Cardiacs 10 or less songs from 10 or less releases

Songs or tracks. One of my choices is an instrumental.

Here is a place to list 10 or less of our favourite tracks from ten Cardiacs releases. Those releases can be studio albums, EPs, lives and compilation albums.

I could have as easily gone with some others in some cases, but...

R.E.S. (The Seaside, 1983)
Stoneage Dinosaurs (Big Ship, 1987)*
The Whole World Window (A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window, 1988)
A Game For Bertie's Party (Archives Cardiacs, 1989)**
The Everso Closely Guarded Line (On Land and in the Sea, 1989)
All His Geese Are Swans (Songs for Ships and Irons, 1991)
The Alphabet Business Concern (Home of Fadeless Splendour) (Heaven Born and Ever Bright, 1992)
Big Ship (All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest, 1995)
Dirty Boy (Sing to God, 1996)
Signs (Guns, 1999)

* The youtube clip in the playlist below uses it on Songs for Ships and Irons.
** this song was originally on the Cardiac Arrest (before changing the name to Cardiacs) cassette The Obvious Identity, but this Archives release is better, cleaner sound quality.

What are yours?

And here is a playlist where I hope to include everyone's choices if it is on youtube (course several of us might list the same song, in which case I will just have it once in the playlist)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4JUX6XY-ffx3wPG5JL_3nTQ



Please don't be shy if you are not anywhere near approaching ten. Even one choice from one LP, EP, live, or compilation album would be appreciated.

So I did Swans, now Cardiacs, next up would be the mighty Magma.

Edited by Logan - August 09 2023 at 00:10

1. A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window: A Little Man And A House
2. The Seaside: R.E.S. (I actually prefer the Little Man and a House version, but this is still the best track on this album)
3. Sing To God: Dirty Boy
4. Heaven Born And Ever Bright: The Alphabet Business Concern
5. The Obvious Identity: A Game For Bertie’s Party
6. Toy World: Over + Over + Over + Over
7. On Land And In The Sea: The Everso Closely Guarded Line

Sing To God - Dirty Boy

Added three more

BrufordFreak wrote: Sorry, Greg. I've just never liked The Cardiacs enough to get to know any of their albums or songs much less ten of each!

Lots don't like Cardiacs who are much more familiar with the band than you. That's fine. I do appreciate you giving this not very popular topic a little more juice and attention (such things have a tendency to fall of the front page quickly, and my one post playlist strategy is not as effective as Paul's posting of videos process (I wanted a playlist, however, that cover all of our choices even if I am the only one to actually listen to it -- works better with obscurities).

Not even Dirty Boy? You bad, bad boy, shame on you! And not enough to know it's Cardiacs, not The Cardiacs. :) No reason you should due to your lack of familiarity, of course.

If you never really got to know much of anything, then you may well never have got to know if you could like them (stating the generally obvious, sorry), It could be a too superficial impression. Okay, I have heard bits and piece of music of acts that did not appeal and so I never pursued more, and with some I was confident that I would never like them. But sometimes you never know unless you put in some effort (it's so easy for me because I often will just check out music on youtube to get an understanding even if too basic a one -- otherwise it may be so far off my radar that I don't even think about them unless someone asks me). Lots of bands in PA I have checked out plenty of music from that I dislike and that I am ambivalent about (I both don't like and don't dislike various ones, I just don't really care). It's not enough to hear a song, of course, often, to really know it. There is a kind of osmosis process. In this case more familiarity may breed strong contempt. Sometimes minimal impressions are more than enough. It's all good.

I sincerely do appreciate you posting despite you not liking them, but I do hope you are not totally closed off to any future exploration or, if you have the technology, trying to stream some music off my playlist. Sometimes all it takes for me is finding five seconds of music that I can latch onto and that starts opening up a lot more music. I did not much like black midi, and now I love the band. But it took some perseverance. I then heard Ascending Forth and the rest is history. I believe in trying to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out and in trying to keep open ears but not so open that your earbuds (or hearing aids) fall out.

If that doesn't float your boat, this cover from the album Singin' to God might tickle you (not sure if you have issues now where listening to youtube is hard).



Cardiacs can be an acquired taste. I disliked Cardiacs because of Tim Smith's vocals and the silly circus atmosphere that I first was exposed to on songs like "Tarred and Feathered" (you might have seen the old music video for that). It was when I heard Dirty Boy, which I guess most people who would check out from Cardiacs with even a modicum of seriousness about getting to know the band as it is a very Cardiacs 101 song, that I grew into becoming a fan. It's also a band where I think so many people covered it so well that one could enjoy Cardiacs music without listening to actual Cardiacs. I'm fan of building up to crescendos sound, and I find Cardiacs satisfying in that way.

Not saying you should listen to any of this (I don't know how much you attempted before giving up, not enough perhaps to even remember any song names). This is one track I suggested to some people who don't like Tim Smith's vocals:



Lewian, who is something of a Cardiacs aficionado, doesn't think it very good, but good or not, it is very good for me. I love it and it does have a kind of build-up that I love (that involves an ascending phrase).

By the way, I would not expect many people here to know ten songs off ten releases. Under the Cardiacs name there are only seven studio albums. One was released as Cardiac Arrest before that which is very poor audio quality demo type cassette thing. The first Cardiacs proper album is a demo, the next does not have the greatest audio quality. I think the key three Cardiacs studio albums are A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window, On Land and in the Sea (my two studio album faves due to sax appeal and the keyboards) and Sing to God (Dirty Boy is off that). A favourite of mine is the compilation album, Songs for Ships and Irons. For a live, I like All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest.

Anyway, I don't like these topics to just be about making lists, and I encourage those who have issues with Cardiacs to share their experiences. I won't even try to force people to check out music, but if people share what they don't like, I will try to suggest music that may make them feel better about the artist. Many times people have done that favour for me and found tracks that did appeal when it came to bands that I had negative feeling towards. Sometimes I'm the one who did that work myself. This is meant as a kind of appreciation thread, but as long as people aren't saying the music is bad etc., I'm really happy to hear about those stories and see conversations on that. To me that can be really positive, and even cathartic at times. And I know my mind has been changed a number of times due to such discussions or at least I have been a little less ignorant by the end and maybe had a different perspective to consider. And if minds aren't changed, as long any disagreement or opinions are expressed in a civil and hopefully amiable manner, no problem. Okay, I do find that that sucks kind of comments can be fun and I do like flame wars sometimes, but this is probably not the best place for that.



Edited by Logan - August 14 2023 at 16:38