A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window
| A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window | ||||
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| Studio album by Cardiacs | ||||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Recorded | 1985–1987 | |||
| Genre | Art rock, post-punk | |||
| Length | 44:41 | |||
| Label | Alphabet Business Concern / Torso | |||
| Producer | Tim Smith | |||
| Cardiacs chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| NME | unfavourable link |
A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Cardiacs, released in 1988. Arguably the band's best known album, it contains their only hit single, "Is This the Life?". It was recorded at The Workhouse studios in London and produced by Cardiacs leader Tim Smith.
The single from the album, "Is This the Life?", saw brief chart success due to exposure on mainstream radio, and garnered the attention of a wider audience when it entered the Independent Top 10 in the UK.
In New Musical Express, reviewer Jack O'Neill savaged the album for what he perceived to be its retrospective musical approach and (in his opinion) unwelcome leanings towards progressive rock. "Just when you thought Marillion had taken us to the very limit along comes this schizo-progressive anachronism wherein the Cardiacs have telescoped the entire dreggs of the early seventies into one album so geriatric, by comparison that the next Blue Öyster Cult will sound as fresh as Viva Hate. It is the Floyd, it is Genesis, it is King Crimson, does it matter? A Little Man… is the very worst bits of Tommy stretched out to an eternity; it's Emerson, Lake & Palmer; it's Brain Salad Burglary as the NME of its day might have said. By way of variation 'In a City Lining' knocks off one of those Neil Young/Mission cryogenic guitar solos and to bewilder us completely there is a nutty body-stomp midway through "Is This the Life" which resides about as comfortable as Ian Paisley in the Vatican. Cardiacs are the sound of both feet in the grave."
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Wikipedia