| I Am a Wallet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 1987 | |||
| Recorded | 1987, Scarf Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Indie pop | |||
| Length | 37:52 | |||
| Label | September Records, Cherry Red (2007), Optic Nerve Recordings(2015) | |||
| Producer | Nigel Palmer, Trigger, McCarthy | |||
| McCarthy chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| New Musical Express | 8/10[2] |
| Underground | [3] |
I Am a Wallet is the debut studio album by English indie pop band McCarthy. It was first released in November 1987.
After recording three singles, "In Purgatory", "Red Sleeping Beauty" and "Frans Hals", I Am a Wallet demonstrates jangly guitar pop reminiscent of The Byrds. While this form of indie pop was widespread in '80s underground Britain, McCarthy brought left-wing politics to the genre. Religion is attacked in "God Made the Virus", while the return of Victorian values espoused by Margaret Thatcher is compared to medieval oppression in "In the Dark Times".
Johnny Dee of Underground magazine gave the album a 3/3 review, naming it as his favourite record of the year.[3] I Am a Wallet has since been described by Nicky Wire as "the most perfect record, a Communist manifesto with tunes".[4] On the album cover of the 2007 re-release he writes that McCarthy "are partly to blame for the realisation of the Manic Street Preachers". James Dean Bradfield rated I Am a Wallet as his top British album of all time.[5]
The cover art features Georg Grosz's painting Widmung an Oskar Panizza (The Funeral).
- ^ Smillie, Christian "I am a Wallet Review", Allmusic
- ^ Barron, Jack (7 November 1987). "One for the Money...". New Musical Express. p. 33.
- ^ a b Dee, Johnny (1987) "McCarthy I am a Wallet", Underground, December 1987 (Issue 9), p. 13
- ^ "Nickywire.co.uk". Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. Retrieved 27 May 2007.
- ^ "Top 10s | OMM | the Observer".