My Dad Is Dead - ...and He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore [Red w/ Black Swirl] (New Vinyl LP)

Originally released in 1986, the debut album by My Dad Is Dead is remarkable not only for it's strong and varied material, but also how the aesthetic of MDID's music was fully formed and instantly recognizable from the git-go. Here are the open modal guitar tunings, the primitive drum machine paired with live drums, the complete rejection of the pentatonic scale and related 1970s guitar techniques, and the dry, journalistic language that brings a distanced, subdued pathos to the harrowing characters and their situations.

Few artists who traffic in the darker realms of the human condition do so without some degree of melodrama; Mark Edwards's penchant for understatement and distance brings even more gravity and impact to these songs of lost souls in a dying city. All these qualities would become hallmarks of the My Dad Is Dead sound for years to come. Like Edwards's next few albums,... And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore was performed and written entirely by himself, which only deepens the feeling of isolation that permeates the album. This 2021 reissue was remastered by John Golden Sr. And is a huge sonic improvement over the original pressing and early '90s European editions. Best of all, it includes an entire bonus LP of rare 1985 recordings that were only issued on cassette at the time. These are raw, primitive 4-track recordings that ooze with post-industrial Cleveland malaise. They include nine previously unn released songs, and early versions of four songs that were re-recorded for the album. Fans are certain to find some new favorites here.

Tracklist

A1        Talk To The Weatherman
A2        The Quiet Man
A3        Mary Jane
A4        Black Cloud
A5        Say Goodbye
A6        40 Hours
B1        Anti-Socialist
B2        It's Easier...
B3        My Head
B4        Death Of A Salesman
B5        In Your Mind
B6        Statistic
B7        Mother And Child
C1        Statistic
C2        Too Many
C3        The Entrepreneur
C4        Innocent
C5        Last Call
C6        Roughneck
D1        Indiana
D2        The Quiet Man
D3        Anti-Socialist
D4        Mary Jane
D5        Rut
D6        Waste