Longpigs
Mobilehome

The Longpigs.

The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off!

No, but it's not an anger like waiting for the new Radiohead album that still has to come out; it's a different kind of anger.

In 1996 the Longpigs released an absolute masterpiece of indie-rock. "The Sun Is Often Out"
Inside, there were songs each more beautiful than the last. Crispian Hunt's arching voice yelled, drooled, and in that context was perfect with its sudden hysterics. With its sudden crazed high notes. Songs shot at 2000km/h.

The Longpigs.

Hailing from Sheffield, a charming town in Yorkshire, England, they have a cool name. Their name literally means "long pigs". The name was an appellation given to cannibals. Cool, right?
Crispian Hunt has parents who were hippies. Cool that too, right? After the ticking time bomb that was their debut album, the Longpigs stopped for three very long years.

The Longpigs.

In 1999 they released "Mobilehome".
(And this is where I start to get pissed off)
Crispian's voice begins to drool too much and is blatantly out of tune on this album, which totally loses the rock tone of their beginnings. "Mobilehome" turns out to be too pompous, with arrangements that are too electronic, and Crispian's voice doesn't seem quite suitable for these types of arrangements.
The songs that to me signify the end of what used to be the wonderful group that was the Longpigs are "The Frank Sonata" and "Baby Blue". These are nothing but auditory messes worthy of a filthy-rich pop star, who occasionally releases a sappy ballad accompanied by a video where she's half-naked and playing the floozy left and right. But it doesn't seem to me that Crispian has breasts, and remember, he was a cool dude, right? His parents were hippies?

What happened to their rock'n'roll? (quoting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
What happened to their compositional ability?
And why such a radical change of course?

Which could also be nice as long as it's well done, but it turns out long, heavy, excessively sweet. I would almost define it as good coffee with so much sugar that it rots your teeth.

Another "pearl" showcasing this group's descent into the underworld is "Dog is Dead", a pathetic song rich in church-like choruses in the refrain and Crispian's voice, which picks up a bit of the tone it had in the miraculous debut, completely out of tune with the atmosphere of the song, which is tragic, indeed, because his dog died! And this one despairing is the same who once sang:

The quality that this group had has been literally thrown away, and I'm sorry to review them negatively, but unfortunately, I try to be objective and say what they deserve. Honestly, I don't know how many people would prefer this Mobilehome to the stunning debut that left my mouth agape. With that bizarre cover depicting the man with a briefcase lost in a bluish liquid with a black dot on his head.
It's nonetheless useless to talk about every single song, given that they are all identical and have the same structure. The one that might be saved is "Gangsters", which I think was a single. In this, the guitar is decently played, and one could say it has a good rhythm, and the spoken part at the end is relatively nice, but it's not enough.
The album turns out to be long, pompous, poorly articulated, static, and out of tune with the context.

The Longpigs.

They were never heard from again after 1999. I guess they broke up. Probably Crispian Hunt became a hippie. Or maybe he went crazy. The fact is that after this "Mobilehome", which was a real flop, there was no trace of the Longpigs.