Sunshine playroom...

Julian Cope is an English singer-songwriter who began his artistic career by creating the group 'Crucial Three' in 1977. A group that was short-lived to say the least, but some of whose members, such as Ian McCulloch and Pete Wylie, went on to have more than flattering careers, the one with 'Echo & The Bunnymen' and the other with 'Mighty Wah!'.

New adventure brought together in 1978 when he formed 'The Teardrop Explodes', a group which would have its moment of glory at the very beginning of the decade with 2 albums which would not go unnoticed, far from it.

Adventure which will unfortunately leave its mark on the excessive consumption of drugs, notably LSD, with an image of the singer deteriorated to say the least, both literally and figuratively…

He returned solo in 1983 with the release of a mini album "Sunshine playroom", a mini album which allowed him to achieve his first personal success.

A year later in 1984 it was the turn of his first album “World shut your mouth” to be released, an album which mainly produced the big hit “The greatness and perfection of love”.

A year 1984 which saw the release of a second album with “Fried”, an album with less success than its predecessor, a failure which saw him ousted from the Polygram label.

It was the signing with the Island Records label that allowed him to bounce back in a resounding way, to say the least, 2 years later with the release in 1986 of the enormous Single “World shut your mouth”, a Single which was to become a real global hit. .

A flagship Single that will be found on the album “Saint Julian”, an album which will be released the following year in 1987 and which will also experience a very flattering level of success.

An exceptional mid-80s that he will never be able to match despite the subsequent release of a significant number of albums and Singles to say the least in the years and decades that followed.

To discover or rediscover...

Discography (among others...) :

80s Decade :

Sunshine playroom 1983
The greatness and perfection of love 1984
Sunspots 1985
Land of fear 1985
World shut your mouth 1986
Trampolene 1987
Eve's volcano (Covered in sin) 1987
Charlotte Anne 1988
5 O’Clock world 1988
China doll 1988

90s Decade :

Beautiful love 1991
Safesurfer 1991
East easy rider 1991
Head 1991
Fear loves this place 1992
The indians worship him, but he hurries on 1993
Out of my mind on dope and speed 1993
Paranormal in the west country 1994
Try try try 1995
Just like Pooh bear 1995
When I walk trough the land of fear 1995
I come from another planet baby 1996
Planetary sit-in 1996
Ver 1997
Breath of Odin 1999

2000s Decade :

The road to Yggdrasilbury 2001
Ephaedra 2002
Shrine of the black youth 2003
I'm living in the room they found Saddam in 2005
I don't wanna grow back 2005
Too stone 2006
Doctor Know 2007
These things I know 2008
Psychedelic Odin 2008
Militant feminist dream 2009

2010s Decade :

Sunhoney 2011
Raving on the moor 2012
X-Mas in the woman's shelter 2012
Woden 2012
Hymn to the Odin 2013
In his cups 2013
Drink me under the table 2017
Liver big as Hartlepool 2017
Times change 2018
Parallel university 2018

2020s Decade :

You will be mist 2020
Exiled on Hoy 2022
Dickless and ridic'lous 2022

Tracks :

1983...return in solo after a 'Teardrop Explodes' adventure which allowed him to have a first musical experience of the highest order...

1984...a solo adventure which starts rather well with a second classified title which clearly demonstrates that the singer can absolutely exist alone...

1985...all the titles that come out are classified which is no small thing. Of course the success is limited exclusively to England but that's it as they say...

1985...we cannot imagine for a single moment that he will not be able to produce at one point or another THE title that will open the doors to global recognition for him...

1986...and the famous title, here IT is ! He had to wait 3 years before winning the prize but it is now done. HU-GE !

1987...difficult for this title to compete with the previous title as the bar was set high. But he's not going to come out so bad in the end...

1987...the relapse behind will be violent to say the least with a level of success which will once again be limited almost exclusively to England...

1988...he will succeed from time to time in ranking his titles on both sides of the Atlantic but only sporadically...

1988...the beginning of 1988 allowed him to do so in any case. Nothing is lost at this stage and all hopes are still allowed...

1988...the adventure continues to be good in England and that's already it. He will have to be content with it from now on whatever happens...

1991...he will succeed in securing a new title on both sides of the Atlantic but it will indeed be the last time. Hard law of the trade...

1991...a decade of the 90s which will prove to be significantly more complicated to manage than expected with a slow and above all irreversible deceleration...

1991...he will manage to save the furniture at the very beginning of the decade but the end will be much less favorable to him, that's clear...

1991...the main problem he will encounter in the years to come is his change of style and sound which will have nothing to do with the musical trends of the moment...

1992...for the moment the essentials are preserved whatever may be. So he has to make the most of it as much as possible because unfortunately it won't last...

1993...the artist will set off on increasingly instrumental and, above all, more and more experimental musical paths. Strange strategy...

1993...he will now alternate sung titles and instrumental titles. But whatever his choice of moment, it will be far, very far from what the general public expects...

1994...it is clear that this kind of sound does not correspond in any way to what the younger generations expect in the middle of the 90s...

1995...fortunately certain titles will allow him to stay afloat at a minimum. But what is certain is that it won't be for very long...

1995...when we know what he's going to offer in the future, it's really hard to understand how he was able to go from this kind of trendy title, to say the least, to what he's going to offer soon...

1995...he still managed to maintain himself at the highest level for around ten years, which is already quite a lot...

1996...the very latest successes, both on the album side and on the Singles side. There will be a sequel to the adventure but it will be the polar opposite of what it was at the beginning...

1996...afterwards, as long as there is a sequel, it's the core fans who won't complain about it far from it. They still risk being surprised by the turn that the rest of the adventure will take...

1997...for the moment we will say that it is still more or less under control. Not sure it will last much longer...

1999...then the tipping point arrives. It's really hard to imagine that it's the same one who had his hour of glory with "World Shut Your Mouth"...

2001...a musical reorientation which in no way corresponds to the new musical standards of the moment. Only him knows why he is really there...

2002...what is also paradoxical is that the level of productivity is impressive. A little too much at the expense of quality unfortunately...

2003...afterwards, as long as he enjoys doing what he does, he's bound to find what he's looking for. Everyone leads their career as they wish...

2005...he uses sounds from the 70s even though we are in 2000, which is not going to help capture the younger generations, that's clear...

2005...moreover we wonder what kind of audience he is targeting through his new compositions. A necessarily very limited audience of insiders...

2006...we could have admitted this kind of compositions during the 70s because this decade allowed all possible and imaginable experiments. Not in 2000 though...

2007...fortunately a few titles still manage to show that all is not lost. But there are fewer and fewer of them...

2008...the almost total absence of success does not seem to dampen his spirits, quite the contrary. He continues to follow his path as he sees fit and the rest doesn't matter...

2008...we will therefore have to be content with the few 'normal' titles. We won't remake him again as they say and it's set to last like this until the end...

2009...the years pass, just like the albums, but nothing happens. Same sound, same style, a stasis that doesn't really work in its favor...

2011...it's good to have fun but why set off on such tortuous musical paths. The question really arises...

2012...only the sung titles still manage to save what little can be saved. Strange career strategy all the same...

2012...yet when he wants he can, the proof with this title. A sound already clearly more adapted to its time, which means when he wants...

2012...a slightly more audible start to the 2010 decade. The titles are more inspired and the sound a little more topical, let's hope it lasts...

2013...fortunately each new opus contains a minimum of normal titles. This allows him to save the furniture a little...

2013...and here he is again in 70s sound mode. The decades pass and he remains stuck in a musical mode that hasn't been around for a long time...

2017... it's a shame that with his potential he chose this musical path which is, to say the least, tortuous. Afterwards, he is still there no matter what...

2017...where most of those who started at the same time as him have already disappeared for decades, he continues to trace his path irremediably...

2018...there are already a few decades on the clock and it could be that this 2010 decade will not be the last, far from it...

2018...a creative need that is constantly renewed and it doesn't matter whether there is success or not behind it. Unstoppable boy as they say...

2020...and one more decade, one more ! Will this new decade be one of getting back on track or, on the contrary, the right continuation of what he did previously ? Good question...

2022...for the moment, it does not take the path of any renewal. Afterwards, as in music everything is always possible, we have the right to hope...