LSD is the unfinished seventh and final studio album by the English rock band Cardiacs. Recording began in 2005 following several lineup changes, with the lead single "Ditzy Scene" released by Org Records in 2007 to tease the upcoming double album. It was due to be released in October 2008, promoted by singles in August and November as well as a reissue of the concert film All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest (1992). Production was indefinitely postponed after frontman Tim Smith had a cardiac arrest and stroke on 25 June 2008 leaving him unable to play or provide vocals. Fundraiser gigs, namely a charity concert entitled "The Alphabet Business Convention", were arranged and tribute albums were recorded to aid Smith in rehabilitation and help him to complete work on the album. He died on 21 July 2020 of what was deemed to be another heart attack. The band released "Vermin Mangle", the final track of LSD, on 1 September 2020 to mark his funeral. Originating from Smith's solo performances in 2000 and 2006, it was the first release of new Cardiacs material since "Ditzy Scene". Because of its cancellation, the album became the subject of speculation and many apocryphal stories. Initial background In October 2005, Smith told questioner Rob Aird that the band had been working on a follow-up album to Guns (1999) from "about 1999–2000". Smith also said that "things got broken and we couldn't finish the album", explaining: "I won't re-record things once they have been started because too much of the atmosphere and god knows what else is lost." Smith hinted that the band "might put it out one day as it was left" but confirmed they had moved on to new tracks. A track from the unreleased album called "Faster Than Snakes with a Ball and a Chain" appeared on Greatest Hits (2002). Following the release of Greatest Hits, several changes occurred within the Cardiacs lineup. Guitarist Jon Poole was replaced in 2003 by former guitar technician Kavus Torabi in 2003. In 2004, the band's lineup expanded further to include vocalists Claire Lemmon and Melanie Woods of Sidi Bou Said, Sharron Fortnam of the North Sea Radio Orchestra, and percussionists Cathy Harabaras and Dawn Staple. Smith, Lemmon and Woods had previously worked together when Smith had produced Sidi Bou Said's Bodies album, with Lemmon subsequently providing backing vocals for the song "Dog Like Sparky" on Cardiacs' album Sing to God (1996).

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“LSD, yeah, the big parade — everybody's doin' it now. Take LSD, then you are a poet, an intellectual. What a sick mob. I am building a machine gun in my closet now to take out as many of them as I can before they get me.”
— Charles Bukowski, in a letter to Steven Richmond during the 1960s, published in Charles Bukowski : Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life (1998) by Howard Sounes
“The underground press was convinced that I was a junkie, an acid head. … But I don't do drugs. I don't like being fucked up. I've got enough bizarre chemicals floating around in my head. I'm just naturally like this.”
— Terry Gilliam, as quoted in Dreams : Gilliam interview by LegitCrit (May 1998)
“I had no inkling that the new substance would also come to be used beyond medical science, as an inebriant in the drug scene. Since my self-experiment had revealed LSD in its terrifying, demonic aspect, the last thing I could have expected was that this substance could ever find application as anything approaching a pleasure drug.”
— Dr. Albert Hofmann, in LSD : My Problem Child (1980), Ch. 1 : How LSD Originated
“I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.”
— Timothy Leary, in Chaos and Cyber Culture (1994)
“Acid allows you to walk through the door to an alternate reality, but most people have no idea how to walk back through.”
— Robert M. Pirsig in Lila : An Inquiry into Morals (1991)
“The effects of mescalin or LSD can be, in some respects, far more satisfying than those of alcohol. To begin with, they last longer; they also leave behind no hangover, and leave the mental faculties clear and unimpaired. They stimulate the faculties and produce the ideal ground for a peak experience.”
— Colin Wilson in Introduction to the New Existentialism, p. 88

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Overview

LSD is the unfinished seventh and final studio album by the English rock band Cardiacs. Recording began in 2005 following several lineup changes, with the lead single "Ditzy Scene" released by Org Records in 2007 to tease the upcoming double album. It was due to be released in October 2008, promoted by singles in August and November as well as a reissue of the concert film All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest (1992). Production was indefinitely postponed after frontman Tim Smith had a cardiac arrest and stroke on 25 June 2008 leaving him unable to play or provide vocals. Fundraiser gigs, namely a charity concert entitled "The Alphabet Business Convention", were arranged and tribute albums were recorded to aid Smith in rehabilitation and help him to complete work on the album. He died on 21 July 2020 of what was deemed to be another heart attack. The band released "Vermin Mangle", the final track of LSD, on 1 September 2020 to mark his funeral. Originating from Smith's solo performances in 2000 and 2006, it was the first release of new Cardiacs material since "Ditzy Scene". Because of its cancellation, the album became the subject of speculation and many apocryphal stories. Initial background In October 2005, Smith told questioner Rob Aird that the band had been working on a follow-up album to Guns (1999) from "about 1999–2000". Smith also said that "things got broken and we couldn't finish the album", explaining: "I won't re-record things once they have been started because too much of the atmosphere and god knows what else is lost." Smith hinted that the band "might put it out one day as it was left" but confirmed they had moved on to new tracks. A track from the unreleased album called "Faster Than Snakes with a Ball and a Chain" appeared on Greatest Hits (2002). Following the release of Greatest Hits, several changes occurred within the Cardiacs lineup. Guitarist Jon Poole was replaced in 2003 by former guitar technician Kavus Torabi in 2003. In 2004, the band's lineup expanded further to include vocalists Claire Lemmon and Melanie Woods of Sidi Bou Said, Sharron Fortnam of the North Sea Radio Orchestra, and percussionists Cathy Harabaras and Dawn Staple. Smith, Lemmon and Woods had previously worked together when Smith had produced Sidi Bou Said's Bodies album, with Lemmon subsequently providing backing vocals for the song "Dog Like Sparky" on Cardiacs' album Sing to God (1996).

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

LSD is the unfinished seventh and final studio album by the English rock band Cardiacs. Recording began in 2005 following several lineup changes, with the lead single "Ditzy Scene" released by Org Records in 2007 to tease the upcoming double album. It was due to be released in October 2008, promoted by singles in August and November as well as a reissue of the concert film All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest (1992). Production was indefinitely postponed after frontman Tim Smith had a cardiac arrest and stroke on 25 June 2008 leaving him unable to play or provide vocals.

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Notable quotes

“LSD, yeah, the big parade — everybody's doin' it now. Take LSD, then you are a poet, an intellectual. What a sick mob. I am building a machine gun in my closet now to take out as many of them as I can before they get me.”
— Charles Bukowski, in a letter to Steven Richmond during the 1960s, published in Charles Bukowski : Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life (1998) by Howard Sounes
“The underground press was convinced that I was a junkie, an acid head. … But I don't do drugs. I don't like being fucked up. I've got enough bizarre chemicals floating around in my head. I'm just naturally like this.”
— Terry Gilliam, as quoted in Dreams : Gilliam interview by LegitCrit (May 1998)
“I had no inkling that the new substance would also come to be used beyond medical science, as an inebriant in the drug scene. Since my self-experiment had revealed LSD in its terrifying, demonic aspect, the last thing I could have expected was that this substance could ever find application as anything approaching a pleasure drug.”
— Dr. Albert Hofmann, in LSD : My Problem Child (1980), Ch. 1 : How LSD Originated
“I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.”
— Timothy Leary, in Chaos and Cyber Culture (1994)
“Acid allows you to walk through the door to an alternate reality, but most people have no idea how to walk back through.”
— Robert M. Pirsig in Lila : An Inquiry into Morals (1991)
“The effects of mescalin or LSD can be, in some respects, far more satisfying than those of alcohol. To begin with, they last longer; they also leave behind no hangover, and leave the mental faculties clear and unimpaired. They stimulate the faculties and produce the ideal ground for a peak experience.”
— Colin Wilson in Introduction to the New Existentialism, p. 88

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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