| The Edge of the World | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | the Mekons |
| Cover: | The Edge of the World (The Mekons album).jpg |
| Released: | 1986 |
| Label: | Sin |
| Producer: | The Mekons |
| Prev Title: | Crime and Punishment |
| Prev Year: | 1986 |
| Next Title: | Slightly South of the Border |
| Next Year: | 1986 |
The Edge of the World is an album by the British band the Mekons, released in 1986.[1] [2] The album is dedicated to Richard Manuel.[3] The band supported the album with a North American tour.[4]
The album was produced by the Mekons. Sally Timms and Rico Bell joined the band prior to the recording sessions.[5] [6] It contains cover versions of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams" and Hank Williams's "Alone & Forsaken", which borrows music from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song".[7] [8] "King Arthur" was inspired by the 1984 UK miners' strike.[9] In "Big Zombie", the narrator turns to cat food, rather than alcohol, due to his alienation.[10]
Trouser Press wrote that Sally Timms's "crystalline tone [provides] just the right touch of unflinching world-weariness between [Tom] Greenhalgh's going-down-slow croon and [Jon] Langford's beery bawl."[11] Greil Marcus, in Artforum, noted that "every song pointedly dramatizes a listener; every song is an attempt to find someone to talk to."[12] The Gazette listed the album as the eighth best of 1986.[13]
AllMusic called the album "one of the Mekons' finest efforts," writing that "Hello Cruel World" "is a grinding post-punk downer that slowly accelerates into a desperate, hoarse cry with no noticeable country or folk elements."