Wall of Mouths

I’m inclined to agree, to be honest I’m not sure why I don’t play this album more often as I really like a great deal of songs on it - stalk and slash, this one’s for you, Tango Romeo..

The production/mixing is really good, and to be fair for a final fare well album from Graham, who obviously had his doubts about his future with T?, was playing really well. I challenge any T? fan who has the album to dig it out again and listen to it for a few days on repeat, I know I’m going to. I think when this album was released far to many people wrote it off straight away and have failed to give it a second chance

I liked it from the beginning, don’t know why so many people think it’s so poor. I’m off to play it right now :)

yeah, i also like jack endino’s production very much. the man just has good taste and does not overproduce the records …

yep. i like quite a lot of his work. also his own band skin yard was damn cool, and his solo-records too. last one came out in 2006, it’s called “permanent fatal error” and really rocks. me favourite record that he produced is probably bruce dickinson’s “skunkworks”, great stuff.

he was deffo the right man to produce shameless, but his “style” of production and sound wouldn’t fit on most other t?-records as it would
make the songs sound too “dry” i think.

I wouldn’t call it ahead of its time, but I do think that it’s underrated.

Only song I skip is “Joey”, the rest are great

oh lord… I love it. True I may be biased, but…
I think it was another instance of Therapy? being ahead of the curve, or more likely of a record company being too stupid to do their jobs well.
I was the co-owner of private radio in seattle, where they did the pre-production before moving on to the amazing bob lang studio to properly record it. Endino did a ton of records at our place, and when he asked me if I wanted to hang out and do some gophering for them… well, I managed to not run around shrieking like I was completely insane, but it wan’t easy. I’d been a gigantic T? fan since the first, but sheeeeesh. Go get pay-per-view footie tickets and coffee for my favorite rock band in the world? uh…yes, I can do that. Pat and I are the pat and dave credited with handclaps on tango romeo (my real name is dubh david black), and Mr. Cairns made sure we were well hydrated :) Dream come true.
Endino does have a very no-bs style of production, some peeps love it, some not so much. But regardless of the production (or the admitted bias I have), there are GREAT songs on shameless. If ark21 woulda been smart, they’d have promoted it some. I don’t think they did— at all. I had to bug record stores in seattle to order it, and I don’t think that made any sense. Crap I could go on for years about all the great bits… but it definitely serves better to listen to it. There’s def. some humor there, but to me it’s like life, some times things seem so fkt that all you can do is laugh… ‘endless psychology’ comes to mind, great contrasting images. ‘Alrite’ sure sounds like now. The ‘yeah yeah’-s and cowbell under the solo? maaaaaaaaan. ‘Tango Romeo’ does have a humorous take on things true, but weirdly (and not at all uncommonly) I myself had a scenario kinda like that in the north of ireland. I love the whole feeling of the record— like driving tooo fast in the pouring rain with your headlights out, trying to get home before the drugs kick in… yeah. “No more drugs for this young man…” Like that! Sheesh, would it be weird if I posted an obsessive song-by-song breakdown of what I love about this record? Hmmm then suicide pact next, then who knows… on another personal level, I got diagnosed with parkinson’s in ‘04, and hearing Andy sing ‘don’t you worry, it’ll be okay’ really truly made everything better. Distortion saves lives!

For me, the dark humor in Shameless is one of it’s defining graces. It’s never too bitter, more alluring and captivating than anything. I think it’s a bit too smooth in production, but that’s not something I hold against a good record. Ahead of it’s time? Hmm, well, maybe it was released at the ‘wrong’ time, but anyway, you can’t make new fans on a massive scale without any promotion.

Favorite moment of the Shameless experience was seeing the CD case with the buns and playing it to hear the Gimme Back My Brain intro. I actually thought my volume was set too low.. that ‘YEAH!’ was quite epic.

I have always loved this album, and have never really understood why so many people dislike it, each to their own though I guess. Personal favorites for me are Endless Psychology, Wicked Man, This ones for you and Tango Romeo.
Will take your recommendation to dig it out and listen to it, as it is an age since I have listened to it, no particular reason for this I hasten to add.