All Creatures Will Make Merry

All Creatures Will Make Merry is the second studio album by Scottish indie folk band Meursault, released on 24 May 2010. A limited edition, hand-printed version of the album was released in April 2010. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Neil Pennycook states that "the main theme of the record is one of contentment – what people are willing to do to obtain it, hold on to it, and what we stand to lose or gain if we try."[9]

All Creatures Will Make Merry
Studio album by
Meursault
ReleasedApril 2010
(hand-printed edition)
24 May 2010 (general release)
RecordedDec 09-Jan 10, Stockbridge, Edinburgh
GenreFolktronica, indie folk
LabelSong, by Toad Records
Meursault chronology
Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues
(2008)		 All Creatures Will Make Merry
(2010)		 Something for the Weakened
(2012)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
BBCfavourable[1]
Beardedfavourable[2]
Clash[3]
Drowned In Sound[4]
The Line Of Best Fitfavourable[5]
The List[6]
Mojo
Pitchfork Media(7.9/10)[7]
The Skinny[8]

Background and recording

Following the critical acclaim of the band's debut album, Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues, a newly extended version of Meursault recorded All Creatures Will Make Merry in the winter of 2009, in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Neil Pennycook states that "playing with a full live band helped shape this record considerably," and praised the contributions of both Phillip Quirie and Pete Harvey: "[they] opened up a huge range of possibilities with these songs."[10]

Pennycook states that his production was influenced by The Microphones and Mount Eerie.[10]

The names of the album and its titular third track come from the 1980 film adaptation of Flash Gordon; as the tyrannical Ming the Merciless prepares to forcefully wed Earthling woman Dale, a ship flies over his ceremony bearing the banner, "All creatures will make merry," and shortly afterward is followed by another that reads, "Under pain of death." Pennycook chose the phrase because he felt it fit with the album's themes of "the pursuit of happiness and how it's the one thing that ultimately everyone has in common."[11]

Content

According to songwriter Neil Pennycook, "the themes and motivation behind All Creatures Will Make Merry come from completely different place than those on Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues. I feel a certain duty to myself in terms of my own expectations for this album, other than that I couldn't imagine making an album to someone else's supposed criteria, that is my idea of hell."[12]

Track listing

All songs written by Neil Pennycook, performed by Meursault.

No.TitleLength
1."Payday"1:00
2."Crank Resolutions"4:44
3."All Creatures Will Make Merry… Under Pain of Death"3:50
4."Weather"4:22
5."One Day This'll All Be Fields"3:29
6."What You Don't Have"5:16
7."Another"4:42
8."New Ruin"4:30
9."Sleet"4:50
10."Song for Martin Kippenberger"6:51
11."A Fair Exchange"1:52

Personnel
Meursault perform to a capacity audience at Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh for the launch of All Creatures Will Make Merry

Meursault
  • Chris Bryant
  • Fraser Calder
  • Peter Harvey
  • Calum MacLeod
  • Neil Pennycook
  • Philip Quirie
  • Gavin Tarling

Production and design
  • Neil Pennycook - recording
  • Brothers Grimm - artwork

References
  1. BBC review
  2. Bearded Magazine review
  3. Clash Magazine review
  4. "Drowned In Sound review". Archived from the original on 28 June 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  5. "The Line Of Best Fit review". Archived from the original on 6 June 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  6. The List review
  7. Pitchfork Media review
  8. The Skinny review
  9. Pennycook, Neil (31 March 2010). "Meursault's All Creatures Will Make Merry: Track-By-Track". The Skinny.
  10. Brown, Ally (5 April 2010). "Meursault: Escape from Auld Reekie". The Skinny.
  11. "Meursault". www.fredric.co.uk. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  12. McMeeken, Euan (9 February 2010). "The Steinberg Principle Interview #12: Meursault". The Steinberg Principle. Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
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