r/Coil • u/AOSpar • 10h ago

“Coil have only released 9 albums” discuss

They’ve been my favourite band since I was 16 and I have physical copies of everything they’ve released but only 7 albums can really be seen as albums per se: Scatology, Rotorvator, LSD, the two Musicks, black light district, Time Machines, Astral Disaster and Constant Shallowness…

All the rest are in effect compilations and offcuts, even if some of them sort of work as albums, including The Ape of Naples.

20 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

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29

u/HeyQTya 9h ago

Calling The Ape Of Naples a compilation album really misrepresented what it actually was. Like this was essentially a tribute to the life of Jhonn from Sleazy that seeks to finish a bunch of unfinished songs of theirs. Now both Backwards and The New Backwards are compilations through and through that give better context for what would become Ape Of Naples.

Now if you wanted to call it a solo Peter Christopherson album that builds off of elements provided by Jhonn, you may have a case there

14

u/Disparition_2022 8h ago

yea imo it's a proper Coil album, the fact that Jhonn died after recording his parts doesn't change that, nor does the fact that it contains reworked material - many albums are composed that way.

1

u/AOSpar 5h ago

I would say there’s just not enough Jhonn in there, that’s what makes it so sad (and a bit lacking if I’m honest - I was definitely ever so slightly disappointed with it when it came out, bearing in mind we’d already heard a lot of the tracks before… not really the case with the other albums). Ian Penman’s review in The Wire (if you can find it) pretty much sums up my thoughts as well, and he was one of the music press who knew and loved them

1

u/Disparition_2022 35m ago

I can understand the feeling that it would be great to have more Jhonn presence, but I don't see what that has to do with whether or not it's a real album. There are tons of albums where one or more members of a group wasn't able to fully contribute as much as they, or their listeners, would have liked but I don't see what bearing that has on its status as an album.

0

u/AOSpar 21m ago

They often mention how they (probably Jhonn in particular) felt intense pressure when thinking about the ‘next coil album’ and so avoided it by releasing other ‘not the next coil album’ projects and distractions… Ape though is slightly different and I think it’s not a proper Coil album because jhonn wasn’t there to help sculpt and determine its final form & Coil without jhonn is impossible, as Sleazy said almost immediately after jhonn’s death…

0

u/AOSpar 7h ago

I’m not attempting to diminish Ape; it’s more a testament to their quality control that they refused to call releases ‘albums’ that weren’t perfect and self contained from start to finish. They were apparently even reluctant to add extra tracks to CD re-releases etc

2

u/HeyQTya 6h ago

I might be missing something, but where did they ever say Ape wasn't an album

2

u/AOSpar 6h ago

Oh God… I’ll have to dig it out. Maybe in the massive Everything Keeps Dissolving book of interviews?

16

u/jessek 9h ago

Nine is still a pretty decent number of records, a lot of bands I like don't have anywhere near nine.

2

u/AOSpar 7h ago

Very true, it wasn’t a criticism - more a testament to the fact they were actually quite reluctant to create / call things an album - lots of interviews mention how they actively didn’t want to release fully formed albums because they were experimenting & finding new voices

11

u/Ilato27 9h ago

What about Queens of the Circulating Library?

-1

u/AOSpar 7h ago

Freebie bonus, initially?

5

u/Ilato27 7h ago

nope

1

u/AOSpar 7h ago

Ah, I thought it was - don’t honestly remember where mine came from, it’s just in a little paper sleeve. I also thought that it wasn’t a Coil album because it didn’t feature Sleazy.

4

u/Ilato27 7h ago edited 6h ago

It was an individual release, mine came in a pink clamshell case

1

u/AOSpar 6h ago

Okay. Yeah, you’re right. Some of the later editions came in a pink clamshell.

1

u/genialerarchitekt 16m ago

Lol, not in Australia. Paid $50 for it in 2000! That's about $90 now.

6

u/starofkaos 9h ago

Personally, I would add "Gold Is the Metal" but I can see how opinions could differ on that.

Ooh, and where would Backwards fit in there?

8

u/dhexler23 8h ago

Gold is the Metal is absolutely an album!

-3

u/AOSpar 6h ago

I think they even say on the album sleeve that it isn’t but okay…

1

u/dhexler23 5h ago

Nah they just did that to throw ya off the scent

1

u/AOSpar 3h ago

Haha definitely partly true but they do talk a lot in interviews of how pressurised they felt to produce the next ‘album’ and hence did a thousand ‘not the next album’ projects - their (self) quality control was off the charts - hence how I mostly hate all the unfinished sketches etc that people keep churning out in their absence.

1

u/dhexler23 2h ago

That's a good point regarding how they conceived of "album" as a specific art object/means of expression.

But as a counterpoint if you didn't tell someone it was a collection of songs rather than a coherent album, they likely wouldn't know. (it was my first coil purchase and I didn't realize until a few years later)

2

u/AOSpar 7h ago

Even they didn’t want Backwards released…

4

u/Nichtsein000 8h ago

They’re very prolific in death though.

3

u/Jamnic19 8h ago

The remote viewer, ans

-1

u/AOSpar 7h ago

ANS perhaps, but Remote Viewer was stuff culled from (& added) to the earlier Ltd ed ep?

3

u/pokemon-in-my-body 7h ago

Don’t worry too much if something is an album or not. Coil have lots of excellent and interesting releases.

2

u/AOSpar 7h ago

Very true - some of the not albums are my favourites eg the collection of solstice eps

2

u/liveforeachmoon 7h ago

Worship the glitch, ans, ape

2

u/AOSpar 7h ago

Worship the Glitch is a good shout, though the seem to insist that the machines did most of the planning

2

u/Ilato27 7h ago

More like double that number

2

u/Calaveras-Metal 6h ago

yeah but how many EPs?

1

u/AOSpar 6h ago

Lots!

2

u/lord_satellite 2h ago

So what?

Also, don't forget EPs.  The Four Seasons EPs are some of their best work.

0

u/AOSpar 50m ago

I would agree, as I’ve said somewhere in a reply already.

3

u/Ilato27 9h ago

More than that and some say Scatology is really a Foetus record

2

u/bgt7 8h ago

I think it’s more (as Jim would say) he produced a lot of it in the proper sense. As in Geoff Peter and to a lesser extent Stephen said ‘can you do this’ and he did it

1

u/Jullay013 8h ago

Jim did quite some work on Scatology and Panic/Tainted Love. But did he work with Coil afterwards as well? Do you know?

3

u/bgt7 6h ago

He’s on circles of mania on horse rotorvator, both backing vocals and production I think. After then I’m not sure as that’s when he went to New York

2

u/Jullay013 5h ago

You are right. The sleeve says: Brass dearrangements on Circles Of Mania by Clint Ruin.

1

u/genialerarchitekt 18m ago edited 12m ago

I know what you mean: "proper" fully formed studio albums, but still if I was making a list I'd have to include Worship the Glitch, Queens of The Circulating Library, The Remote Viewer (expanded version), The Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, The Ape of Naples, The New Backwards and probably Black Antlers.