Reissues/Other Records

IN THE GOOD OLD COUNTRY WAY

***** - BIRMINGHAM POST

**** - RECORD COLLECTOR

**** - MOJO

**** - UNCUT

In the Good Old Country Way wisely isn't an attempt to make a straightforward country album. Many bands lacking a real identity might make such an error, but the 'Gales are able to embellish their own sound with country and bluegrass elements. Lyrics are more smart-ass than ever (see 'Part Time Moral England' and 'I Spit in Your Gravy'); the playing gets downright hot on 'The Headache Collector.' Highly recommended, even or maybe especially for those who hate country- western. - TROUSER PRESS

This is rock n roll, like punk was/is and it's more blues than country based and kicks ass but weirdness abounds - I know that 'Down In The Dumps' would get them tearing up the joint whether the joint was the 100 Club or the Opry.
The Nightingales are a grown-up band who have mellowed as much as they've compromised, not at all. So it feels right that this is a record that covers the punk, the country, the noo-wave and the alt-rock books of the rock bible. As they say, 'Let's Surf'. - UNPEELED

On hearing back after almost twenty years, The Nightingales prove to have predated Pulp and Inspiral Carpets in a way neither of them would admit to. - PENNY BLACK

HYSTERICS

There's plenty of drive and power on these tracks. Highly recommended. - TROUSER PRESS

PIGS ON PURPOSE

***** Reissue Of The Year 2004 & Top Ten Albums Of The Year 2004 - SUNDAY TIMES

Pigs on Purpose, The Nightingales 1982 debut, is the CD reissue of the year. The 'Gales evolved from Birmingham's proto-punks The Prefects, becoming John Peel favorites without achieving the blanket approval of latterly lionised near-contemporaries like Gang Of Four or Wire, perhaps because their deceptively difficult music was too complex to assimilate easily. Aspects of the period's signature sound remain, scratchy guitars and pummelling rhythms, but The Nightingales' circuitous, uplifting songs had more in common with the bargain basement bohemia of Captain Beefheart than they did with the post-punk polemicists, and Robert Lloyd's elegantly hilarious, deadpan lyrics make Sistine Chapel shapes of mundane provincial minutiae - SUNDAY TIMES

COMMERCIALLY UNFRIENDLY: THE BEST OF THE BRITISH UNDERGROUND 1983-1989 (Various artists, including The Fall, The Membranes, The Ex, The Nightingales, etc)

Standing out head and shoulders above the rest, though, is 'Urban Ospreys' by The Nightingales, whose in-your-face skat-punk is at the totally opposite end of the spectrum to The Smiths. It still sounds more future-friendly than The Futureheads and lays its roots in Maximo's Park. - DROWNED IN SOUND