POP GENIUS

The Review of “On Land And In The Sea”
Q Magazine

Long and unwilling holders of madcap cult status as fruitcake purveyors of irreverent, florid, and pomp-ish pop, both harking back to the early ‘70s and ridiculing that period’s excesses, The Cardiacs have been unable in a 10 year history to translate bleakly neurotic visions of suburbia, and their amusing, if tacky, live appeal onto vinyl. Until now. The third album from the Kingston-Upon-Thames band, once the subject of a Sunday Sport incest inquiry, is a tour-de-force. Singer Tim Smith’s skittish, straining vocals collide with wheezing fairground organ on the first two songs Baby Heart Dirt and Two Bites Of Cherry, to set a manic, cackling pace that never lets up. There’s hints of The Small Faces and Peter Hamill aplenty, though the six-piece group have clearly found a kooky voice of their own on the surreal piece-de-resistance The Duck And Roger The Horse. A scary and unanticipated triumph.

Henry Williams 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiacs