fourth studio album from the CARDIACS which came out in 1996, four years after the previous album "Heaven Born And Ever Bright." Having landed on his feet as the leader of a trimmed down four-piece band, Tim Smith shifted the band's eclectic keyboard drenched sound to a heavier progressive punk = pronk style which focused on the more aggressive twin guitar attacks accompanied by those indefatigable time signature workouts with beyond bizarre jazz-tinged chord changes. SING TO GOD took everything the CARDIACS had done up to this point and threw it all in a steaming hot cauldron and turned up the heat even more.

After losing the four key members that resulted in the band's first album as a quartet on the last album, drummer Dominic Luckman followed suit and left the band after "Heaven Born And Ever Bright" and was replaced by Bob "Babba" Leith thus completing what is called the second classic lineup which would only release this classic album SING TO GOD and the following final CARDIACS album "Guns." Guitarist / keyboardist John Poole took on a greater role in the songwriting department and within the course of the three years between albums the band accumulated a huge reservoir of material which resulted in a double album of 22 tracks that collectively add up to almost 89 minutes of spastic progressive art punk infused with new elements of psychedelia and catchy pop hooks. Other members also contributed more liberally to the creative process thus making SING TO GOD the most diverse sounding CARDIACS albums of their canon.

Although technically a quartet SING TO GOD still benefited from myriad guest musicians including vocals and saxophones by former member Sarah Smith, violins, trumpets, a string quartet, orchestral arrangements and even a musical appearance from a pair of scissors! While clearly an unmistakable CARDIACS album, SING TO GOD sounds like the band was phasing in and out of reality thus providing the soundtrack for another dimension or state of consciousness. Fortified with the usual crafty pop hooks infused with punk rock guitar heft, CARDIACS went for the angularity jugular on this double dipping of musical surreality. The first noticeable thing about SING TO GOD is the return to a more diverse palette of instrumentation with more keyboard parts courtesy of Jon Poole and a greater expansiveness of dynamics with tracks shifting from slow crawlers to bombastic punk fury without notice.

"Eden On The Air" starts the show with an introduction to the more atmospheric side of the band with those contorted rhythms, twisted time signatures and everything-in-opposition approach to songwriting without sacrificing the buttressing pop infused hooks that keep it all rather accessible. The following "Eat It Up Worms Hero" explodes into punk guitar fury but also goes for the brutal prog jugular with sudden stylistic shifts, flirtations with near metal music orotundity and an almost religious devotion to mondo-bizarro on the altar of unorthodoxy. While the main emphasis of SING TO GOD is much like "Heaven Born And Ever Bright" with the monstrous guitar riffs and theatrical vocals all fluttering around in frenetic zolo art punk style, the more psychedelic and orchestral elements that were added gave SING TO GOD a much more epic feel as opposed to previous CARDIACS releases.

SING TO GOD also showcased a new infatuation with production as that intangible extra instrument to take the music into even stranger worlds. Along with the punk fury barraging at quickened tempos, CARDIACS employed krautrock techniques more famously associated with the early 70s from bands like Faust, Neu!, Can and other German classics which adds a somewhat smoothing out of the incessant barrage of high octane derangement of the punk fueled avant-prog escapade resulting in one highbrow autistic episodic outburst after another. The addition of orchestral arrangements and the string quartet that serves as background supplementation only adds to this.

SING TO GOD was a slow burner for me having always preferred the classic Mark I lineup but after these 90s albums started to get under my skin i was a convert and now find all phases of the CARDIACS music to be equally ingenious thanks of course to the mastermind prodigy Tim Smith whose beyond eccentric idiosyncrasies required decades of the general public to catch up with to be able to handle such a barrage of creative genius. What's amazing about SING TO GOD is the diversity of tracks and an utterly brilliant attention to detail beginning with well-crafted melodic developments for all of the bells and whistles to wrap around. Sure it may require a number of spins to wrap your head around this menagerie of psychotic lunacy but once you adjust your antennae to receive the proper signals, this one will blow your mind even after you've heard it a number of times! Tim Smith has stated that the title SING TO GOD referred to an imaginary child's hymn book and if such a soundtrack existed in some twisted reality this would surely be it.