Album Of The Week #61: Whipping Boy - Heartworm

insinkerator

Artist: Whipping Boy
Album: Heartworm
Label: Columbia Records
Tracks: 11
Length: 44:25
Release Date: November 1st 1995

The 2nd album from recently reformed Irish group Whipping Boy. The broke up three years later in 1998, only to reform again in 2005, announcing tour dates and hinting at a new album

Other Albums
Submarine
Whipping Boy

homerun_homer

My favourite Irish album ever. It's such a great record and it is a big pity that it wasn't pushed overseas to make an impact. I think they would have made a big influence on a lot more people if it had.

lordgoat

This is one of the best irish albums. Anyone on this forum should go and listen to it. For a taster listen to We Don't Need Nobody Elses and Twinkle. If they don't hook you the last track Morning Rise will.

Personal highlight - A Natural, the hidden track at the end.

Today was not a good day for me.

Mr E

Superb album, one of the best Irish albums ever.
The full album for Heartworm will alway be on my ipod.

Pity the followup was so weak, but it had ALOT to live up to.
Look out for Submarine too (before Heartworm) - it was 2nd best out of the 3.

insinkerator

While the name does sound vaguel familiar, i am sure i have never heard any thing by them. I guess i will have to do some research, look up those songs that lordgoat recommended....

Mr E

We Don't Need Nobody Else:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_xIL_oitZI

Twinkle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVxTwq0oTvM

Morning Rise (A Natural is at the end):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L32XyNA0dsU

Mr E

The live gigs were pretty rowdy too (in the good old days - this was a reunion gig)...

1. When We Were Young (start missing) - link
2. Fiction - link
3. Tripped - link
4. That Was Then, This Is Now - link
5. Twinkle - link
6. Personality - link
7. Blinded - link
8. We Don't Need Nobody Else - link

Captain Darling

Better than any 'Oi' sh1te from Blur which came around the same time. An Irish album, that was 100% quality. I saw them in the Warwick and i think the GPO in Galway in the late nineties. My one recollection is of some guy walking across the ceiling in the GPO (he was up on his friends back). Mental!


Classic!

Babies, sex and flagons, shifting women, getting stoned
Robbing cars, bars and pubs, rubber johnnies, poems
Starsky and Hutch gave good TV
And Starsky looked like me.

Placid_Casual

Great, great, great album. Fantastic lyrical depth, delivered with a voice that could have commanded armies. Never got the success it deserved.
Just think of all the long forgotten Britpop no-mark bands getting top ten hits at the time. A travesty.

lordgoat

Thanks for the links MR E saved me a job. I also agree about Submarine.

THey really were a great band, only wished they'd played A Natural live, well maybe they did but i never witnessed it.

Tip of the cap to Whipping Boy.

11811

Kinda forgot about these guys, then a while back stumbled on Twinkle on an old cd - blew me away listening to it again,especially the violin intro.Great band and a fantastic album.

Whipping Boy

Fantastic album, only discovered it a few months ago and liked it so much it inspired my username! :pac:

There's a certain emotion in the lyrics that are found in few places and as you listen to the words you really feel like you're being exposed to the inner workings of frontman Ferghal McKee's psyche, especially on A Natural.

The music is also top notch, especially on Twinkle. Never saw them live, I was at ****** 06 and I didn't even know who they were, if only I could go back now! :rolleyes:

ShawnRaven

Awesome album. It's nearly 15 years old at this stage and it hasn't aged a day.
I did eventually get sick of Phantom playing "We Don't Need Nobody Else" around 97-98 though, but it's still a top album from start to end.

Earthhorse

[Gillette CEO]I liked this band so much, I put up the website.[/Gillette CEO]

Mr E wrote: »

Look out for Submarine too (before Heartworm) - it was 2nd best out of the 3.

True dat. This was re-released in the last few years so you should be able to get online I would think. Heartworm is by far the better album though.

lordgoat wrote: »

THey really were a great band, only wished they'd played A Natural live, well maybe they did but i never witnessed it.

Think they did at one of the recent re-union gigs.

There was talk from Paul Page of a boxed set being released around the time of the shortlived reunion I think, that would include all their albums and some unreleased material. Some of their early singles, EPs are worth getting too. I like Highwayman, for instance.

Heartworm is definitely in my top ten albums of all time ever and ever amen. That isn't sentimentality or homeside advantage talking; it's their on merit alone. A winner from start to finish.

Pighead

Captain Darling wrote: »

An Irish album, that was 100% quality. I saw them in the Warwick and i think the GPO in Galway in the late nineties.

Pighead was at that gig too. Don't remember too much about it. Fergal in a gas mask is about the height of it to be honest. If somebody got sick on you that night it may well have been me. Sorry about that.

lordgoat

Earthhorse wrote: »

Think they did at one of the recent re-union gigs.

This upsets and delights me!

Captain Darling

Pighead wrote: »

Pighead was at that gig too. Don't remember too much about it. Fergal in a gas mask is about the height of it to be honest. If somebody got sick on you that night it may well have been me. Sorry about that.

I was probably too fupped myself to notice either way.....

Bubs101

Never heard these guys before but the recommendations are worth taking note of. What do thses guys sound like, any comparison?

Ho-Hum

Such a brilliant album, I honestly didn't think that the Irish music scene could come out with something with such honest & harsh lyrics and have some great music behind it too.

Superb.

mr_angry

One of the best rock albums ever, let alone from an Irish band. Its hard to pigeonhole them into a particular category, but I suppose you could call them a kind of Irish grunge-type band... maybe a bit similar to Bush, but with better vocals by some distance.

I had the fortune to see them at the Spirit Store in Dundalk during the reunion a couple of years ago. Apparently they were awful on the Friday night, but I went on the Saturday, and they were f*cking awesome! Fergal was locked on Buckfast (in spite of this reportedly ruining the previous night), but they were really on-form.

I didn't think the third album was so bad - it featured a lot of orchestral arrangements, and was a very different sound, but I thought they should have been commended for expanding their sound. There's nothing worse than a band trying to stand still, and failing.

paddyb

my favourite irish album of all time