The Menace (album)

The Menace is the second and final studio album by English rock band Elastica, released in the UK via Deceptive Records on April 3, 2000, and internationally on August 22, 2000 through Atlantic Records.^[2]

The Menace
Studio album by Elastica
Released	3 April 2000
Recorded	November 1996, September–October 1999
Studio	Bad Earth Eastcote, London
Genre	Alternative rock indie rock post-punk[1]
Length	38:39
Label	Deceptive
Producer	Marc Waterman, Elastica, Alan Moulder, Bruce Lampcov
Elastica chronology
6 Track EP (1999) The Menace (2000) The Radio One Sessions (2001)
Singles from The Menace
"How He Wrote Elastica Man" Released: 1999 "Mad Dog God Dam" Released: 2000

Background

After the release of their eponymous debut record in 1995, the band started touring and in the process started partying ferociously and dabbling in drugs. The first attempt to record their second work was in France and Ireland at the end of 1996, but internal problems caused the departure of members (including vocalist/guitarist Donna Matthews and bassist Annie Holland) and the temporary dissolution of the group.

Leader Justine Frischmann, who had recently broken up with boyfriend Damon Albarn of Blur, started to work on Brian Eno-influenced mood music with flatmate Loz Hardy of Kingmaker, resulting on tracks like "Miami Nice" and "My Sex", which ended up on the album. Frischmann reconnected with Annie Holland in early 1999 and formed a new line-up of the band, including Justin Welch, keyboardist/vocalist Sharon Mew, formerly of Heave, guitarist Paul Jones (Linoleum's former member) and keyboardist Dave Bush, formerly of The Fall.

The band listened to previous recordings of the material and decided to re-do it all in the autumn of 1999. Recording took only six weeks and cost around £10,000.^[3] Bush's ex-bandmate Mark E. Smith participated in the writing and recording process of two songs in the album, "How He Wrote Elastica Man" – (a play on the title of the Fall's 1980 single "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'"), and "KB". The album also features two early sessions with Donna Matthews ("Image Change" and "How He Wrote Elastica Man") and a Trio cover, "Da Da Da", featuring the keyboards of Damon Albarn, under the anagram alias Norman Balda.

In a 2013 interview, Frischmann would reveal her regrets over the album's worth by claiming Elastica should have been a "one-album project".^[3]

The cover photograph was taken by visual artist and musician Maya Arulpragasam, later to be known as M.I.A., who also directed the video for "Mad Dog God Dam" and designed the cover for the band's last single "The Bitch Don't Work".

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	69/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	A−[6]
Entertainment Weekly	C[7]
The Guardian	[8]
Los Angeles Times	[9]
NME	6/10[10]
Q	[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[13]
Select	3/5[14]

The album reached number 24 on the UK Album Chart.^[15]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, The Menace has an average score of 69 based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[4]

Track listing

All tracks written by Justine Frischmann, except where noted.^[16]

1. "Mad Dog God Dam" – 3:16
2. "Generator" – 1:50
3. "How He Wrote Elastica Man" (Frischmann, Mark E. Smith, Julia Nagle) – 2:02
4. "Image Change" (Matthews, Frischmann) – 3:27
5. "Your Arse My Place" – 2:15
6. "Human" (Matthews, Frischmann, Gilbert, Gotobed, Lewis, Newman) – 3:29
7. "Nothing Stays The Same" (Matthews, Frischmann) – 2:44
8. "Miami Nice" – 3:21
9. "Love Like Ours" (Matthews, Frischmann) – 2:22
10. "KB" (Frischmann, Smith, Nagle) – 3:12
11. "My Sex" – 4:10
12. "The Way I Like It" – 2:39
13. "Da Da Da" (Krawinkel, Remmler) – 3:52

Personnel

Elastica

• Justine Frischmann – vocals, guitar, programming, toy keyboard, photography
• Sharon Mew – keyboards, vocals
• Paul Jones – lead guitars
• Annie Holland – bass
• Dave Bush – keyboards, programming
• Justin Welch – drums

Additional musicians

• Donna Matthews – vocals, guitar (tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 9)
• Mark E. Smith – vocals (tracks 3, 10)
• Sheila Chipperfield – bass (track 4)
• M. Box – bass (track 11)
• Norman Balda – keyboards (track 13)

Technical personnel

• Elastica – performer, arranger, producer
• Marc Waterman – producer
• Alan Moulder – producer (track 4)
• Bruce Lampcov – producer (track 11)
• N. Stuart – photography
• D. Titlow – photography
• Maya Arulpragasam – cover photography
• Steve Lamacq – A&R

Songs

• "Mad Dog God Dam" is the result of Justine Frischmann's first stint at programming on Cubase.
• "Your Arse My Place" is a twisted 12-bar-blues which was made for the sake of a filler at a John Peel's BBC session recording. Its main riff is "borrowed" from Adam and the Ants' "It Doesn't Matter" – a song which, fittingly, was recorded by the Ants for a John Peel session in 1978.
• "The Way I Like It" was written for Damon Albarn.

References

1. "The Non-Definitive Guide to the Follow-Up - Article". Stylus Magazine. 4 October 2008. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
2. Inc, CMJ Network (October 2000). CMJ New Music Monthly. CMJ Network, Inc. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
3. Berman, Stuart (26 February 2015). "The Connection Is Made: Elastica Goes M.I.A." Pitchfork. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
4. "Reviews for The Menace by Elastica". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
5. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Menace – Elastica". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
6. Christgau, Robert. "Elastica: The Menace". Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
7. Raftery, Brian M. (18 August 2000). "The Menace". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
8. Sullivan, Caroline (31 March 2000). "Elastica: The Menace (Deceptive)". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
9. Hochman, Steve (18 August 2000). "Elastica, 'The Menace,' Atlantic". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
10. Segal, Victoria (31 March 2000). "Elastica – The Menace". NME. Archived from the original on 23 May 2000. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
11. Collins, Andrew (May 2000). "Elastica: The Menace". Q (164). Archived from the original on 10 May 2000. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
12. Kot, Greg (17 August 2000). "Elastica: The Menace". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 23 February 2002. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
13. Wolk, Douglas (2004). "Elastica". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 274. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
14. Perry, Andrew (May 2000). "The band who came in from the cold". Select (119): 100–101. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
15. "the menace | full Official Chart History". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
16. ^{[permanent dead link]}

External links

• The Menace at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)