"I shit on your reason/Your rose is my thorn," rails Brit eccentric and ecowarrior Julian Cope on Autogeddon's title track. Third in the apocalypse trilogy that includes Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill, this chapter fuses techno-horror imagery (automobiles spontaneously combusting) and whisper-to-a-scream musical dynamics in an attack on the "greedhead" cabal that Cope blames for trashing the planet. Taking refuge in quasi-mystical country living, as on "Paranormal in the West Country (Medley)," Cope deals blows against the empire by means of twisted folk riffs and strange jazz. Visiting his paranoid and prophetic mind-set is no party, but his passion is compelling – as is his idiosyncratic, genuinely psychedelic rearranging of pop tropes. (RS 693)

PAUL EVANS