The album where it all fell into place, where the previous sometime blind faith and adulation was rewarded with a clear view of the big picture. Finally I had a come back for the mouthy Anti-Cope ranks which was better than “oh, you just don’t understand” (because, to be honest, not many of us did back then) — now I could simply say: “just listen to this, you philistine”. 

The reinvention of the Drude began in earnest with Peggy Suicide, but with Jehovahkill the cosmic afterburners were well and truly engaged.

When ‘Soul Desert’ begins it is planted in the same landscape as ‘Pristeen’, all is as it were. But it progresses, it slides away (like a crawling king snake), it deteriorates, it breaks down, then it REgenerates into something huge — taking off and thrusting out on a sea of six-strings and gargling. And this is how things continue (with and without the gargling): structure is established, structure is taken from behind and beaten into submission by the freedom to Express, to Emit, to Create. The principle tool of Creation? Why, the only instrument able to wail, snarl, throb, thrust, cry, subdue, break down walls and seduce: the electric guitar. Couple it with the complete “post-Christian” freedom Julian squeezes from his vocal performances (and what a performer!), and you have a truly heady potion — a potion to inspire true Heads.

Surprises lurk around every corner, from the deep-throated spiritual-road movie of ‘No Hard Shoulder to Cry On’, to the rap-rock mantra of ‘Poet Is Priest’, and the fine juxtapositive coupling of the free-flowing krautrockin’ ‘The Subtle Energies Commission’ and the chirpy sing-a-long-a-Cope ‘Fa-fa-fine’.

Julian’s finest musical moment (to date) also resides in Phase One of the album, ‘Upwards at 45(degrees)’ is a stunning track. Touching, moving, inspiring, as it gently builds and builds, flowing from a tiny brook down snarling rapids and finally out into a sea of wah-wah and intense drumming. Phase Three’s ‘Fear Loves This Place’ is my favourite Cope-single, catchy yet full of grit, and just when you think you’ve got a line on the song’s formula — bang! it freefalls. Of course, even by thinking of formulas you’re fooling yourself — there is nothing formulaic here, nothing to be pinned down, labelled or pigeonholed. This is why we had the faith and devotion in the first place, this is what being a Head is all about: Inspiration through Creation. At last Julian seems to have completely shaken free of the few industry-shackles which still attempted with futility to stifle.

The penultimate track ‘The Tower’ is fine evidence of this — it is a through-composed epic (which actually makes a good companion track to ‘Autogeddon Blues’… funnily enough) of aptly huge proportions. In short, it is musically hung like a horse — a horse with an ample bosom, and more testosterone and oestrogen than you could squeeze into the back of an articulated lorry. Again it is a track which builds from the ground up, gripping the listener tight not releasing it’s grip until you’ve exited the Earth’s atmosphere and are in orbit. Forget any later pretensions from other camps, Ladies and Gentlemen: we were floating in space the first time we heard Jehovahkill — and we’ve been there since.

I’ve covered less than half of the tracks here, but every single one is a finely-honed cosmic semtex-charge delivered aurally with the greatest of ease direct to the old grey matter, stopping every now and then to command your feet to jump in rhythmical fashion, or to cause deep deep sighs of reflection to emit from your throat. ‘Akhenaten’, ‘Know (cut my friend down)’, ‘Gimme Back My Flag’, ‘Julian H Cope’, ‘The Mystery Trend’, 8 years down the line and I still can’t get enough of any of them.

As I said at the beginning, it’s the album which cemented my faith and changed me from a fan into a believer. Its’ appeal endures, and even continues to grow — and that’s a very, very rare thing indeed.