Big Black – Songs About Fucking

Songs About Fucking, released in 1987, is the second—and final—studio album from American noise-rock outfit Big Black. The record channels an unflinching rawness, combining abrasive guitar textures, drum-machine propulsion, and sardonic vocal delivery to deliver a sonic onslaught that bridges punk, industrial, and post-hardcore sensibilities. The band is unafraid of confrontational themes, using bleak imagery and dark humor to interrogate power, perversion, and violence. At a lean runtime, the pacing remains relentless: there’s no fat, no filler, just an unrelenting drive from start to finish. In context, this album stands as a fitting swan song: the members had already decided to disband by the time it was recorded. It crystallizes Big Black’s aesthetic in its purest form, stripping away excess and playing to its strengths—minimalist aggression, razor-edged tone, and narrative extremity. Tracks like “Colombian Necktie” and their cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” are emblematic of the way Big Black subverts both brutality and pop. Over time, the album has become a touchstone for underground rock, influencing later noise, hardcore, and industrial acts, and serving as a testament to Big Black’s uncompromising legacy.

Reviews

“Anybody who thinks rock and roll is alive and well in the infinite variety of its garage-boy permutations had better figure out how these Hitler Youth rejects could crush the competition and quit simultaneously.” – Robert Christgau

“With their 1987 swan song album Songs About Fucking, Big Black deliver their tense, taut and unrelenting machinepunk masterpiece.” – Treble

“In sum: yowl, ching, thump-thump-screech. Ugly characters line up in the songs like early arrivals at a monster truck rally.” – AllMusic