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Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? is the second and final studio album by Canadian indie rock band the Unicorns. It features several re-arranged versions of songs from their earlier self-released album Unicorns Are People Too. The album was first issued on CD and on vinyl in North America by Alien8 Recordings on October 21, 2003, and on CD in Europe by Rough Trade Records in 2004. It has since been repressed in limited quantities on pink and brown vinyl by Alien8 and was re-released on August 26, 2014 on the band's own label, Caterpillar Records.[1]
| Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 21, 2003 | |||
| Recorded | June – July 2003 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, indie pop, lo-fi | |||
| Length | 41:03 | |||
| Label | Alien8, Rough Trade | |||
| Producer | Mark Lawson | |||
| The Unicorns chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternate cover | ||||
_cover_art.jpg) 2014 reissue cover | ||||
The album received positive reviews both upon its release and in retrospective analyses, and it has been considered to be one of the best Canadian indie rock albums of all time.[2]
Critical reception
edit| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 77/100[3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The Boston Phoenix |  [5] |
| Consequence of Sound | A−[6] |
| DIY | [7] |
| Drowned in Sound | 9/10[8] |
| Mojo | [9] |
| NME | 8/10[10] |
| Pitchfork | 8.9/10[11] |
| Stylus Magazine | B+[12] |
| Uncut | [13] |
The album received positive reviews. Shortly after its release, Eric Carr of Pitchfork wrote that "even at their goofiest, The Unicorns' level of comfort with their material-- and the obvious confidence that engenders-- makes it all seem totally natural and new".[11] After its 2014 re-issue, Pitchfork's Stuart Berman called it "messy and often brilliant", writing that the album is "too complex to be classified as garage-rock, too unsettled to be psychedelic, too hooky to be described as art-damaged, and too fiercely funky to lapse into twee solipsism".[14]
Adam Kivel of Consequence of Sound wrote that, throughout the album, "death and darkness haunt everything, even the cheeky synth tones and joyous guitars, but that shouldn't stop you from dancing".[15] Justin Cober-Lake of PopMatters called the album "one of the year's most enjoyable",[16] and Adam Lalama of Noisey wrote that it is "incontestably one of the coolest Canadian indie-rock albums of all time".[2]
In popular culture
editThe album was briefly featured in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother in the episode "Girls Versus Suits".[17][18]
Track listing
editAll tracks are written by the Unicorns
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I Don't Wanna Die" | 2:04 |
| 2. | "Tuff Ghost" | 2:57 |
| 3. | "Ghost Mountain" | 3:10 |
| 4. | "Sea Ghost" | 3:43 |
| 5. | "Jellybones" | 2:44 |
| 6. | "The Clap" | 1:27 |
| 7. | "Child Star" | 5:22 |
| 8. | "Let's Get Known" | 1:57 |
| 9. | "I Was Born (A Unicorn)" | 2:46 |
| 10. | "Tuff Luff" | 4:19 |
| 11. | "Inoculate the Innocuous" | 5:18 |
| 12. | "Les Os" | 3:32 |
| 13. | "Ready to Die" | 1:43 |
| Total length: | 41:03 | |
2014 reissue
editWho Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? was reissued on 26 August 2014 to coincide with the band's brief reunion tour, ten years after their initial split.[19][20] It features new artwork and includes four bonus tracks which are all previously unreleased other than "Evacuate the Vacuous" which appeared on The Unicorns: 2014. "Rocket Ship" is a cover of a song by Daniel Johnston, which is rumoured to have been recorded for the 2004 tribute album The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered.[14]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 14. | "Rocket Ship (Bonus Track)" | 2:52 |
| 15. | "Let Me Sleep (Bonus Track)" | 3:38 |
| 16. | "Evacuate the Vacuous (Bonus Track)" | 3:22 |
| 17. | "Haunted House (Live) (Bonus Track)" | 3:38 |
Personnel
edit- Nick "Neil Diamonds" Thorburn and Alden "Ginger" Penner – vocals, drums, synthesizers, percussion, drum machine, toy piano, toy organ, echoplex, guitar, bass guitar, tape, recorder, glockenspiel, accordion
- Jaime "J'amie Tambeur" Thompson – drums ("Tuff Ghost", "Jellybones", "I Was Born (A Unicorn)", "Inoculate the Innocuous", and "Les Os")
- Brendan Reed – vocals ("I Was Born (A Unicorn)")
- Richard Reed Parry – trumpet ("I Don't Wanna Die"); bowed bass on ("Sea Ghost"); additional recording assistance
- Joellen Housego – fiddle ("Tuff Luff"); violin ("Let's Get Known")
- Randy Peters – penny whistle ("Tuff Luff"); clarinet ("Let's Get Known")
- Tim Kramer – cello ("Ready to Die")
- Maxime Pellisier – clarinet ("Child Star")
- Deanna Fong – vocals ("Les Os")
Recorded, mixed, and produced by Mark Lawson.
References
edit- ^ "The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
- ^ a b Lalama, Adam (28 July 2014). "Reviews: The Unicorn's 'Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?'". Noisey. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
- ^ "Reviews for Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? by The Unicorns". Metacritic. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
- ^ Hopkin, Kenyon. "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? – The Unicorns". AllMusic. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
- ^ Carioli, Carly (January 9–15, 2004). "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? (Alien8 Recordings)". The Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
- ^ Kivel, Adam (August 4, 2014). "The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? [Reissue]". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
- ^ Ackroyd, Stephen. "The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". DIY. Archived from the original on December 24, 2004. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
- ^ Chigley, Jesus (January 10, 2005). "Album Review: The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
- ^ "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". Mojo. No. 134. January 2005. p. 104.
- ^ "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". NME. December 4, 2004. p. 55.
- ^ a b Carr, Eric (November 11, 2003). "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
- ^ Seguy, Eric (December 11, 2003). "The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? – Review". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on February 8, 2005. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
- ^ "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". Uncut. No. 92. January 2005. p. 132.
- ^ a b Berman, Stuart (29 July 2014). "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". Pitchfork. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ Kivel, Adam (4 August 2014). "The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? [Reissue]". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ Cober-Lake, Justin (28 January 2004). "The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?". PopMatters. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ Ehrlich, Brenna (September 27, 2013). "HIMYM: How The Unicorns Helped Ted Mosby Meet The Mother". MTV.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
- ^ Murphy, Caitlin (May 13, 2013). "The 25 Useless Things We've Learned About The Mother On HIMYM". Crushable. Archived from the original on November 13, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
- ^ Beauchemin, Molly (21 July 2014). "The Unicorns Announce Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? Reissue, Share Cover of Daniel Johnston's "Rocket Ship"". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
- ^ "The Unicorns reissuing 'Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?,' share Daniel Johnston cover, playing Pop Montreal". BrooklynVegan. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2016.