I Am A Wallet/Banking Violence And Inner City Life Today

by Christian Smillie The final album by McCarthy sees no letup in the search for the perfect pop tune. Tim Gane begins to display the hypnotic layering that would become his trademark in Stereolab. However, Banking is still characterized by jangly guitars and up-tempo pop drumming. Malcolm Eden's nasal vocals are backed by Laetitia Sadier, future Stereolab singer and Gane's future wife. This album displays some of the most adept left-wing lyrics on offer. Never a band to indulge in political airheadedness, on "Use a Bank I'd Rather Die" McCarthy pours scorn on hippie idealism, whereas new age beliefs are rounded upon in "The Well-Fed Point of View." The uncaring attitude so prevalent in the Thatcher/Reagan era is solidly attacked on "And Tomorrow the Stock Exchange Will Be the Human Race." Always keen to court controversy, support for the IRA is espoused on "Take the Shortest Way With the Men of Violence." Banking, Violence and the Inner Life Today displays McCarthy at the height of its powers; unfortunately, sales never propelled the band to the heights of some of its lesser-talented contemporaries.