Mclusky: the early demos get their due
Too Pure remasters Mclusky's 2000 debut, turning fifteen polished demos into the official opening chapter.
BY JOLT Staff · AUG 27 2026 · 2 min readThe 2026 remaster of Mclusky's debut treats the first record as part of the story instead of a dry run. 'My Pain and Sadness Is More Sad and Painful Than Yours' first landed in 2000 as a collection of fifteen polished demos, and Too Pure has now remastered it for an August 26 release. The early lineup is here: Mat Harding on drums, Andrew Falkous on guitar and vocals, Jon Chapple on bass and vocals. The tracklist includes 'White Liberal on White Liberal Action' and '(Sometimes) I Have to Concentrate,' and the record ends with 'World Cup Drumming,' a lyric about being dead, enrolled on a popular culture course, and unable to save 'nothing but world cup drumming.' It is already the same band, just not yet the one that made 'Mclusky Do Dallas.'
That is the honest frame. Demos that became an album now have official standing, and the reissue makes the band's development legible. The listener can follow the logic from this debut to 'Mclusky Do Dallas' in 2002, to 'The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire' in 2004, and then to 2025's 'The World Is Still Here and So Are We,' which was regarded as one of the best post-punk records of last year. The debut is not essential for that story, but it is useful context for anyone who only knows the later records.
“I'm dead of course/ Enrolled on a popular culture course/ But I can't save nothing but world cup drumming/ It's stuck in my throat like it used to mean something … Like French and Saunders/ He talked for hours/ Through costume dramas/ Watched by piranhas/ And rows and rows and rows and rows of Muppets staring straight at the sun.”
The weak point is the format. Fifteen polished demos is not necessarily fifteen songs that demand to be heard as one album, and a remaster does not change that. The real draw is the writing. The closing lyric offers a narrator watched by piranhas and 'rows and rows and rows and rows of Muppets staring straight at the sun.' That is a band already in command of a strange image, even if the songwriting around it is still finding its footing.
Post-Trash's review suggests the next reunion record could be even better than 'The World Is Still Here and So Are We,' which places this reissue one step earlier in the timeline. This is a useful reissue, not a top-shelf one; it earns its place in the band's catalog without rewriting it. Start with 'Mclusky Do Dallas' if you have to. Come back here for the before picture.
