The Beauty Shop - Yr Money Or Yr Life

Last night I wandered into Borders and found myself flicking through their (generally) dismal selection of albums when a familiar name caught my eye. It was The Beauty Shop's new album which, upon closer inspection, appears to be all the best songs off of the Yr Money Or Yr Life debut, with a couple of newbies and better album artwork. Unfortunately I didn't have the spare cash to fork out on this new buy, so I can't comment on their new material, but it did remind me to tell all our Big Static readers that they have to listen to this band. It's not a suggestion, it's an order.

Just a glance over this site will give you some idea of the sort of reviews The Beauty Shop get. I originally bought this album when I was about 15 from a sale stall at a festival because it had a sticker on the front that said "like Nick Cave jamming with the Violent Femmes", and decided that description alone was worthy of my five pounds. It was probably one of the best random purchases I have ever made, because this album is officially one of my favourite albums I own. It can be depressing, yes, but depressing in that Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits way that just puts you somewhere between being depressed and being really really inspired.

I think Drowned In Sound put it best when they said: "This album is perfect. Beautiful. Essential. 5/5"

Death March
Science Lights

The Beauty Shop have a MySpace and you can buy their music here.