Big Black - Lungs (1983)

01.   steelworker                                   04:16
02.   live in a hole                                03:01
03.   dead billy                                    03:28
04.   i can be killed                               04:28
05.   crack                                         03:56
06.   rip                                           02:22



Sensibly the most developmental and skeletal of Big      
       Black's releases, Steve Albini's first official          
        contribution to the rock world is a batch of            
         sparse, minimal new wave recorded cheaply in two        
         different apartment locations. With the exception        
        of some sax provided by John Bohnen, everything is      
        done by the young Albini, then a student at              
        Northwestern. Not-so-pleasant views of morality ("I      
       Can Be Killed"), post-mortem fornication with an        
       army vet ("Dead Billy"), and primal living              
         ("Steelworker") provide some of the subject matter,      
       matching the bleakly realist lyricism of Swans with      
      a slight bastardization of the precise, jagged          
   minimalism of Wire, Devo, and Suicide. Limited to a      
   trebly buzz and augmented by a Casiotone, the            
   guitar has little of the electrifying clamor and        
   rattle of later releases. Throughout, Albini sounds      
   about as angry as a youth from the wilds of Montana      
   could possibly be — and lord only knows how much        
   resourcefulness was required to be exposed to his        
   influences. Locating to the Chicago area obviously      
   helped; who knows what this man would have done if      
   he hadn't found an outlet for his aggressions?  

MEDIAFIRE