Here’s what Robert Pally of Tracks Magazin has to say:
Our favourite pop provocateur Martin Gordon (Jet, Sparks, Radio Stars) once again hits the table with “Greatest Sh!ts”. The thirteen songs are an all-round attack on all mentally low-flying despots and populists, of which there are unfortunately too many at the moment.
By the way, the CD cover provides more details. “Booster” is dedicated to a blonde-haired, English-speaking ex-prime minister whose hairstyle is as confused and contradictory as his political behaviour was. Have they had their booster today? The person “Dumber Than A Rock” is about is also blonde. However, his hairstyle is more like that of a well-known singer who died in 1977. There are also parallels in terms of weight. However, the former is only entertaining for the cave fish, although I have nothing to say against the Typhlichthys Subterraneus.
Gordon’s music, somewhere between the Sparks, Suicide and Los Microwaves, is extremely entertaining. The funfair number “No Greater Dictator” is dedicated to all amateur dictators whose political potential is barely enough for the fairground, if at all. Sing the North Korean blues with me. “The Beast Of Ankara” is a remake of the Radio Stars classic “The Beast Of Barnsley. Abuse of power, abuse of religion and contempt for human dignity: Another dictator whose political skills are frighteningly cynical. The instrumental finale “Sława Ukraini!” is dedicated to a president who is as simple-minded as he is psychopathic and whose self-worth is the size of a microbe when it comes to the crunch. Self-esteem should become a school subject.
Tell it like it is: “Greatest Sh!ts” has earned number 1 in the charts of this world. And the dictators deserve prison.
Here’s what Bertrand Tappaz of Voix de Garage Grenoble has to say:
For me, Martin Gordon is responsible for a true masterpiece (and here I weigh my words): “Gilbert, Gordon & Sullivan” an ambitious AND ultra catchy album. Sought after AND effective! What style! One of the 3 albums that have had the most impact on me over the last 10 years! And which I highly recommend! What is fascinating about Martin Gordon is his desire to write real pop songs while breaking the neck of habits and overly simple patterns. And it works! Otherwise I would not have taken the trouble to review his albums.
Well, obviously having been the bassist on “Kimono My House” by Sparks must help to break away from common ways of composing while having your feet on the ground, and remembering that music is not just a delirium of zeros, but is recorded to be listened to! After that he founded Jet, then Radio Stars before embarking on solo work.
With a pedigree like that, imagine that the gentleman evolves in a music that oscillates between purely POP SONGS and musical adventures which never sink into the pinnacle of musicians with artistic pretensions! Martin Gordon seems just as angry at the crass stupidity of our contemporaries as against the ambient musical mediocrity, and he is on a crusade to fight against both! This modern Don Quixote offers us a collection of songs that only belong to his personal universe and this uniqueness is extremely delightful!!!
Here’s what Dave Thompson at Goldmine thinks:
Maybe not the most family friendly title that Mr. Gordon has ever conceived, but these may not be the most family friendly times in which we’ve ever lived. At least, not from where Martin Gordon is sitting.
Greatest Sh!ts is, indeed, Gordon’s tributes to what he sees as the cast of unnamed (but decidedly not unshamed) chancers, grifters, con-men and all-round dodgy characters who have led the last few years’ news headlines to the state in which we find them today.
Which is — armageddon on Monday, apocalypse on Tuesday, World War Whatever on Wednesday… and now a message from our sponsor. Hands up everyone who remembers the days when reading the news every morning did not first demand taking a deep breath before plunging into an hysterical morass of conspiracy, controversy and reality TV gainsaying, and positively gagging for something to actually happen, as opposed to just being posted on social media. The soaring “All The Rage” does.
Longtime Gordon watchers may or may not have encountered many of these songs in the past, scattered over various other prolusions. Bringing them all together, though — that might be the best idea of all. The first protest concept album of the decade is here.
Musically, Gordon is all over the place, which is exactly what such an album requires — dreamy, dancey, proggy, punky (“Booster” is the weirdest chill-out room you’ve ever entered); lyrically, he’s sharper than ever. But what really fascinates and thrills is the manner in which entire songs can be built from a few hints dropped in news broadcast audio (“Dumber Than A Rock”), and old numbers (Radio Stars’ “Beast of Barnsley”) can be reiterated for modern times (“Beast of Ankara”).
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