The Beast Inside by Inspiral Carpets

The Beast Inside, Inspiral Carpets' second studio album, came out on Mute on 22 April 1991 and carried the Oldham band into the UK Top 10. Following Life, it finds the Madchester stalwarts tinkering rather than simply repeating themselves: Tom Hingley up front, Graham Lambert's guitar fuzzing away, Martyn Walsh and Craig Gill locking the groove, and Clint Boon's organ swirling over all of it like incense smoke.

Critics couldn't agree on what they'd heard. The Rolling Stone Album Guide called it a leap forward and caught a whiff of the Velvet Underground in "Sleep Well Tonight", while Trouser Press wrote it off as fiddling with the formula to no good end. Between those poles sits a record that pounds and swirls by turns, garage-rock energy with the scenery constantly shifting. "Beast Inside" is the song that reached the countdowns, and Revenge of the Goldfish came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.