I Love Mekons (stylized I ♥ Mekons on the album cover; also referred to as I (Heart) Mekons) is an album by the British-American punk rock band the Mekons, released in 1993 on the Quarterstick and Touch and Go labels. It is a concept album consisting of twelve love songs.
Background Before I Love Mekons was released, the Mekons had been engaged in two years of rancorous arguments with their record label at the time, Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Loud Records. As a result, the Mekons did not release any albums for two years after the release of Curse of the Mekons in 1991. Originally, Warner Bros. had refused to release I Love Mekons because they thought it was not good enough. After the Mekons parted ways with Loud Records, the album was released in 1993 on Quarterstick, a subsidiary of Touch and Go.
Reception
Melody Makers Dave Jennings described I Love Mekons as "simultaneously a brilliant, exhilarating pop record and an exploration of the assumptions behind other people’s pop records." Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ grade, describing it as "love songs, laid out casually across disc and lyric sheet--a country album without a happy ending."
End-of-year lists Greg Kot ranked I Love Mekons as his 10th favorite album of 1993, and Mark Lepage of the Montreal Gazette named it his 4th favorite album of the year.
Track listing "Millionaire" – 4:37 "Wicked Midnite" – 3:51 "I Don't Know" – 4:20 "Dear Sausage" – 3:48 "All I Want" – 3:49 "Special" – 2:30 "St. Valentine's Day" – 4:59 "I Love Apple" – 3:26 "Love Letter" – 4:18 "Honeymoon in Hell" – 5:34 "Too Personal" – 5:54 "Point of No Return" – 3:00
References
Further reading