All Creatures Will Make Merry

All Creatures Will Make Merry
Studio album by Meursault
Released April 2010
(hand-printed edition)
24 May 2010 (general release)
Recorded Dec 09-Jan 10, Stockbridge, Edinburgh
Genre Folktronica, indie folk
Label Song, by Toad Records
Meursault chronology

Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues
(2008)		 All Creatures Will Make Merry
(2010)		 Something for the Weakened
(2012)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
BBC favourable[1]
Bearded favourable[2]
Clash [3]
Drowned In Sound [4]
The Line Of Best Fit favourable[5]
The List [6]
Mojo
Pitchfork Media (7.9/10)[7]
The Skinny [8]

All Creatures Will Make Merry is the second studio album by Scottish indie folk band Meursault, released on 24 May 2010. A limited edition, hand-printed version of the album was released in April 2010. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Neil Pennycook states that "the main theme of the record is one of contentment – what people are willing to do to obtain it, hold on to it, and what we stand to lose or gain if we try."[9]

Background and recording

Following the critical acclaim of the band's debut album, Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues, a newly extended version of Meursault recorded All Creatures Will Make Merry in the winter of 2009, in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Neil Pennycook states that "playing with a full live band helped shape this record considerably," and praised the contributions of both Phillip Quirie and Pete Harvey: "[they] opened up a huge range of possibilities with these songs."[10]

Pennycook states that his production was influenced by The Microphones and Mount Eerie.[10]

Content

According to songwriter Neil Pennycook, "the themes and motivation behind All Creatures Will Make Merry come from completely different place than those on Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues. I feel a certain duty to myself in terms of my own expectations for this album, other than that I couldn't imagine making an album to someone else's supposed criteria, that is my idea of hell."[11]

Track listing

All songs written by Neil Pennycook, performed by Meursault.

No. Title Length
1. "Payday"   1:00
2. "Crank Resolutions"   4:44
3. "All Creatures Will Make Merry… Under Pain of Death"   3:50
4. "Weather"   4:22
5. "One Day This'll All Be Fields"   3:29
6. "What You Don't Have"   5:16
7. "Another"   4:42
8. "New Ruin"   4:30
9. "Sleet"   4:50
10. "Song for Martin Kippenberger"   6:51
11. "A Fair Exchange"   1:52

Personnel

Meursault perform to a capacity audience at Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh for the launch of All Creatures Will Make Merry

Meursault

Recording personnel

Artwork

References

  1. ↑ BBC review
  2. ↑ Bearded Magazine review
  3. ↑ Clash Magazine review
  4. ↑ Drowned In Sound review
  5. ↑ The Line Of Best Fit review
  6. ↑ The List review
  7. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  8. ↑ The Skinny review
  9. ↑ Pennycook, Neil (31 March 2010). "Meursault's All Creatures Will Make Merry: Track-By-Track". The Skinny.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Brown, Ally (5 April 2010). "Meursault: Escape from Auld Reekie". The Skinny.
  11. ↑ McMeeken, Euan (9 February 2010). "The Steinberg Principle Interview #12: Meursault". The Steinberg Principle.

External links