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Life's Hard and Then You Die
 
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Life's Hard and Then You Die

~ It's Immaterial
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Price: £6.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Life's Hard and Then You Die + Song + Let's Change the World with Music
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  • This item: Life's Hard and Then You Die ~ It's Immaterial

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    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Song ~ It's Immaterial

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Product details

  • Audio CD (24 Nov 1986)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Virgin
  • ASIN: B00000714K
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 60,949 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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1. Happy Talk
2. Driving Away From Home (Jim's Tune)
3. Rope
4. Better Idea
5. Space
6. Sweet Life
7. Festival Time
8. Ed's Funky Diner
9. Hang On Sleepy Town
10. Lullaby

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:    (0)
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, enigmatic, stimulating slice of 80s melancolia, 2 Jan 2001
By A Customer
It's Immaterial represent a brilliant musical dead-end. No-one bought their records, no-one copied them and so what could have been the beginning of a fine tradition of English song fizzled out with their second album. I remember hearing them perform 'Driving Away From Home' on the Tube TV programme and thinking it was a nice ditty but a bit of a novelty record. Listening to it now I'm struck by how fresh it still sounds. But I think what tempted me to shell out my £5.99 in Our Price 15 years ago was the dead-pan title and the bleak smiling clown's face. I didn't know what to expect but what I got was a jewel of an album that packs a Ken Loach film into four or five minutes time after time after time. Razor-sharp lyrics, a singer-cum-actor on the vocal, and an eclectic mix of musical influnces from skiffle to salsa to songs that don't sound like anybody else in the slightest (like Space). If Morrissey wrote from the perspective of a persecuted young artist struggling with his sexuality, then It's Immaterial wrote songs about being an impoverished young dad in his twenties, about travelling salesmen "Ahh me/ I need a lucky break/ And I won't hesitate", about cramped housing and crampled ambition. Then just when you thought you understood where they were coming from, off they go with a bestial trumpetty funk of Ed's Funky Diner. I still think it's one of the BEST songs to play EXTREMELY LOUD when you're getting ready to go out to a party and you're trying to drum yourself into a positive mood.

It's Immaterial could and should have sired a branch of British music but they spawned no immitators. I've no idea what became of them, but their second album 'Song' was even better and if anyone wants to gift me a copy I'd be eternally grateful as mine is lost. If Edith Piaf had grown up playing guitar and living in Birkenhead in the 1980s with some talented musician friends she might have come up with something like this.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tongue-In-Cheek and Better For It!, 10 Aug 2002
By D. George (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I wasn't in any way expecting what I found on this Album when I bought it in 1987, but to say it's one of my Top 20 favourites of all time would slightly understate the case. There is something indefinable about the music here that both captivates and unsettles, with the chart-entering 'Driving Away From Home' bearing litle resemblance to the rest of the selection.

This is an intelligent and extremely well-realised Album that belies its simplistic origins. For those of you who are genuinely moved by soaring harmonised vocals (courtesy of The Christians), rolling Spanish guitars and tongue-in-cheek meanderings, I would seriously recommend this to you. It's TheThe, Alanis Morissette and World Party all combined, and has a humour that is slightly left-of-centre.

It's Immaterial undoubtedly knew they'd produced a winner for Siren Records, but in the same way the album is produced they would have just winked and acknowledged it all with a wry smile. Recommended.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Start, 16 Aug 2001
By A Customer
As the other reviewer hinted, It's Immaterials first album was a truly 'lost' 80's gem. Songs like Space, Better Idea, and Lullaby pointed at an English sound that few others were producing at the time, and that dated so much better than all the other pompous bollox that was firing out of those late eighties speakers. But it's their second album, 'Song' that was even better, being both bleaker and more melodic than their first offering. Homecoming and Heaven Knows are beautiful 'Blue Nile meets Black' melancholia, and still sound as sad and almost suffocating as they did when this album was first released. Nice cover too. Grab it if you see it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sheer brilliance

I don't often use the phrase "criminally ignored" but I am going to here. Forever dubbed with one hit wonder status (which isn't strictly true) its hard to believe that... Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. Reid

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing amazing amzing
What can I say . This album blew me away when it came out and should have been a number one for many weeks. It is a pure engish sound and dates so well. Read more
Published on 4 April 2007 by Mr. C. M. Beattie

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